Attack birds??

I'm just wondering if anyone has or ever heard of anyone being "attacked" by Red-winged black birds?? We were at Cedar Point yesterday & a crowd was gathered outside of the first aid station in Frontier Trail. There were two security officers with BROOMS beating at birds & knocking their nest out of the tree, which DID have eggs in it because they were broken at the bottom of the tree. I went up to one of the security officers & asked what he was doing & he said that these birds were ATTACKING people!! (Hmm.....if I have a nest with MY babies in it, you betcha I'm going to protect it.) We have season passes & go every year quite a few times a year & have NEVER been attacked by a BIRD!! IF these birds WERE protecting their nest, I think that security could have handled it MUCH better!! Like, maybe WAIT until the park closes!! Of course, when I mentioned this to the head of security, he said that he was looking out for the safety of the guests!! Give me a break!! If anything, a "Guest" was probably harrassing the birds!! How many times have any of you been "Attacked" or know of someone who has by these "Killer" red-wing black birds??

You don't have to "harass" them for them to come at you. If they feel their nest or babies are in danger then they do what they have to to protect the nest.

I don't know the whole scenerio but, maybe it was in the parks best interest to get the nest down. If people were just walking by and birds were comming at everyone CP was smart by doing so.

What would you do to protect your children from a "possible" threat?

In this case, I'm guessing the birds were attacking because people were somewhat close to nest. (If only the chief knew they (the officers) were doing this, I'm sure he wouldn't have been too happy, knowing him personally.)

As for in general, I've never really had any problem with the birds. The geese some times get a little angry, but that's about it. There was one that seemed to live in the area near the White Water Landing entrance, and it was always chasing people down last year. It seemed like they always had someone out there trying to chase it off.

*** Edited 5/21/2006 5:21:23 PM UTC by DBCP***

I have been "attacked" by red-Wing Blackbirds more then once.

As I understand it, that particular species of bird is one of the most aggressive when it come to protecting the area of thier nests.

The first time I had an experience with one of these birds was insane. I was walking down a sidewalk and was about to pass a huge bush when all of the sudden I was divebombed by one of these birds. It flew right into my head and knocked me off balance. It then continued to keep flying at me and kept trying to bat my head. Even trying to shue it away did not work. I had to run away... it finally left me alone after I was about 25-30 feet away from the bush.

It was crazy. I have never experienced anything like that before.

You know, now that you mention that story I remember an instance that the birds were attacking. I didn't get attacked myself but i was sitting in that area by power tower and the corkscrew when i noticed a bird dive bombing at peoples heads that walked past. This was a few years ago...I think i remember bushes being in that area. Any time someone got to close to where the bird was it would fly out at their heads. It was actually kinda funny to watch but, if that were me i would be pretty mad.

I know two years ago they had a couple of these birds in Camp Snoopy that seemed to attack anyone wearing the color red (which was bad news for the ride ops). I was pretty amused to be walking through there one day and see my friend (a Camp Snoopy ride op) wandering around staring into the trees. I guess someone sent her to try to find the nest.

When I worked on wwl a few years back, we were always attactd by the red winged black birds everytime we rotated up on the catwalk.

It's just like Hitchcock's The Birds! They are all going to stop putting up with the human crap and attack us all.

Seagulls are also very protective of their young. Working in landscaping, we were always dealing with agressive birds.

After spending the weekend at LHP, I can tell you those Red Wing Blackbirds are EVERYWHERE! They woke me up every morning with there singing. I have been attacked by them when I was a kid, growing up along the shore of a lake here in MI.

It was kind of nice hearing them again on Friday, but annoying by this morning.

MrScott
*** Edited 5/21/2006 8:07:29 PM UTC by MrScott***

Does anyone agree that beating them with brooms & tearing apart the nest during operating hours was OK? I think they could have handled it differently, maybe put something around the tree & even post a sign warning people to stay away from the tree? (The fire prevention manager is the person that we had to talk to & he didn't seem to have any problem at all with these security people doing this while the park was open. BTW, I wish I would have had my video camera, because those two looked like complete idiots & might have won me some money on America's Funniest Videos, except for the fact that what they were doing was cruel to say the least.)

We're top of the food chain.

Those birds are vicious. It was funny to sit at Power Tower entrance 2 years ago and watch people get attacked by them.

No, I see no problem, some of those birds could use a good wacking. ;)

I saw a rwbb attacking a crow 5 times it's size driving up 71 this morning. Those things are vicious and I don't have a problem with security taking down their nest. They may not hurt someone but I've been dive bombed by them and seen others get attacked and people do freak out when they are attacked by those things. If it happens in a crowd of people like you have at CP you could have someone get hurt. Like MrScott said, those things are everywhere. It's not like they are endangered or take the march of the penguins to nest. They'll learn to make their nest away from a CP path next year
*** Edited 5/21/2006 10:31:49 PM UTC by zskoz3***

I have NEVER seen a bird "Attack" a person. Except of course in "The Birds"!! LOL!! Dive bombing at someone isn't an attack. Landing on a person & continuously pecking at them I would consider an attack. What do all of you consider an "Attack"? Besides, my MAIN point was the fact that they did this IN FRONT of people, kids, everyone, beating at them with BROOMS!! If these birds were soo vicious, WHY did they let them build their nest?? (It wasn't built overnight, just like Rome wasn't built in a day!! LOL!!) If it was so important to get them out of the tree, they could have at least been a little more discreet & used a different method.

Look, you asked if anyone else has seen these birds attack and we have. We don't know what the rest of the situation was. Should CP have put up a scaffold and closed the park to remove the nest? It was a nest and some eggs. Not like they were de-heading chickens back there or anything

zskoz3 said:
Look, you asked if anyone else has seen these birds attack and we have. We don't know what the rest of the situation was. Should CP have put up a scaffold and closed the park to remove the nest? It was a nest and some eggs. Not like they were de-heading chickens back there or anything

Yea, you're right. It was JUST a bird & some eggs. It was also JUST some little kids watching. BTW, what IS your definition of an "attack"?

ugh, Animals or Humans, which is the more important breed?

Cedar Point is a business and I guarantee you, unlike you apparently, they care more about their customers than they do birds that have decided to nest. I bet they don't have preventitive measures for making sure certain types of birds don't nest in trees. I honestly don't think they have the manpower to have people monitoring trees all day.

I wasn't there, but if they're being a nuisance to CP's paying customers, CP staff will make sure the customer is happy. I bet they care more about their customers than birds. That's the bottom line.

I really don't see any problem with CP staff knocking down a nest of birds if they were attacking people. As for being attacked by birds, I have been attacked by peacooks at various zoos where the people let them roam free.

Depending on where the bird's beak hits when it dive bombs someone it could be very bad for that person. I don't want to have to worry about being blind in one eye for the rest of my life simply because I walked too close to a tree or bush at CP. They can't do anything to stop them nesting, but they can destroy the nests once they are there. Plus, they aren't an endangered species or anything that deserves special attention.