April 4, 2008

The slide show photos with the story are pretty incredible. Someone with a camera actually captured the bird swooping over the girl after it had nicked her in the head.

posted by dyams at 8:02 AM CDT on April 4

I don't get it.

A hawk at Fenway Park swoops down, clips a girl in the head, sends her to the hospital, and her name winds up being Alexa Rodriguez? Hope you're kidding, but if you need someone to paint a picture for you, best of luck. Maybe if the girl's name was A-Rod it would have clicked with ya'.

posted by dyams at 9:19 AM CDT on April 4

OK, I think it would have helped if I'd been American. Alex Rodriguez? Virtually unknown outside of America. Sorry.

posted by afx237vi at 9:40 AM CDT on April 4

OK, I think it would have helped if I'd been American. Alex Rodriguez?

You're right. I just assumed and shouldn't do that. Red Sox/Yankees/A-Rod stuff is so common here I got caught thinking everyone cared. I think there are quite a few people who wish they lived in a place where nobody had heard of Alex Rodriguez (like Jose Canseco, for instance).

posted by dyams at 10:27 AM CDT on April 4

What an incredibly adaptable creature a hawk is. Adjust to living in an urban environment and nesting in a ballpark. Cool.

Too bad the young girl happened to get too close to the nest. She get's a good story out of the deal, though.

posted by THX-1138 at 10:44 AM CDT on April 4

I'm surprised it was a red-tail -- I'd have expected a marsh hawk. I used to see them all the time when I lived in the Fenway, and got buzzed more than once, but they were never after me. They're pure hell on squirrels.

(I also saw a great blue heron, no lie)

posted by lil_brown_bat at 11:20 AM CDT on April 4

This must be payback for the Tripp incident.

posted by curlyelk at 12:52 PM CDT on April 4

Coincidently, I happened to have ESPN on just now when they showed the pictures of the attack. I would bet the hawk must have seen the girl's head as some sort of prey, rather than a threat to the nest. Even hawks get confused. A red-tail in that environment is no surprise. Fenway park offers a high, sheltered area for a nest, and wide-open space in which to spot prey. I'm sure that there is an ample supply of rats and pigeons too. The hawk had been nesting at Fenway Park for the past 6 years, but state wildlife officials had the nest and its egg removed. Do we have another curse in the making?

BTW, great line, thatch.

posted by Howard_T at 2:10 PM CDT on April 4

I saw the heron at Lincoln Financial Field in Phillie when he got Koy Detmer.

posted by 1959Giants at 4:09 PM CDT on April 4

The first thing that entered my mind was the payback for Tripp...word gets around in hawk circles.

Hawks (actually, birds of prey of all types) are making quite a comeback in urban areas. Lots of high nesting sites, and an abundance of prey. We have a hawk that sits on our 13th floor railing quite often. It seems to prefer pigeons, as it catches them frequently. Good for him, and less crap on our cars!

Alexa Rodriguez? That's incredible. I do have a hard time believing that anyone reading a baseball thread would have no idea who he was...Wales or not.

posted by dviking at 9:12 PM CDT on April 4