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Source: https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/q/19241
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

<p>Last night, I had to climb a tower at work. When I reached the top platform (about 40 feet up), and turned my back to close the swinging gate behind me, I was whacked on the back of the head.</p>

<p>Fortunately, I was wearing a hard hat and was not knocked off my feet. It did hurt, though - without the hard hat it would have been worse.</p>

<p>What hit me? A bird. I saw it gliding away as I looked around to see "what hit me" (literally). It was probably an owl, as this was after dark. We also have seagulls in the area, and it's possible it was one of them, too. I wasn't being overly observant at the moment, obviously, as I don't know which one it was - it was a good-sized bird, though.</p>

<p>I realized then that the other time a similar occurrence transpired it had to be a bird, too - possibly the same feathered "friend." I had thought somebody had hit me with a rock or a dirt clod (but nobody was around; I looked at the ground below me, rather than outwards, where I would have no doubt seen a bird, as I did last night).</p>

<p>The platform is small and when the plant is in operation, very noisy and vibrates. I am almost 100% certain there is no nest up there.</p>

<p>So why did this bird attack me? Both times it/they whacked me on the back of my head, hitting my (plain white) hard hat. They were sharp blows that hurt, even with the hard hat protecting my noggin.</p>

<p>My question is: why would this/these bird[s] attack me? For fun? Because I was in their airspace? Or what? I have never molested them. I have shone a flashlight on them a couple of times as they sat in their tree. They have never swooped down on me as I was walking in the area, only when I'm about 40 feet above ground level.</p>

<p>This occurred in Marina, California, a quarter mile east of Monterey Bay (between the Bay and Highway 1).</p>

<p>Do owls (or seagulls) have something against white hard hats, or people climbing up on platforms?</p>