“They’re majestic, beautiful animals, but like, it sucks”

July 18, 2023 5:05 AM

Territorial hawks in a South Austin neighborhood are attacking residents and mail carriers Eric Klein has positioned himself as a vigilante of sorts in his Austin, Texas neighborhood. He caught an attack on camera, and he’s actively plotting methods to keep himself and his neighbors safe. But Klein isn’t fighting a person. His ire is drawn by a group of swift, winged perpetrators who have made their homes in the trees high above his. Klein said he’s heard of at least six people who were attacked. He and his neighbors have taken to using umbrellas and colorful streamers to deter the birds. Del Barrio said he believes the hawks don’t attack people walking in groups or with dogs.

It's not a bad idea to use an umbrella anyways, Central Texas mid-July, pretty much guaranteed 100F by 2 PM, and hold that until after 7PM. Unlike West Texas, there is the added fun of gruesome humidity. Not as bad as Houston, which is a swamp, actually below sea level.

posted by dancestoblue (24 comments total)

Queenslanders zip long zipties to their pushbike helmets to make them look spikier to prevent avian attacks during Magpie Swooping Season. These being hawks kind of complicate the situation.
posted by GamblingBlues at 5:40 AM on July 18, 2023 [6 favorites]

If only they could be convinced to attack Greg Abbot instead.
posted by emjaybee at 5:48 AM on July 18, 2023 [38 favorites]

This looks like an established neighborhood, so likely we can rule out habitat encroachment as the cause. That said, urban sprawl can often drive wildlife into unexpected places, not always 'outwards' - and old-established, treed subdivisions might look attractive to hawks seeking nesting areas, particularly if efforts are being made to improve breeding success. While it might be inconvenient to residents (and likely a risk for very small dogs), it's tempting to say 'nature is healing' and encourage communities to adapt to sharing space with their furry and feathery pals.
posted by aeshnid at 6:21 AM on July 18, 2023 [3 favorites]

Queenslanders zip long zipties to their pushbike helmets to make them look spikier to prevent avian attacks during Magpie Swooping Season

Zipties work, but it's important to remember during Magpie Swooping Season that THE EYES DON'T WORK
posted by mcstayinskool at 6:22 AM on July 18, 2023 [5 favorites]

It begins.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:25 AM on July 18, 2023 [3 favorites]

I think we're in real trouble. I don't know how this started or why, but I know it's here and we'd be crazy to ignore it... The bird war, the bird attack, plague - call it what you like. They're amassing out there someplace and they'll be back. You can count on it... Unless we do something right now, unless we get Bodega Bay on the move, they... Mrs. Bundy said something about Santa Cruz, about seagulls getting lost in a fog and then flying in towards the lights... Make our own fog... we can use smoke pots the way the Army uses 'em. ~ The Birds

posted by Fizz at 6:27 AM on July 18, 2023 [6 favorites]

This is also happening in a town not far from me on the north shore of Massachusetts: Eye on the sky as Rowley hawk gets territorial (I especially like the subhead Rowley Hawk Not A Freak.)
posted by odd ghost at 6:31 AM on July 18, 2023 [2 favorites]

Our local running club warns people with long hair to take care running with pony tails along running paths, especially at dawn or dusk. Owls can mistake the bouncing hair for prey.
posted by heyitsgogi at 6:46 AM on July 18, 2023 [2 favorites]

I see hawks in my neighborhood regularly, and wouldn't mind if they took a greater interest in my yard and its squirrel population. But I'd just as soon they didn't notice me! (Not that I'm spending much time out there now, it's time to let the garden die and stay indoors. At least it's not Houston...)
posted by mersen at 7:29 AM on July 18, 2023

Here in North Austin a family of hawks are within sight of our apartments. But when the hawks fly into the complex they are relentlessly buzz-bombed, pestered and eventually run off by the starlings and barn swallows that nest here. Quite brave and entertaining, assuming you're not a hawk...
posted by jim in austin at 7:45 AM on July 18, 2023

I was really wondering why hawks would attack Gregory Abbott, who wrote and sang Shake You Down in 1986. Maybe because of the "eenie-meenie-miny-moe" part.
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 7:48 AM on July 18, 2023 [3 favorites]

My friend's neighborhood in Round Rock (just north of Austin) also has folks getting swooped by hawks while out on walks, with the same lack of recourse. There have been pictures of hawk-induced head wounds posted on the neighborhood Facebook group. It's an older neighborhood with natural green spaces throughout, so it's not from recent construction - but the whole Northeast Austin Metro area here is being developed so quickly that the entire ecosystem is just generally effed. I don't have any suggested solutions or pithy comments, just pointing out that it's unfortunately not limited to this one part of South Austin.
posted by Ann Telope at 8:25 AM on July 18, 2023 [1 favorite]

Every summer the hawks would nest on the roof of the condo complex I grew up in. It was next to a big park with lots of woods and grass lands, so good hunting ground.

