Saab 1 : Bird 0

[greenphotos]

A few days ago I picked up my car from my parents house and found to my horror that it had also been found by LOADS of birds - It was almost a white car!

So on the way home last night down the M3 my car decided to take it's revenge and smacked the hell out of a pigeon. Unfortunatley it decided to use the windscreen to do it so autoglass are coming out at lunch time.

Most of the windscreen is destroyed with big cracks etc but thankfully it didn't get the part infront of my view and it didn't cave the thing in. Laminated I think. (thank goodness!)

Pigeon : 0
Saab : 1

and

Pigeon : 1
Mark's Sanity : 0

Why Why Why!!!

Today needs to be a very good day if it is going to cheer me up

Mark

[Rhino2.3t]

you're lucky the car decided to use the screen
having seen the remains of a bmw touring that hit a pheasant at 80+ mph.. new grille, new oil cooler, new radiator, new fan/coupling.. and a very thorough steam clean to remove all the feathers and nondescript pieces of pheasant.

The smell at the roadside was very entertaining as it cooked onto the hot bits, and as it had dumped its oil everywhere it looked like it had been 'tarred and feathered'. excellent!

[Rhino2.3t]

on top of all that - the pheasant didn't even have third party cover :wink:

[greenphotos]

Originally Posted by Rhino2.3t

on top of all that - the pheasant didn't even have third party cover :wink:

Excellent

[Abbott 900]

I hit a pigeon once in my old company car, I was coming back from Bristol down the M4 towards London, saw the pigeon heading straight for the windscreen, swerved onto the hardshoulder and heard an almighty bang as my door mirror and pigeon similtaneously exploded in a big puff of feathers...

[heavy_t]

I always thought it was physically impossible to hit pigeons!

[stuart_mc]

Originally Posted by heavy_t

I always thought it was physically impossible to hit pigeons!

You're obviously not trying hard enough :wink:

[Paco]

I caught a pigeon in the Carly, right up it's **** at 60+, it slid on it's back up the bonnet and over the roof, still appearing to be in good shape...

Got to my destination to find a cluster of white tail feathers stuck in the middle of the grille and a streak of turd all up the bonnet

Opened the bonnet, feathers everywhere!!! Still several there for the lucky buyer :wink:

The good news Mark is that a new screen makes it feel like a new car! (well it did with both my C900's, but then the old screens were pretty chipped.....)

[Russell]

Originally Posted by heavy_t

I always thought it was physically impossible to hit pigeons!

the trick is that when you get close to them, put the car in neutral and by the time they see you it is too late - used to do that a lot many years agon in my little metro.

filthy things .

[Ricky Lake]

Truth of this I can't vouch for, but I have been told (and it sounded plausible to me) is that you generally won't hit flying birds below 40mph as most of the predators (eg. big scarey other birds with sharp pointy teeth or something) generally attack below 40 mph

Hence birds' reflexs are tuned to getting out of the way of anything 'attacking it' beneath 40 mph - at 60mph its reactions aren't good enough...

I sit back and wait for somebody who knows what they are talking about to jump in here....

R.

[Big Nev]

Originally Posted by Rhino2.3t

pheasants

these must be the exception to the rule.

7 this year so far in my works lorry,and now the shooting season is over this figure can only rise
They are there pecking away on the verge,see 7 1/2 tonnes of bright red coming along the road and decide to fly out at the last minute.Stupid,stupid birds

[Cuba]

Pigeons are flying rats!

I hit a very large Hawk at 140k's in the Alfa in New Zealand, just north of Maruia falls. It took off the drivers side wiper in a snap but didn't even scratch the glass. It hit at the bottom about the apex of the glass curve (lucky me)
I stopped to make sure it was dead but it was still twitching a bit. I dropped a very large rock on it's head to finish it. Poor thing, had a wing span of about 2M.
I blame it on the plague of introduced possums in NZ. The road kill has provided an almost staple diet for the Hawk for many years now. They lock on to their prey and can't let go, so when a car comes they can't get lift because of the weight. Some very rare native Falcons come to the same end for the same dumb ***** reason.
Introduced species suck

[Sparky]

Originally Posted by Ricky Lake

Truth of this I can't vouch for, but I have been told (and it sounded plausible to me) is that you generally won't hit flying birds below 40mph as most of the predators (eg. big scarey other birds with sharp pointy teeth or something) generally attack below 40 mph

Hence birds' reflexs are tuned to getting out of the way of anything 'attacking it' beneath 40 mph - at 60mph its reactions aren't good enough...

R.

Absolutely right, a sparrow hawk flies at about 40mph and it's prey (small birds and possibly pigeons) are used to avoiding anything travelling at that speed. Over 40mph and the accident ratio with cars rises by something like 1000%. It also explains why peregrine falcons are successful hunters as they can reach about 200mph in a dive! It doesn't however explain why pheasants seem intent on suicide or why Owls insist on smearing them selves on "A" roads at dusk.

[greenphotos]

Do you reckon it will buff out?


Mark

[Jezzadee]

I keep below 40 on the roads round my way as they are all single track farm roads with hairpins. I hit a baby rabbit last week that ran out, I braked and steered round it and it then U turned and ran under the back wheel :-? . Since Monday I have seen 3 hares (one ran straight ahead of the car for about 200m at 35mph+), 4 barn owls (or the same one 4 times), a muntjac deer, 2 badgers, several red legged partridge, 300 or so rabbits and even more pheasants. If I drove at the speed limit of 60 on these roads there would be carnage. Pheasants are the stupidest creatures ever devised - on an empty A road through a totally flat landscape with no cover travelling at 70mph one flew into the side of the car. No damage at all, just a big cloud of feathers.

[Rhino2.3t]

[quote="Jezzadee"]Pheasants are the stupidest creatures ever devised quote] true.. i mean what they thinking :-??
'weve got a fat body left over, a dumb head that pecks, and a brain - only about the size of a currant. Yeah lets make a bird out of it, a really rubbish one.'

[Cuba]

The windsheild isn't so bad, It's the weird garden growing on the roof that makes me want to call Dr Who

[Mattlach]

Originally Posted by Rhino2.3t

you're lucky the car decided to use the screen
having seen the remains of a bmw touring that hit a pheasant at 80+ mph.. new grille, new oil cooler, new radiator, new fan/coupling.. and a very thorough steam clean to remove all the feathers and nondescript pieces of pheasant.

haha! But then again, pheasants are quite a bit larger than pigeons, no?

[Mattlach]

Originally Posted by Paco

Opened the bonnet, feathers everywhere!!! Still several there for the lucky buyer :wink:

And that - people - is why we have air filters

[Mattlach]

It seems as if for you Brits, Pheasants are turning into a similar problem that we have with Canadian Geese in the U.S.

They are EVERYWHERE.

We seem to be luckier though, as they generally tend to steer clear of roads.

But if I hit one of thos there would be damage. They are practically swan sized.

I don't remember there being so many of them in the past. Don't know why they have suddenly boomed, and leave their little gooseturds EVERYWHERE...