Pest-control hawks ‘escaping and attacking humans’
HARRIS hawks are believed to be attacking walkers and runners after escaping from falconries throughout the country, with experts warning that the predators are breeding in Britain.
The warning follows an attack which left a runner in Derbyshire with head wounds after a bird, thought to be one of the hawks, dive-bombed him and dug its talons into his scalp.
Harris hawks are pack hunters commonly found in North and South America. Experts say the raptors, which are used by falconers in Britain to deter nuisance birds such as pigeons and seagulls, are escaping and establishing themselves in the British countryside.
The British Trust for Ornithology said 59 sightings had been reported and nesting sites found in Derbyshire, Kent and northern England. Crossbreeding with buzzards has also been observed in Devon and Yorkshire.
The Wildlife Trust suspects one of the birds was responsible for the attack on 44-year-old Andy Llewellyn. During a jog on Tuesday evening in Chellaston, a suburb of Derby, Mr Llewellyn was set upon by a hawk, which raked its twoinch talons across his crown before taking off again. The Boots training manager said he found “two large gouges like tram lines” running down his head. “I heard the bird’s wings flap- ping behind my head but other than that there was no warning,” he said. “I staggered home but then went to the walk-in medical centre where the nurse said she’d never seen anything like it.
“I’m going to give that route a miss for a while and invest in a hat.”
While the bird was thought to be a buzzard, known to be aggressive during nesting season, experts said they seldom strike in the summer months. “This was not a wild bird of prey. They virtually never attack humans.” said Nick Brown, of Derbyshire Wildlife Trust. “There are Harris hawks in Derbyshire and they may be breeding.
“It might be a falconer’s bird that is used to human beings but has escaped and is living wild.”
A spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said Harris hawks were an “unwanted bird” and that anybody found releasing them into the wild could face legal action.