The residents of Forest Hills, Pennsylvania, are keeping one eye on the skies after a local resident was knocked unconscious by an especially aggressive neighborhood hawk. Eileen Bridge was washing her car outdoors when she was “dive-bombed” by what is believed to be a red-tailed hawk, .
“[The hawk] knocked me down,” said Bridge, who suffered lacerations to her scalp and ear, along with a wicked shiner. “There was so much blood on my face, dripping down my blouse.” Despite her wounds, Bridge managed to contact her husband, Pat, who took her to the hospital. Pat Bridge also had a close encounter with the hawk just a few days earlier as he was crossing their yard. “From behind, I heard this rushing air and wind sound,” he said. “It was that hawk. It just glanced off the top of my head.”
The hawk is likely one of a pair that nested in a pine tree behind the Bridge’s home this spring. Nestlings appeared not long after, likely leading to the pair’s aggressive and protective behavior.
In light of the attacks, the state game commission has elected to relocate the nest and its babies.