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Buzzard attacks Jogger
by Oregano @ 2007-06-29 - 19:28:28

If somebody told me 15 years ago that if you were out jogging you might get attacked by a buzzard I would have thought they were talking complete rubbish. In my experience buzzards were very shy and never allowed you close unless you were driving past at a fair speed in a car.

When I lived in Bavaria my favourite jog was out of our small town along a cycle path to the next village. You left the village then passed a large wood on the left for about 200 metres then hit open countryside. About 10 years ago around this time of year I was doing my early morning jog. I had noticed that at least one buzzard pair had nested about 100 metres into the wood and noticed that the pair were soaring nearby. To my complete amazement one of them did a V-shaped dive behind me coming within a metre of my head; my head being the bottom of the V. There was a big whoosh of a downdraught. Then the mate did the same. They then let me jog on to the next village undisturbed. I was quite worried as I would not have wanted talons or the hooked beak to connect with my head. I concluded that they showed strongly territorial behaviour because of chicks or fledglings in the nearby nest.

In 2004, I read about a buzzard attacking a cyclist in Devon. It seemed like a similar pattern. Cyclists being attacked by buzzards was reported in early June near Zeist, Netherlands.

This week I had a day in Munich on business and was interested to read the TZ newspaper. This paper (27 June 2007) had headlines of a jogger being attacked by a buzzard (a search in www.google.de shows that this was not isolated).

 buzzard attack

This jogger near Rosenheim experienced a hard hit on the back of his head and thought a branch had fallen on him. He heard the wingbeat over his head then the buzzard went onto a tree 20 metres away and screamed at him. He then realised his head was bleeding a lot. A local falconer said that buzzards with freshly hatched chicks defend their nests up to a radius of 200 metres. However real contact attacks are rare; I'm just glad I got off lightly!

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kevinwilsonkevinwilson pro
2007-06-29 @ 19:35

interesting.
i met someone recently who is convinced that one day, magpies, will start attacking humans.
they are so confident and aggressive, i can believe it!

so maybe entrepreneus should start marketing bird-proof jogging clothing?

Mary [Visitor]

2008-06-30 @ 16:37

A similiar thing happened to me this morning near Kingswood + 2 years ago in the same area. 2 years ago the nesting bird gave me plenty of warning that she was calling her mate, who dive bombed me until some crows started attacking it and left me in peace.
Not so lucky this morning, first I knew the bird thumped me on the head! Again it dive bombed me until I was a safe distance away (no crows to the rescue this time!). I had thought they would have finished nesting by now, but may be they are on a 2nd brood, or started late.

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OreganoOregano pro
http://oddsends.blog.co.uk
2008-07-22 @ 17:54

I think that buzzards lay their eggs in mid March. They are incubated for a further month and the fledglings take another two months to grow before leaving the nest. So your encounter might have been just late nest defence.

I have never heard of a second brood...but there is always a first time!

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Caroline [Visitor]

2008-07-21 @ 10:07

I live near Frampton on Severn and regularly see buzzards in our local area. During the last week, whilst out running a buzzard has attempted to attack me, continually circling and dive bombing just missing my head by centimetres as I duck to avoid being hit!

Whilst it is wonderful to be so close to these beautiful birds, I know they have very sharp talons so it's not been an enjoyable week out running! On one occasion I put my arms out to try and appear larger thinking it would scare the bird off but it folded it's wings back and descended towards me at a greater speed….so a bad idea!!

Over the last 10 years I have run the same route and have never experienced this before. It is either unusual behaviour or maybe I have just been lucky to avoid it in the past!

I now take a stick with me to fend off the bird until I get to a safe area!

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Charles Armstrong [Visitor]

2008-07-22 @ 15:58

I run on the Lawley near Shrewsbury the same happened to me last night. Used my water bottle to spray the bird , no joy, hit it with a stick in mid air, some effect but fastest I have covered that section for years.

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OreganoOregano pro
http://oddsends.blog.co.uk
2008-07-22 @ 17:51

This seems remarkably late. I would not be surprised if buzzards had a nest to defend until mid June but I would thought the young would have left by now.

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OreganoOregano pro
http://oddsends.blog.co.uk
2008-07-22 @ 17:57

Your experience sounds very much like mine. I had jogged the same route many times but never been attacked until that one time when both buzzards attacked. I too had the feeling that they came within centimetres of me because of the strong downdraught.

Folding wings is typical of a buzzard dive. You see that a lot when they "skydance" (pairing display).

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Peter [Visitor]

2008-07-28 @ 21:49

Swooped on by buzzard in late June, then returned to the same area (footpath between our village and the fells, here in North Cumbria) today and exactly the same thing happened. No contact, but very close.

Julia [Visitor]

2008-08-11 @ 16:34

I was out running just last week in the North Shropshire area and was attacked by a buzzard. Again, very close and I felt the strong downdraught but no physical contact. Couldn't believe it, especially so late in the year. Very scary and fastest I've ever run!

Bee [Visitor]

2008-08-21 @ 10:20

I googled buzzard attacks & got here. Well dudes, it is weird that such things happen and I got a bit scared yesterday. I did not get attacked but the bird was flying right above me and my dog for at least a mile looking down at us. Then we lost the bugger when running into the wood and hedges, but it was quite scary. I have been running those paths for 3 years now and nothing like this happened before. Anyway, I though I am crazy because buzzards wouldn't harm me, but at least now I see they have the potentials & it happened before. Now I will run with a mirror before I develop a funny posture looking upwards when running :) Take care :)
God bless,
Bee

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OreganoOregano pro
http://oddsends.blog.co.uk
2008-08-22 @ 22:14

Bee,

Are you from North America? If so you probably use "buzzard" for a sort of vulture e.g. turkey vulture. In the UK we use the word buzzard for a bird of prey that is smaller than an eagle but having a similar shape see for example http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/b/buzzard/

This raptor is quite different from the north american "buzzard".

Nevertheless if it was a NA vulture attacking I could imagine that could be quite scary. They have sharp talons and beaks.

O.

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