In time for Halloween, swooping owls strike again in Kansas City neighborhoods

Watch out this Halloween: He (or she) strikes without warning.

And Tom Whittaker is the latest person to fall victim to the aggressive owl that has plagued neighborhoods on both sides of the state line for several months.

More than a dozen people have reported encounters with the creature in Brookside, Armour Hills and Waldo on the Missouri side and Mission Hills in Kansas. The attacks occur typically at dusk or dawn.

Whittaker had more than a close encounter on Monday morning.

It was about 5:45 a.m. and very dark. He was jogging on Pennsylvania Avenue near 68th Street.

“All of a sudden my head got whacked,” he said. “I thought I got hit by a soccer ball.”

He was still reeling from the blow when the bird made a second pass.

“I ducked,” Whittaker said.

The owl wasn’t finished. It landed on a branch about 30 to 40 feet away and man and bird stared each other down.

“That damn bird came after me again,” he said.

This time, Whittaker jumped up and took a swipe at the bird, but didn’t make contact.

“I was mad or stupid or both,” he said.

Whittaker said he then took off running for home, looking over his shoulder the whole way, and when he got there noticed his shirt and jacket were covered in blood.

His skull was peppered with puncture wounds.

He estimates that it had a wing span of about three feet, although when it was flying at him, “it looked like a 747.”

Conservation experts say it appears to be a barred owl, and they can .be aggressive when they have eggs or young in a nest.

Whittaker and his wife “returned to the scene of the crime” later Monday and saw a large nest at the top of the tree where the owl had landed during the incident.

While it is not out of the realm of possibility, the experts say this is not the time of year when owls are typically nesting.

As for Whittaker, he won’t let the incident deter him from running.

“But I think I’m going to start wearing a hat,” he said.

This story was originally published October 31, 2017 at 11:59 AM with the headline "In time for Halloween, swooping owls strike again in Kansas City neighborhoods."