Bird in bonnet scoop (nz)

Well this is a first for me, picked up a bird in the bonnet scoop at ~100km/h. Dusk, just north of Levin. Just a flash from the side and a muted thump. All we could see were tail feathers and feet poking over the top lip of the scoop. Stopped to see if the little guy was just stunned - probably was but the dismemberment from the impact with that grille under the scoop did for him. No idea what kind of bird, bigger than a sparrow, smaller than a blackbird, too small to roast.

Reply to
cobs
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Shame about the bird, but sometimes it's survival of the fittest. I'm an animal lover, and hate to hit anything. It has been rare, but one time while hauling down a back road, a group of Blue Jays were in the center of the road. All took off but one, and I was waiting for it to move, but it didn't. Something must have been wrong with it, since the others sensed me coming. It made me a little sick, seeing it tumbling in my wake, and I won't assume things will get out of the way for me, even if others in a group do. I've had close calls with deer and Even a cow on a highway at night. Good thing it was black & white, and I saw the car far ahead of me swerve. I'd like to get Night Vision, since my drives are taking me through state forrests for star watches, which was an incentive to buy the Sube, and the deer are all over the place.

VF

Reply to
houndman

So you'd have to go back to Levin to get some chips from KFC 'coz there's no KFC at Foxton, Sanson, or Bulls.

Reply to
Bugalugs

Fella at work drove over a skunk in his wife's car a few years ago. Everybody had a good laugh about it, including him, but he wasn't laughing when she had him under the car with peroxide. For about a month after, every time the exhaust heated up to running temperature, sure enough you could smell it again! Oh, and I'm pretty sure he only scared the skunk. (-;

~Brian

Reply to
Brian

My company is located near a major league ballpark. So we contract with a company that parks cars in our unused spaces on game days. Once, we noticed one of the cars was covered in flys! There was a whiff of decay around the trunk area and flys were about one for every6 sq inches. We debated calling the cops in case there was a body in the trunk. After exami ng the car more thoroughly, there was more stink and more flies toward the front and underneath. Whatever that guy hit, it left quite a bit of protein on his car!

hah!

There was a pic of a subaru with a bee swarm nestled in the hood scoop. And there have been several pics of bird strikes.

Carl

Reply to
Carl 1 Lucky Texan

Hm. You'd be hard pressed to find someone who *hasn't* hit a skunk around here, or at least run over one someone else has already done in!

I really hate it when I hit any animal and would do whatever I could to avoid it - not enough to run off the road or cause an accident - but within sensible limits, I'll hit the brakes pretty hard or take evasive action.

Reply to
Fred Boer

Heh, I always feel guilty when I hit something that doesn't know any better. Interestingly enough, the strike was about 1km away from where I hit a pukeko or the like in an Impreza (it crossed, I had plenty of time and coasted/slowed, then it ran back and was wiped out).

Within reason I'll try and avoid larger possums because of the damage they do, and I've gone to the nth degree without endangering people to avoid those (native?) hawks that like the fast food road kills. They need a running jump to get in the air.

Reply to
cobs

[...]

At some point we collected a blackbird under a Ford Falcon station wagon years ago. Whoever was driving never noticed. The cat used to meet the car in the garage and curl up somewhere warm (leading to some humour when the car went out without noticing the cat). This time after stalking around the car, she shot underneath, and with a little scrabbling, came away with a mostly dessicated blackbird carcase. When we tried to get a better look, she was off like a robbers dog, didn't see it again as she used to eat what she 'caught' :) .

Reply to
cobs

I try to listen to Car Talk on NPR, since they always interesting calls, and some about animals being hit by or In cars, or chewing on them. One about a rodent hidding kibble in the ventilation system, and it spilling out ever time the driver hit the gas was pretty funny. Another about trying to keep goats from climbing on the roof, the guy left the hood and truck lid open, so they chewed on the wires under the hood.((

A friends wife had a rat pop out from the cowling where the wipers were hidden on an older GM car, and was driving with it running around on the hood. She called her husband on her cell to tell him, and he couldn't stop laughing.

