An experienced hunter in Maryland wound up in a hospital on Thursday after a recently shot Canada goose fell out of the sky and landed on his head, local media reported.
The falling bird knocked Robert Meilhammer, 51, unconscious, CBS Baltimore reported. He had been out hunting geese with three friends near the Miles River in Easton, Maryland, at around 5 p.m., when someone in the group shot and killed the bird.
Meilhammer was seriously injured in the incident. Officials reported he was in stable condition and recovering in a shock trauma unit in Baltimore as of Friday night.
“These birds weigh anywhere from 10 to probably 14 pounds,” Candy Thomson, spokeswoman for Maryland Natural Resources Police, told the news outlet. That means that getting struck by one falling from the sky can mean “severe damage,” she said.
The deceased goose also knocked out two of Meilhammer’s teeth, The Washington Post reported.
This bizarre accident is reminiscent of one that happened in 2016. In that incident, an elk hunter shot and killed a bull elk in Oregon’s Maury Mountains. The man used his four-wheeler in an attempt to drag the elk’s body up the hill, but the vehicle flipped over, causing the hunter to roll backwards and impale himself on the elk’s antlers.