Feathers ruffled on Halifax trail after rare owl attacks

Hannah Baillie had never seen an owl in the wild until last Monday evening, when she was running along Halifax's popular Chain of Lakes trail. 

She noticed the bird swoop onto a tree and was close enough to snap a photo. Half an hour later, she felt something hit the back of her head. 

"I quickly turned around and realized that there was a really large bird behind me," Baillie told CBC's Information Morning. "It … felt like someone with really long nails had grabbed my ponytail."

Baillie assumed the owl mistakenly flew into her. But five minutes later, the owl was back.

"I think it realized first that I was going to be a snack that would fight back, and then I think it realized it needed to up its ante and come after me a little harder," said Baillie. 

Two walkers heard her screams and started approaching Baillie with lights. The owl flew away and Baillie wasn't hurt.

Butch Galvez, a wildlife technician at the Department of Natural Resources, says it's only the third time in 20 years he's heard of an owl swooping down on someone.

"Fortunately it's quite rare, but it does happen from time to time where raptors will dive-bomb people. Usually it's territorial in nature. There's some thought that in some cases it could be mistaking a pompom or a ponytail for a prey item," Galvez said. 

Baillie says after speaking with the Department of Natural Resources, she suspects her ponytail was the target. 

"The fact that my ponytail was swinging and probably looked like a squirrel's tail or something was the most likely scenario." 

Galvez says the owl Baillie most likely encountered was a barred owl. On the same Monday evening, another jogger on the same trail ran afoul of a barred owl. 

"All of a sudden I felt something grab the top of my head," David Regan said to CBC's Information Morning. "The first thing that came into my mind was, 'Oh, it's some friend of mine who was running behind me silently.'"

When Regan looked back at what had grabbed his head, he saw an owl detach itself. It proceeded to stare at him in flight. 

"I sort of yelled at it a bit and waved my hands and it went away. And so then I … stopped and watched it and it went over and landed in a tree."

Like Baillie, Regan didn't sustain serious injuries.

Baillie has some advice for anyone who wants to steer clear of the owl that attacked. She now calls it "The Hootlum."

"The best way to prevent it is just to avoid the area in case there is a nest there.… And if it's dark, they often stalk because they're hunting at night.

"Paying attention to the time of day and what you're wearing can really make a difference."