WAUWATOSA, Wis. — One constant in the Bird War is people’s disbelief.
Take, for example, this incident from a Wauwatosa business park, which just days ago alerted workers to the dangers of a couple of potentially vicious birds. People wondered if it was a joke. But it’s no laughing matter now — at least not to one man who was attacked as he arrived at the office.
The man says he was walking into work through the parking lot when something struck his head. It was the claws of a red-tailed hawk. The same red-tailed hawk is believed to dive-bombed people at a research park in the same area last year.
Staff in this building near Watertown Plank and Mayfair Road have been on alert since Tuesday when a trapper told the front office the hawks may be nesting on their property.
“There are a couple people I work with that are just absolutely terrified of birds in general so to actually have bird attacks happen,” Tom West told the local CBS affiliate.
Office management is taking the incident seriously, setting up cones and steering drivers away from parking under the conifers where it’s believed the red-tailed hawk may be nesting, and advising workers to wear hats, or put boxes or umbrellas over their heads when they’re outdoors.
And the workers are taking it seriously now, too, walking into work decidedly faster than they were just a week ago. But people do not walk faster than red-tailed hawks dive-bomb.
Management had considered capturing the bird to protect workers but the USDA Wildlife Services says they’d need to get a federal permit to do so.
“So, in the scope of my job if someone were to call me and say I want this hawk out of my yard, I can’t just go and do that on my own. That has to run through the proper channels of the government to get approval for that,” according to Matt Snorek of Guaranteed Wildlife Control.
Workers say the falconer, who’s been hired to safely trap the bird, will be back next week using an owl for bate and a bigger net.