Nose-diving hawk halts mail delivery

Dogs are usually pegged as a postal worker's worst enemy, but in one southwest Calgary neighbourhood a hawk is the one spoiling for a fight.

Mail delivery in Bayview has been temporarily suspended because a hawk has been nose-diving the local mail carrier.

"The hawk just really seemed to have a hate on for that particular letter carrier," Teresa Williams, spokeswoman for Canada Post, told CBC News.

"The attacks got so bad that she was resorting to wearing a bicycle helmet. And the hawk even broke the bicycle helmet."

About 150 homes have had their delivery service suspended.

Residents say there's a family of four hawks that have been circling above their homes and dropping in every once in a while.

"He lives in my neighbour's tree," said Bayview resident Kathryn Chan. "We have a joke amongst the neighbours – don't look him in the eye because then he might come down."

Heinz Sander, 92, said he regularly sees the mail carrier hiding from the hawk under trees or in his garage.

"I saw [the hawk] coming, I was ducking ... it was so fast and he was up again. It's fairly big ... more than a metre or so."

He likened the attacks to a fighter plane.

"I was in the air force you know ... in the Luftwaffe, in the German air force."

Mail will return when the hawks leave. Wildlife officials say that could be in a few days, once the hawks head south for the winter.

Until then, residents are asked to pick up their mail at the Canada Post depot at 6939 Fisher Rd. S.E.