VF

Reply to
houndman

Squirrels give me fits, and Always double back.

VF

Reply to
houndman

On Tue, 25 Dec 2007 16:49:16 -0500, snipped-for-privacy@phonom.net wrote (in article ):

Golf courses usually have ponds for storage of irrigation water. The ponds attract geese, which proceed to make a mess on the grass. Consequently, golf courses often have resident border collies that are trained to chase the geese. Sometimes the dog will swim around the pond harassing the geese.

Reply to
John Varela

On Wed, 26 Dec 2007 01:47:51 -0500, snipped-for-privacy@phonom.net wrote (in article ):

I read somewhere that a frightened squirrel takes action intended to confuse a predator, such as a hawk, but it doesn't work against automobiles.

Reply to
John Varela

Hit two pigeons once while going 70 MPH on I-94 (legal speed in MI). Landed in front of my car so no chance to avoid them. Just heard a thump and saw feathers fly over the windshield.

Non animal story - was driving by a park and saw some tennis ball bounce in front of my sube and continued on. I did notice some kid shrug his shoulders but didn't think much of it. A few days later I noticed the tennis ball was wedged in the grill. Left it in there until I visited a bud with a dog. Figured the tennis ball accumulated quite a few smells in its travels, but the dog didn't care much about it LOL.

Reply to
Duh_OZ

I have Afghan hounds, the ones with the LONG hair. They are hunting dogs but Usually Completely Ignore Birds. One had 30 Canadians around it, and just Stood there as they circled around her and started to Goose her, I called her, and she spotted a mammal and took off after it, down the bank through bushes. It must have gone to ground, since she lost it. I tried to continue the entertainment, so threw pebbles away from where she was looking. She looked up as I was throwing one, and quit chasing the sounds.

One must have been bored, because he took off after about 75 geese, and they went into the water. He Dove in after them, and the breed Doesn't usually like water, though he couldn't catch them. He came out Dripping of Rotted Leaves, and my Tan slacks, and the Blue Velore interior of the car were streaked in Black.((

One chased squirrels up the trees in the fall, and they started dropping acorns on us, which drove the hound crazy reacting to the sounds of the corns hitting fallen leaves, she was spining around.

I saw a squirrel sitting in a leafless tree, 18" from a hawk. Must have known the hawk couldn't manuver to get it. Also saw 2 Pigeons Chasing a Hawk. Probably had a nest they were protecting, but it was really funny, and no one believes me.))

VF

Reply to
houndman

TH BC's must Love the work.))

VF

Reply to
houndman

And you lived to tell about it?

I mean, driving that slow on I-94...

-John O

-80 mph is normal

Reply to
JohnO

With the family about ten years ago driving through a rural farm area, a large flock of robin-sized birds lit from a field and over the road in front of us. The entire flock was maybe 200 birds, and as they reached ~30 feet directly above us, they let loose their bowels...all at the same time.

The car was suddenly and completely covered in white-purple bird shit.

Luckily no cars were coming the other way...it took a few wipes and sprays from the washer fluid to see through all that shit. As we reached the town there was a carwash but the attendant wasn't going to let us in...I begged and gave him an extra $5...we can't drive on like this, can we?? I washed the car again later that day, and it all came off well enough.

-John O

Reply to
JohnO

JohnO wrote: [...]

Ick. The worst we've had for impacting visibility was a swarm of bees on the Himatangi Straights (non turbo Impreza so no bonnet catch^H^H^H scoop. Nice stretch of open road, bit of a cop magnet though.

A dark cloud appeared on the right, then all of a sudden the windscreen was blacked out with mashed bees - very high goo factor.

We were the middle car of three - the one in front had windows down. They stopped a few hundred meters down the road and got out quickly :) Our wipers were able to clear most, but the windscreen was still covered with a sticky film that was hard to see through. We and the car behind stopped at a petrol station in Sanson to finish cleaning up.

..before that, if I'd been compiling a list of road hazards, a swarm of wouldn't have featured.

Reply to
cobs

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