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'The owls are going crazy' in Mundy Park, drawing blood, pulling pony tails and more

Brooke Larsen, Coquitlam Now
Published: Friday, September 15, 2006

COQUITLAM - Bashing bald spots, pulling ponytails and drawing blood, owls are on the attack in Coquitlam's Mundy Park.

"The owls are going crazy," jogger Linda Epplette said Thursday.

An owl struck Epplette in the back of the head while she was jogging on the west side of Mundy Lake early on Sept. 6. "I felt a thump that threw my head forward so much that I had to go to the chiropractor," she said.

Epplette said she was trying to figure out what happened when the bird struck a second time, this time pulling her hair with a "possessed" look in its eye.

That same day, Jennifer Voykin-Boone used a stick to fight off an owl that hit her on the back of the head while she was looking for her keys in the park.

"It was awful," she said. "I'll never go back. I've got a little girl, and I would hate for this to happen when she's around."

Julie Lemon wasn't even surprised when an owl hit her while she was jogging in the park at about 9 a.m. on Sept. 4 -- she could see it in the bird's eyes.

"He was perched on a post, and our eyes locked," Lemon said. "I felt that he didn't like me and he was going to come after me. . . . "All of a sudden, he hit me right on the back of the head. I felt the claws sort of lifting up my hair."

Brian Cole of Coquitlam said he's suffered two attacks by barred owls in Mundy Park in the past eight years. The first left him bleeding.

City spokeswoman Therese Mickelson said signs warning joggers of "swooping barred owls" were to be posted throughout Mundy Park on Thursday.