Birdstrike !

rocketonarail

rocketonarail

Hero member
Location
Gloucestershire,England
I claim four in total...two on a Triumph Bonneville 750 and two on a Laverda Mirage .

The Bonneville was a pigeon...at least I think it was ...all I remember was an explosion of feathers , and the other the remains of something in the front wheel spokes .

The Mirage was two sparrows...one of which was left embedded between headlamp and front brake hydraulic union...which took ten minutes work with a screwdriver to dislodge...not a pleasant job but someone had to do it....
 
Had lots in my flying career but, on motorcycles, two stand out:
1. Riding fast, in the dusk, to catch a ferry, what I, at first, thought was a sycamore leaf stuck to my left arm. On closer inspection I realised it was a pipistrelle (bat). I lifted it into the front pocket of my oilskin jacket until I could check it for injury. Once I made the ferry, I saw that it was unharmed by its adventure and released it.
2. Was a lot less pleasant! At about 85 mph, on my way to work in the days before compulsory crash helmets, I saw a thrush or hen blackbird skip over the wall on my left and BANG! It hit me in the right eye, its beak puncturing the side of my nose. It was a whole lot harder than any punch I've ever taken. Not quite sure how I retained control of the bike and came to a stop. Put the stand down and made to go see if I'd killed the bird. My legs were jelly, so I got back on and, with my left hand over my right eye, rode to work. They sent me to the doctor, who sent me to an Eye Infirmary. They kept me in for four days observation, before releasing me, with a black eye that reached all the way to my ear.
My right pupil is still larger than my left, and I still flinch when birds fly towards me, fifty years later.
 
I used to jump a hump back bridge near home on my DT175. One day there was some road kill on the far side and as I came over the crest four or five crows feeding on the roadkill took off, several going through my front wheel in a cloud of feathers. I also hit a pigeon on my LeMans, cracking the Crossbow fairing which sounded like a bass drum being hit. I've never hit a bird on the SF, but have followed buzzards flying down the middle of the road at about 30mph, glad I wasn't riding in the opposite direction.
 
Once had a sparrow fly low from one side, didn't see it on the other. Found it weeks later, laying fried on the 3-1 headers under the engine.

A low-flying thrush hung itself on the speedo drive cable of my GTL.

piet
 
I have hit a few birds (& other animals) over the years but one does stand out a bit similar to the Sock's story, albeit not as dire consequences (full face helmet)!!
Many years ago I was merrily riding along somewhere around the open road speed limit when suddenly a Pigeon flew straight on into my visor. I never saw it coming and it made a hell of a bang so I had no idea what had happened. I soon realised and knew it was a Pigeon because when I looked down, a stone dead Pigeon was bobbing around on my tank. Obviously due to the effectiveness of the wondrous Series 2 fairing (:LOL:) it was cocooned in a calm area and wouldn't dislodge itself so I had to brush it off the tank.
I pulled over after that to regain my composure but at least no harm done like Hamish's contact:eek:
 
I saw the starling out of the corner of my eye. 70-80kph and the fucken thing never deviated direction. Flew straight into the side of the open face helmet.

The impact, like a baseball bat to the side of the head, near knocked my fucken head off, and I almost ran off the road. My ears were ringing from the sound of the impact.

Prior to this I thought that birds were slow flyers, but since, have had wild budgies fly beside me at 90kph, veer off and fly in front of me.
 
I once hit a crow at about 120kph. It was in the middle of the road, happily munching on a bit of roadkill. When it became aware of my approach, it took to the air. But it must have been accustomed to slower traffic and underestimated the speed at which I was closing the distance between us. It was a bit too slow getting out of the way and was facing towards me when it struck me in the chest. There was an explosion of black feathers and crow guts. The strike itself was like punch in the chest, which hurt a little bit but not too bad. I was wearing an old helmet that had press-studs to clip the visor down, but they were un-clipped. I instinctively turned my head to see the dead crow tumbling down the road like a rag doll. But at that moment the wind got under my visor, flipping it up and almost ripping my stupid head off. I had a sore neck for a couple of days.

When I got to my destination and took my leather jacket off, there was a mess of blood and guts on the spot where the kamikaze crow had exploded, but there was also a blood stain on my T-shirt. I wondered how the crow's blood had got through to the inside of the jacket. On closer inspection I found a hole in the jacket where the crow's beak had evidently penetrated the leather, but it also went through my T-shirt and made a small stab-wound in my skin. It wasn't the crow's blood on the shirt. It was mine!
 
Coworker took a trip to customer, about 100k away from our shop. Fleet vehicles are always driven with gas pedal to the floor.
Came back and showed us what had happened to him. He was doing approx. 220 km/h on the Autobahn when a hawk flew straight into the front left headlight. Went through the headlight shell and was stopped by the bulkhead. Left side of the engine bay was full of blood, bones, guts and feathers.
 
Have suffered many bird and insect strikes over the years wearing a variety of full and open face helmets. The one that shook me up most was about 5 years ago when I hit a pheasant head on full in my chest/shoulder at about 70mph on my Ducati 900 Supersport. How I stayed on I don’t know but it was like being whacked with a lump hammer. How the pheasant was I don’t know. I do know that when I realized I was still upright and relatively unscathed I rode off whooping having survived another one. A friend of a mate of mine took a head on blow to his helmet from a pheasant which took him off his bike. He suffered several injuries but survived. He was wearing a helmet cam and the whole incident featured on one of those 999 emergency programs on the TV.
 
