Hit head on tonight by Dozy Bird

[Jake]

that has to be an April fools:

"Police found Mr Bottomley, a father of two and an executive with British Aerospace, lying motionless in the road and surrounded by feathers. "

ps i belive if you hit game, dear etc, then i think that the law says something silly like if you hit it then your not allowed to take it home, however the car/person behind you may do.

 

[4F]

Great story. I had a couple of close encounters with pheasants earlier this year in the same place on my commute home. I swear the buggers were waiting for me and they certainly make a hell of a noise when startled

 

[dondare]

"Phasianus colchicus" or "Daftus Twattus"
I was on my way home doing about 19 mph when from a hedgerow in Ollerton (Cheshire) A sizeable Pheasant decided that it was time to cross, the road having been empty for some time in either direction, they arent the brightest creatures, even compared to your average Tarmac lorry driver.

It flew up aiming in front of me but hadn't anticipated my massive velocity, used only to the average dawdling Lycra clad carbon roadie, it flew up and hit my chest and got tangled between my arm and chest, flapping about, It was upside down by this time ejecting poop down my arm, I slowed enough and stabilised my trajectory enough to move my arm to eject the confused fowl, it dropped onto the floor and reset its up and down, then flew of "Giving me evils" and squaking like fook which it continued for some time like an angry driver, it seems Pheasants dislike cyclists as well.


So, I survived without an off, just some organic material on my Altura Night Vision (now Sh1te Vision) and the bird survived though next time I will, if given chance restrain then throttle it and ride home with it strapped to my rack, I will then present it to my father in law who shoots Pheasant and tell him using a Gun is for amateurs, a Cannon-dale is what you need.

Lucky escape. Unlike this bloke:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...sant-flies-helmet-million-freak-accident.html

 

[Flyingfox]

ps i belive if you hit game, dear etc, then i think that the law says something silly like if you hit it then your not allowed to take it home, however the car/person behind you may do.

+1

 

[Randochap]

When the fur flies

It's the squirrels you gotta watch out for.

 

[Sittingduck]

It's the squirrels you gotta watch out for.

Now thats GOTTA hurt

 

[Graham O]

The rule about not picking up game that you have hit, while it is alright for the next person along to pick it up is to prevent poaching. If the driver/rider could pick it up, then they could deliberately drive at it to kill it, which would be poaching. So to prevent the defence of it "flew out at me offficer", the "hitter" is not allowed to pick it up.

Of course I could be wrong!

 

[Amanda P]

I believe that is the law.

However, you just try deliberately hitting a pheasant. It's not so easy!

 

[bikie]

I'm sure all pheasants are suicidal and just wait on something coming down the road to jump infront of

 

[Amanda P]

Yes, but in my experience, when you call their bluff and actually drive at them, they always somehow manage to dematerialize at the last instant and you miss them.

It's only when you're pulling out all the stops in a desperate attempt not to mow them down that they somehow avoid avoiding you and get clobbered.

Being more factual for a minute, male pheasants like to find a nice open, uncluttered place in which to strut up and down and show themselves off to the birds. Roads seem like good places to do this to them.

Of course, those that find out the hard way that roads aren't so good for this purpose don't live long enough to pass on this behaviour on to their progeny.

 

[Lazy-Commuter]

Yes, but in my experience, when you call their bluff and actually drive at them, they always somehow manage to dematerialize at the last instant and you miss them.

It's only when you're pulling out all the stops in a desperate attempt not to mow them down that they somehow avoid avoiding you and get clobbered.

.. it's probably quantum. If they know where they're going they don't know where they are. Or something like that.

Being more factual for a minute, male pheasants like to find a nice open, uncluttered place in which to strut up and down and show themselves off to the birds. Roads seem like good places to do this to them.

Of course, those that find out the hard way that roads aren't so good for this purpose don't live long enough to pass on this behaviour on to their progeny.

Give it a couple of generations and natural selection will have ensured that the only ones around are the descendants of those that realised a road is a really rubbish place to strut about.

 

[Amanda P]

Give it a couple of generations and natural selection will have ensured that the only ones around are the descendants of those that realised a road is a really rubbish place to strut about.

Given that few pheasants live beyond a year, you'd think this would already have happened, wouldn't you? I think the trouble is that people keep shooting all the ones that aren't hanging about in roads, and this skews the gene pool back towards the dozy road-crossing birds.

 

[ColinJ]

Yes, but in my experience, when you call their bluff and actually drive at them, they always somehow manage to dematerialize at the last instant and you miss them.

Somebody I knew tried that with three sheep which ran out in front of his car. He was speeding and knew that he couldn't stop in time. One sheep was on the left of the road, one was on the right and one was in the middle. Foolishly, he decided the best thing to do was to aim at the one in the middle and hope that it jumped out of the way in time. It stayed where it was, but the other two ran into the middle of the road to join it... !

 

[Lazy-Commuter]

Given that few pheasants live beyond a year, you'd think this would already have happened, wouldn't you? I think the trouble is that people keep shooting all the ones that aren't hanging about in roads, and this skews the gene pool back towards the dozy road-crossing birds.

Good point. So if the ones that are sensible enough to stay off the road could only develop shot-proof skin ..

 

[Amanda P]

The few vaguely sensible birds don't venture near roads or gamekeepers or shooting parties, and so are rarely seen by anyone. And they are likely to produce young with similarly secretive habits.