Waterbury Man Shook Following New Hampshire Owl Attack

I don't think that I've ever seen an owl, up close, in the wild, before this past weekend. After what happened last Friday night, I never want to see one again.

Mrs. Large, our 1 year old Chihuahua RayRay and I were on our way up to New Durham, New Hampshire to spend a weekend at my in-law's house on Merrymeeting Lake. We left Waterbury late, so it was around 11PM when we got on the King's Highway in Middleton, NH. Then it happened.

I saw a white flash in the air on my left side, my driver's side window was partially down, and I caught a glimpse of a really big white owl, talons outstretched, coming right at me. I felt a tremendous impact on my left side. We heard a loud screech, and my side-view mirror crashed against the side of our Subaru. All three of us screamed.

I was doing around 35 mph, so I slowed down and looked back to see if anyone was behind us, no one, not even the poor owl. Mrs. Large had no idea what had happened, so I explained that we had been attacked by an owl, it flew right at me, and it got a whole lot of plastic, glass, and steel, instead of my face.

I gingerly reached out to straighten my side-view mirror, hoping that it wasn't covered in gore. It wasn't, but I got owl poop on my hand instead. When we got to our home, I pulled out my flashlight and discovered that the poor thing had pooped all along the side of our Subaru, and it left a big imprint of it's outstretched wing on the side of the door. I took a closer photo so you can see the outline -

What the hell New Hampshire Owl? Did you see my NY Yankee hat in the back seat? Did you see little RayRay? Thought he looked cute? Delicious? You got something against Subaru's?

I did some research, I'm so not the only person that this has happened to. A quick Google search of "Owl attacks car" brought me to the poor owl who attacked a police officer in Louisiana. You can watch the whole video by clicking HERE. There's numerous videos and articles from people all over the country who've had experiences similar to mine. Some have floated the theory that I thought of, Owls are nocturnal, they hunt at night, and maybe it was hunting a mouse on the side of the road at the exact same time that I was driving through? Who knows. I felt awful.

I'm such an animal lover, I'm making jokes about it now, but I'm really sad. It's been a long time since I hit wildlife in my vehicle, and I've saved a lot of lives by swerving and braking, when I have the reaction time.

I do have a piece of advice, drive slowly if you're ever on the King's Highway in Middleton, New Hampshire. Not only are the owls reckless, it's also the only place on Earth that I've ever seen a Moose on the side of the road. And -Oh My God - I survived the owl attack with only a couple of scratches and poop streaks, if I hit that Moose? Goodnight Irene.