I agree birds in the middle of the road can be slow getting airborne as you approach ...the bigger they are the slower...
I think I read somewhere that pigeons ( don`t know if this applies to all birds ) can view things at many " frames per second " ( as it were ) more than humans...so things approaching them seem to be a lot slower than it would to us....
That`s why they seem to leave things to the last moment before they decide to make a move....( and don`t always make it in time if they`re big , fat , or old...)
 
Last edited:
rocketonarail said:
I agree birds in the middle of the road can be slow getting airborne as you approach ...the bigger they are the slower...
I think I read somewhere that pigeons ( don`t know if this applies to all birds ) can view things at many " frames per second " ( as it were ) more than humans...so things approaching them seem to be a lot slower than it would to us....
That`s why they seem to leave things to the last moment before they decide to make a move....( and don`t always make it in time if they`re big , fat , or old...)
Click to expand...
That so applies to so many people I know. It’s not just a bird thing. 😉
 
rocketonarail said:
I think I read somewhere that pigeons ( don`t know if this applies to all birds ) can view things at many " frames per second " ( as it were ) more than humans...
Click to expand...
I recall David Attenborough saying that if a pigeon were to watch a movie, it wouldn't see smooth motion like we do. It would see a series of still pictures like a slide show. I dunno how people know what pigeons see, but I thought it was interesting.
 
I had the not enviable experience of hiting a lamb whilst on the IOM, it ran out from cover, I swerved, it tried to stop, but its front end was wiped by my front wheel and then the left engine shield (1200TS) and lastly my boot, I saw in the mirror that it was laying on its side in the road, so U turned and went back, it was still very much alive, so I carried it to the side of the road and noted that its head and right eye was very bloody and that the front legs must be broken, went behind a large rock and despatched it, unfortunately a lady biker stopped to wonder why TOG was on the side stand at a funny angle and on the road (small lane leading up to the Bungalow from Tholt Y Will), I didnt know she was there and she must have seen it all, she screamed and rode off, OH dear, excatly what I was hoping to screen from view but forgot about the bike in my hast to "get it done" The lambs mum appeared a bit higher on the bank and I appologised to her, I was OK until I saw the ewe, it made my eyes well up a bit, still does thinking about it, (sorry mum). Damage was a broken left engine cover, a bit of blood and fur spatterring on left fork caliper etc and me limping for a few days, the zip at the bottom of the left leg of my leathers made quite a mark on my shin..

I did hear a story (on here I think) about someone who ran into a sheep somewhere and it cut the thing into two halves, very messy, but at least it was killed instantly.
 
I once caught a dove or a partridge, I could not recgnize it, it happend too fast. It came ot of the bushes close to street.
The windsreen of my 1000 SFC was broken immediately ☹️😡
 
CLEMTOG said:
I did hear a story (on here I think) about someone who ran into a sheep somewhere and it cut the thing into two halves, very messy, but at least it was killed instantly.
Click to expand...

Reminds me of a story ...

A bunch of us were out on a club ride when one of the guys hit a stray sheep at about 120kph on his Guzzi LM1. Sheep was killed instantly, and bike and rider went down heavily. The bike was damaged to the extent that it wasn't rideable. Bent forks and a hole smashed through a rocker cover, as well as the usual busted levers, indicators, etc. Rider was a bit busted up with cracked ribs and a broken collar bone. Luckily, I was a couple of minutes behind on my Z1300 sidecar outfit with an empty seat in the sidecar. So the sidecar was pressed into service as an ambulance that day, although I was a bit miffed that I didn't have a siren and flashing lights. The crash site was well out in rural nowhere, so it was about an hour's trip back to the hospital emergency department in the city. It wasn't comfortable for him bouncing around in the sidecar without pain medication, but he didn't complain, other than the occasional groan.

After dumping him at the hospital, I went home to get my car and bike trailer and head back to pick up the Guzzi. One of the other guys on the ride came with me to help load up the bike. It was about half an hour to get home and swap bike for car and trailer, then an hour to get back to scene of the crash, a little while to load up the bike, then another hour to drive back to unload the bike at his place. By that time it was getting late in the day and his wife had just brought him home from the hospital, collar bone re-set and strapped up and him high on pain meds. He surveyed the damage to the bike and declared that it hardly had a scratch. But that must have been the medication talking. He didn't appear to notice the bent forks and busted bits hanging off the bike.

One thing I regret is that we didn't chuck the dead sheep on the trailer with the bike, because the injured Guzzi owner had a big charcoal BBQ with spit-roasting attachment. The sheep was freshly killed and already gutted (the Guzzi removed most of its innards) and it would have made a good spit roast.
 
Had a Goshawk swoop and try to pinch my canvas bag when I was doing about 60mph on my Norton.
And a Rosella flew into my chest same bike same speed different day.
Not as speccy as an emu, thank fuck.:unsure:
 
1980, on my very new Suzuki GS1000S (blue/white), following Marty on his Jota and a gaggle of others, on our way from the Clubman Rally at Jingellic on the Hume Weir to the 10,000 Bikes Rally in Canberra. Remember when ‘Lights On’ laws were a reason to protest, LOL?
Just leaving Adaminaby at the foot of the Snowy Mountains. The group in front scare a crow off the roadkill in the middle of the road and it hits me fair on the right knee. By the time we get to Canberra my knee, already a problem due to serious trauma as an 18yo - rotational fracture of the R femur just above the distal femoral condole - is so swollen I can barely walk.
No sympathy from my comrades, who just want to get on the grog.

Now, for real excitement/terror, try hitting a swarm of bees at speed.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top