Buzzard attacks on runners near Haverhill leave victims shocked and bloodied

Runners have described being left bloodied and bewildered after being attacked by a buzzard on a country road near Haverhill.

The attacks, which are thought to have been committed by the same buzzard – the most widespread bird of prey in the UK which has a wingspan of four to five feet – took place on a road near Helions Bumpstead.

Jack Tappin, of Shetland Road, Haverhill, was attacked on May 31.

He described how a buzzard swooped down close to him, creating a ‘whooshing’ noise like an airplane coming down low.

He continued: “The next thing, it felt like something had hit me in the back of my head, it was really powerful. It genuinely felt like I had been attacked.

“About five minutes later I thought I had better check the back of my head. I had a bit of blood on my hand.

“Because of where it is there are not many people around there, so I went a couple of miles into Steeple Bumpstead and saw a guy there and said ‘have you heard about that buzzard’ and he said he had heard about it.”

Although he has run on that road ‘for years’, Jack said he had never before been bothered by a buzzard, although he does know other runners who have mentioned the ‘angry buzzard’ in that area.

He added: “If that had got my face it could have taken an eye out.

“I would rather have got the back of my head scratched that my eye taken out.”

Andy Gage, who has a farm and equestrian centre in Helions, described what happened to him in spring last year.

“I run 50 miles every week so you get along all the local roads multiple times.

“The first time I saw the buzzard it was sitting on a post. Usually it is sitting on the post all year but when it gets its nest it gets territorial.

“I looked up and thought ‘that buzzard is really close, flying straight at me’. It can’t have seen me and then it swooped at me. I thought, ‘it has seen me’.

“Ninety-nine per cent of the time I wear a hat. It doesn’t seem to like it. It won’t touch you if you are wearing a hat.

“Last year I must have forgotten to wear a hat and I was out running and all of a sudden I got thumped in the back of the head. It sounded like someone had dropped a load of cutlery in a drawer.

“It hit me from behind and then swooped round and came from the front. It was just some scrapes on the head and I had some blood.

“The cutlery sound was the talons scraping on my skull and colliding with each other.

“I thought I must have run into a tree and hit a branch but I was in the middle of the road.”

As a farmer who has buzzards on his land most of the summer, Andy said he had seen what they would do to protect their fledglings.

On one occasion a chick had fallen from a nest on to the ground and its parents stayed beside it on the ground for days, before it was able to fly.

He went on to say that his wife Vicky had also been attacked on the same road by a buzzard. She now refuses to run along that road.

He also knows of multiple people in Haverhill Running Club that have been swooped on by a buzzard.

Wearing a high-vis hat does seem to deter buzzards attacking, explained Andy: “I’ve been swooped by it but It’s never connected with me if I have a hat on.”

BBC Scotland reported last year how runners in Angus and Fife had been attacked by a buzzard.

In the report, a bird of prey expert said that attacks on people were not very common.

But he threw some light on why attacks do happen sometimes: “If we think about it on the grand scale of things, there's more people injured by cows I think than the bird of prey side of things.

“Most buzzards are laying their eggs around mid-April until the start of May.

“So that's when they're sort of at their peak of defending their territory immediately adjacent to their nests.”