Bird Strike

[Ruralman]

Not sure whether to put this story here or somewhere else - but hey i was riding an adventure bike at the time and most of the guys (non gender specific) I talk with seem to live here...............soooo
Yesterday on my way up to Oldriders place I took the route through from Wainakarua to Oamaru aong the Coast which OR mentioned in our Black and Blue trip write up - what a bloody great ride - and from there through Weston Ngapara to Duntroon through all the Limestone country - another great ride.

Anyway on the way up towards Ngpara I was coming up this straight, probably doing around 110-115 before backing off the power, and there was these 2 Spur Wing Plovers on the road, and on my side. They started taking off and seemed to be going right so I took a line which would have taken me around the left of them when bugger me but one of the birds changes course right in front of me. I collect this daft bird right up its arse, theres a small shower of feathers ( including some very small tickly ones which made it into my helmet) but I look in the mirrors expecting to see this poor animal doing cartwheels along the road but I don't see it anywhere.
I then look down the forks in the gap between the tank and the instruments and fairing and theres this stupid fucking bird jammed between the back of the front mudguard and the radiator. So I pull over to remove it before the smell of roasting plover starts to set in. I have a look (without getting off) down the right hand side and I can see a couple of birds feet so I grab these and give a fairly agricultural sort of a yank - bugger me the bloody thing not only comes straight out but its still flapping!!!!
I let it go and it flys over the road, over a fence and then lands in the paddock with the most bewildered look on its face you can imagine (and no I won't do impressions of its face on the Mt Cook trip get together no matter how much I bloody drink).
Fortunately no damage to the bike and it looked when I left that Mr and Mrs Plover would still be able to continue doing whatever Plovers do when they have just got over a near death experience.
Now please feel free to regail me/us with your best bird strike stories

[Maha]

Dont have any to tell at this stage RM, but what a great story.....:yes:
Told so descriptively, one can almost smell/see exactly what occured....
I have however heard of the odd bird strike, and seen pic's but not alot see really as the bikes were doing inxs of 200kph at the time. *Bling* to you mate.

[far queue]

I hit a magpie on Monday at about 90kph - it left it's take off run a bit late and went through the front wheel, I checked the mirror to see a munted heap on the road behind me. I thought about going back to finish it off just in case it was still alive, but didn't bother - I hate magpies.

I had a mate hit a reasonable size bird a few years ago, and the impact ripped out the speedo cable. So if you do have one these incidents, just beware and check that brakes, etc still work.

[McJim]

I knew of a bloke in Scotland ran into a cow on a blind corner some years ago. He spent a long time in hospital - history is strangely quiet about state of the cow.

[boomer]

ahahhah nice;

off topic, but hey!

the cat brought a baby rat in the house the other day; as i'm hoovering i pull out the chest its hiding behind and suck teh fucker up. My first thoughts were i'll suck it onto the end (just the pipe) and throw the fucker to the cat.. but the hoover was too strong and with an almighty snap.. woosh and vrooooom the fucker went all the way through the hoover system ( integrated in the house ) down stairs to rest in teh bag in teh garage. I told the mrs and she was horrified i could be so cruel. Of she goes to rescue it. Unfortunately it was deeeed :innocent:

i've had a whack on the shoulder from a starling and a few near misses on the bike from sea gulls and hawks/kestrels (close your eyes this is gonna hurt ) but non as funny as your story;

[Al]

Here in the NT there is a lot of roadkill on the Stuart Highway and birds of prey love it!
I have learnt to start tooting the motorsickle horn as I approach, gives them enough time to get away...

Al

[The_Dover]

i hit a kingfisher on sunday on whangarata road, bounced off the headlight with no damage to me but it was a goner. shame, nice little birds.

ha ha, boomer is the house bitch!!!

[motoGP]

I collected a small brown bird coming home from work. I was riding at about 80 – 90 down TeIrirangi, when out of the blue I get whacked with something in the side of the helmet! My vision went from instruments and road, to blue sky! Feathers were everywhere, the vents, the visor edges, and some sneaky ones even got inside the helmet! My ears where ringing like someone had just open-handed slapped you in the ear!

By the time I figured out what was happening the bird had disappeared behind me in a cloud of feathers. It was only when I got home that I saw the real damage. It’s beak ploughed right into my visor leave a nice inch long gouge right where your right eye’s field of vision is, excuse enough for me to buy a tinted visor though.

