He can laugh about it now, but Steve Schade said it was no joke when a hawk attacked him multiple times at a Southampton townhouse development.
“This is a riot,” he said, as he began to recount his story, saying it was reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds.” “I’m still looking over my shoulder.”
Schade, a Southampton Village resident, said he was at Southampton Meadows on July 26 helping an elderly gentleman brings some things into his condo from Home Depot, when he caught the attention of a red-tailed hawk perched on the roof, who apparently didn’t like the looks of him. “This thing had it for me for some reason,” he said.
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The hawk went after him three times, and pecked at the front door for 20 minutes, Schade said. “The claws were coming at me,” he recalled. “The talons were the size of my hand.”
When the police came, they saw him fending the bird off with an open umbrella a neighbor lent him, he said. “It must have looked comical.”
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The cops had their batons out, but Schade said the hawk was only interested in him.
The first time around, the hawk came at his face, then it attacked his legs the next two times, he said. He ultimately made it through the incident without a scratch, with the umbrella's help. “I’m a pretty brave guy, but I didn’t want to get cut,” he said.
The was eventually called in.
Ricky Greening, an administrative assistant of the rescue center in Hampton Bays, said he climbed a ladder to the roof to catch the hawk and relocate it or swoosh it away. It promptly flew off and didn't come back.
Greening, who did not witness any of the confrontations between Schade and the bird, said the hawk appeared to be a fledgling, and by swooping off the roof, it might have been learning to fly and not attacking Schade at all.
Schade said there was no way he misinterpreted what the hawk was trying to do. “It chased me for like two hours.”
According to Schade, the bird was fully grown with a 5-foot wingspan, but he said everything looks a lot bigger when it’s attacking.
