Shark falls out of sky on unsuspecting disc golfers in South Carolina

nypost.com ^ | June 14, 2025 | Julian Atienza

[V_TWIN]

It rained sharks in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, last month after a small hammerhead shark fell from the sky and interrupted a local disc golf game.

The unexpected disc golf hazard was actually a bird’s lost lunch.

Teeing off on 11 at Splinter [Disc City Golf Course] and saw an osprey carrying something over us,” Marlowe wrote. “Two crows chased it into a tree where it dropped its prey.”

In the photos, the shark appeared to be a little more than a foot long.

While hammer throws may have been in the forecast for the golf outing, a hammerhead certainly wasn’t.

[rlmorel]

On a related note to the way those ospreys carry their fish, I saw a very large red tail hawk on the ground outside my office, and it had a pretty large rabbit in it talons as it stood on the ground.

The GIF below shows little scale reference, but I have to say it was not only the largest red-tail hawk I have ever seen (likely a female) it was one of the most dramatically and beautifully marked. Its size gave it nearly an eagle-like look when it had its wings fully extended as shown below.

And it wasn't a little bunny she was carrying away-it was a fully grown, large rabbit.

I pulled my phone and walked slowly towards it. I have been around enough birds to know that when they have real food in their talons, they will not give it to either attack you or to fly away. They will stand their ground with their catch, staring you down as you approach.

If you get too close, they will not attack you, but will instead try to fly away with their prey to eat it somewhere else. (They only go after prey they think they can subdue and fly away with, so this tendency raptors have to fly away with their prey before attacking you as you approach is no surprise)

Even knowing this, I approached slowly and with caution, even then not getting too close, but close enough to get a great video with the phone.

When it deemed I was close enough...it picked up the rabbit and flew into the air away from me. It labored to get it off the ground, like a heavily loaded transport plane.

As she flies away, it might be hard to see-her left talon was firmly grabbing the head of the rabbit, likely one of them going into the eye socket to get a firm grip.

The right talon however, had a much more tenuous grip, and she was in danger of dropping her prey. But she deftly repositioned her grip to stabilize her burden, and was able at the end to fly up and away.

That was an expert hunter there.