A few people would get swiped, someone would call the wildlife department and the yearly entertainment would commence.

The officer would show up (a new junior one every year) swagger out of their truck in full control and authority of the situation and head towards the helmeted and umbrellaed condo residents. Usually they made it less than 10 feet before a feathered missile would shoot out of the sun and swipe their hat off, at this point the smart ones would flee back to their truck. Others, well they wanted their hat back, which gave the hawks an opening for round two.

Either way, hatless or hatless and bandaged they would leave, and us kids would just go back to playing in the streets wearing bike helmets. The hawks only tried to attack you a couple times a day, and you got used to the thunk of talons on plastic.
posted by Pink Fuzzy Bunny at 8:25 AM on July 18, 2023 [18 favorites]

Every spring there's a mated pair of peregrine falcons that nests on a ledge of one of the buildings near my office. They're high up enough that they don't generally bother people, but there's the occasional rain of pigeon and starling blood to watch out for if you're walking in the area. They're efficient little hunters.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 8:34 AM on July 18, 2023 [3 favorites]

Drastic measures.
posted by clavdivs at 9:27 AM on July 18, 2023

This is also happening in a town not far from me on the north shore of Massachusetts: Eye on the sky as Rowley hawk gets territorial

I was bemused by the article recommendations at the bottom of the page: two on hawks, one on “police say to remove valuables from cars because of break ins,” which made me wonder if the Rowley hawk has progressed in its criminal career….
posted by GenjiandProust at 9:42 AM on July 18, 2023 [2 favorites]

This map shows where crows are viciously attacking people in Vancouver

the map is five years old and for whatever reason is scaled in too tight to include my previous neighbourhood where the attacks were a predictable springtime thing. There was a particular two block stretch immediately north of my building where I simply did not walk during daylight hours.
posted by philip-random at 10:04 AM on July 18, 2023

The summer I turned five, my sister and I hand fed and raised a nest of five orphaned hawks that had been moved to,a planter box at the front of our house.

We fed them with bits of raw hamburger and milk soaked bread on toothpicks, They were so loud during feeding that it took half an hour for my hearing to get back to normal afterward.

Four of them made it to the flying stage (the fifth one got pushed out of the by then severely overcrowded nest one night and we found it dead in the morning).

One day I was out pedaling my little fat tired bike for all I was worth across a big expanse of gravel where a planned housing development had never been built and WHAM!, something hit me really hard on the crown of my head.

It was one of the hawks (I wasn’t able to tell them apart), and instead of flying away again, it dug in its talons and went along for the ride. It was thrilling!

But it also really, really hurt and I couldn’t stand it for more than a few hundred feet, so I shook my head and it flew away.

I pedaled back to the house in a highly excited state to tell my mother and sister about it, but I hadn’t realized that the sweat pouring down the sides of my face and head was actually blood.

My mother was Not Amused.
posted by jamjam at 10:16 AM on July 18, 2023 [31 favorites]

If they form an alliance with the grackles, we're doomed.
posted by credulous at 10:39 AM on July 18, 2023 [9 favorites]

This is also happening in a town not far from me on the north shore of Massachusetts: Eye on the sky as Rowley hawk gets territorial

I read this as "Rowley Hawk" and then discovered Rowley was the name of the town.
posted by oneirodynia at 10:49 AM on July 18, 2023

team orca!
posted by nofundy at 11:38 AM on July 18, 2023 [5 favorites]

This is what screech owls do, if you walk near their nest.
posted by Goofyy at 11:57 AM on July 18, 2023

Sounds like a BIRDEMIC!!!

Pro-Tip: arm yourself with clothes hangers
posted by Saxon Kane at 2:38 PM on July 18, 2023

My folks have a hawks nest in the back yard, two little fuzzy-headed babies growing flight feathers. They’ve had to give up the back deck because they kept getting strafed by mom and dad. On the plus side, the peas & peaches usually get decimated by chipmunks— not this year!
posted by Grandysaur at 3:01 PM on July 18, 2023 [4 favorites]