[Macktheknife]

I got hit by a largish 'brown bird' at about 120km on the motorway last year, came in from the side and caught me in the ribs. The first I knew about it was a blur of movement a split second before impact, then I damn near got lifted off the seat with the impact. PAIN!!!! one hand pulled off bars with impact.
I got off at the next offramp and checked myself out, wiped off the blood and guts of the remains of bird and removed my jacket to find a fast developing bruise appearing. A guy pulled over behind me and he was still laughing, he related the view from his angle behind me as a huge cloud of feathers and a guy who looked like he was about to part company with the bike.
All I can say is thank god it didn't hit my helmet, bastard would have just about killed me! I don't know what kind of bird it was but the remains were kind of dark brownish, maybe a large thrush?

[The_Dover]

I collected a small brown bird coming home from work.

did you charge her for the ride?


I got hit by a largish 'brown bird' at about 120km on the motorway last year

was she driving a rangi old holden or one of those "dpb mobile's" with 8 seats for her litter?

[boomer]

i hit a kingfisher on sunday on whangarata road, bounced off the headlight with no damage to me but it was a goner. shame, nice little birds.

ha ha, boomer is the house bitch!!!

consequences of being semi-retired :second:

[The_Dover]

consequences of being semi-retarded :second:

sorry, I didn't realise.:shutup:

[boomer]

it may pay to be more careful then in future, i'm quite sensitive about my retardedness

[scumdog]

it may pay to be more careful then in future, i'm quite sensitive about my retardedness

So you like being tarded so much you decided to get re-tarded??

So what's tarded in the first place and why were you so??

[McJim]

So you like being tarded so much you decided to get re-tarded??

So what's tarded in the first place and why were you so??

Tar - ded....it's a yorkshire thing. Sort of a precursor to being feather - ed. Dover tells me boomer is into the 'hot wax bondage' thing so they tar and feather each other for thrills.

sometimes Dover uses shearing off-cuts instead of feathers - reminds him of the wee islands he grew up on and flossie, his first love.

(edit) I mentioned feathers 3 times so it's not (quite) off topic...

[clint640]

When I was working over near Whanganui a while back I was going for an exploratory afternoon fang up some of the local backroads. As I was gassing the ol' RZ up a short straight I saw what I thought was a pukeko in the long grass on the side of the road, & didn't give it a second glance, puk's usually just run off. As I got close however this huge mass of blue-green flapping featheryness exploded out of the grass & flew across the road at head height, only inches in front of my rapidly approaching visor. Bloody Hell!

Once I'd gathered my thoughts & extracted the seat vinyl from my sphincter I realised it was a friggin Peacock! Expect the unexpected...

Cheers
Clint

[Alice]

I,ve had some interesting experiences similiar to above.
One morning flying down the hill on my treddley to work, a small dog ran out in front of me, flat tack, it happened so quickly I didn't have time to dodge the little critter, and fortunatly for me he was little, cause I hit him fair and square, I had the front shocks on my bike locked out, I can still see it happening in slow motion, as I hit it, it colapsed and rolled over then took off up the road on three legs, full noise, literally from its mouth, little legs pumping as fast as they would go, sorta funny except I thought I must have broken the 4th leg.Couple of days later, getting my morning buzz going fast as possible down the hill and round the corner and what do yu know, the little critters on the road again, slow learner.Any ways must have heard me cause he looks around, and still looking in my direction, he is instantly running in the opposite direction.Incidents like this I can see where the inspiration for some cartoons comes from.
Another time me and a friend where descending a long windy road out the back of Napier and a Turkey runs out in front of us, we were 2 abreast, it ran in front of my friends wheel which he missed by a fraction, then it decided to take to the air between the 2 of us just missing taking me out, we looked at each other after it happened and burst out laughing.
And as for magpies, they love to attack cyclists, got marks in my helmet, been chased up the road many times, persistant little barstards.Had one body slam me, felt its soft body against my back, had blood drawn on my ear.
Ops, sorry its not motorbike stories, still waiting for it to arrive, its on the way though, I"m on the count down, 27 days to go - hate waiting !

[vifferman]

My story sounds like an amalgam of some of the other ones: bird on road, think "Never mind - I'll go to the left", just before I get there bird changes direction. Splat! Impact with the front wheel.

