The man felt two thuds on his head within 30 seconds; the second time his Mariners hat vanished without a trace.
SEATTLE — A hiker believes he was attacked by an owl while he was walking on a trail at Discovery Park in Seattle.
“All the sudden, I felt like I got hit over the head by a stick or something out of nowhere,” said Justin Harberg. “I turned around expecting to see a person [but] there was no one there. Then I thought maybe something fell out of a tree and hit me. I wasn’t really sure so I kept walking.”
Harberg felt the first whack on his head around sunset. Less than a minute later, he felt another one.
“This time, my hat was ripped clear off my head. It didn’t just fall off. It was gone,” he said. “At that point I figured I should probably get out of there; it was getting dark.”
Harberg posted about the incident on social media, where commenters overwhelmingly suggested he had crossed paths with a Barred Owl.
“Yeah there was a lot of reaction there, a lot of people commented. The consensus was that it was probably a Barred Owl,” he said. “I guess they’re really common in this area of the park.”
The National Audubon Society says adult owls can grow up to 20 inches tall, and “can become incredibly territorial once they establish a nest—and especially when they begin rearing chicks. Barred Owls are known to chase away intruders by aggressively hooting or attacking and striking with their talons.”
According to Friends of Discovery Park, Barred Owls are the most common owl in the park.
“I have read of a few other cases now,” Harberg said. “I’d never heard of anything like that but I guess there are other incidents here in Discovery Park where people have been attacked by owls. I don’t know if anyone has had their hat stolen.”
Harberg returned to the park Wednesday for the first time since the encounter.
“It feels good to be back, but I’m looking up in the trees around me,” he said. “Whatever attacked me wasn’t a Mariners fan. I was wearing my blue Mariners hat at the time.”