Average sized bird, but enough to make me crash after impact. I reckon she was about 165cm, perhaps 19 or 20, dark hair, probably a student.
No feathers, but lots of screaming.:shit:

[Ixion]

Dreaded Pukeko of Doom.

And when he failed they sent in Suicide Bunny.

He failed too. So did The Mof from the Dungeon Dimensions.

I'm waiting to see what comes next. I just hope it's not the Uber Squirrel. No hope against that.

[topher]

Had a magpie used to dive bomb me when I was on my lambing beat. The prick lived in a pine tree on top of a cliff and the track went below the cliff beside a river. No way to avoid it. So my cousin sat facing backwards on the bike (That takes a bit of doing in itself) with a shotgun. The magpie never pulled out of its' last dive...

So saying, I'd come back as a Magpie in a later life. They just piss about all day harassing hawks and the occasional shepherd, having dogfights and living the life their mothers probably warned them against.

[Wolf]

Dreaded Pukeko of Doom.

And when he failed they sent in Suicide Bunny.

He failed too. So did The Mof from the Dungeon Dimensions.

I'm waiting to see what comes next. I just hope it's not the Uber Squirrel. No hope against that.
Shit, no! I've read all about those bloody Ninja-trained attack squirrels - they'll take on the largest of bikes without fear and seeking assistance from hardened, armed, US cops is no use. :shit:

[terbang]

Did a photo run on a fishing vessel once and a seabird that had obviously had a good feed impacted on the left front of the aircraft at around 360 Kays. He hit a glancing blow on a fairly solid part of the nose which made one hell of a bang. Spoilt his day I suspect though we took no damage apart from the mess and some minor scratching. Later on we flew through a rain shower to wash him off.

[NordieBoy]

I've had 2 bird strikes.
First was at 110kph and it was a small birdy in the centre of the visor.
No head movement at all from the impact which surprised me.
But the sound!
Ears were still ringing half an hour later.

Second was a normal sized (blackbird type) one that lost most of a wing between the peak and the helmet of my mx helmet - again on the road and slowing from 110kph - If that beastie had hit me in the goggles... :shit:

Ever seen a bird hit a windscreen?
I was heading along and a van was coming toward me in a 100 zone and all of a sudden this black thing shoots straight up off it's windscreen and I'm thinking WTF! What felt like half an hour later this dead birdy spirals down to be run over by the following car as well :D

[marty]

http://images.google.co.nz/imgres?imgurl=http://www.esri.com/news/arcnews/summer04articles/summer04gifs/p37p2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.esri.com/news/arcnews/summer04articles/usaf-uses-gis.html&h=225&w=300&sz=13&hl=en&start=3&tbnid=_BA45QR5MYTyCM:&tbnh=87&tbnw=116&prev=/images%3Fq%3Daircraft%2Bbird%2Bstrike%26svnum%3D10 %26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DN

this has to hurt...

[kensuem]

Havnt suffered from bird strike,but almost had possum strike the other morning.Had just left for work when I saw a hawk feeding on road kill,just outside Katikati.A car going the other way forced the hawk to take off complete with the possum.Just in front of me the hawk realised he wasnt goingto make it and dropped the possum.Just at that moment a 4wheel drive forced its way past,between me and a solid yellow line,and collected a load of rotten guts in the middle of his winscreen! Couldnt have happened to a more deserving person! There is justice in this world after all!
Also had "Kentucky fried chicken strike" a couple of weeks ago,out of the window of a logging truck,unfortunately my GN250 wasnt fast enough to catch up with the truck to get his number.:angry:

[marty]

i went to 4 fatals as a reuslt of people (2 on bikes) hitting cows and horses.

one night coming in the rain home from te kuiti driving the booze bus, crested a rise through a cutting just south of the waitomo intersection. pitch black it was - no one else on the road. patrol cars behind me.

i see some shapes on the road - lift my foot off the gas, fuck me, it's farmer joe in his dri-z-bone trying to herd his 1/2 dozen escaped cows back into their paddock!

cows all over the road, i don't know how i missed them in 10 tonnes of mitsi's finest.....

[NordieBoy]

A mate hit a cow on his TT600 once.
Killed the cow and almost made him fall off!

(Very large guy).