Pigeon disaster

[manonthemoon2]

I think I killed a pigeon today.

I saw it in the road as I approached and usually they fly away. I had a van close behind me, I slowed down but then I felt a bump and as I continued I saw feathers .

I'm mortified to think I killed an animal.

[Blaze]

It's a horrible feeling MOTM2, but it was an accident. It's still very upsetting though

I once hit a pheasant who flew out in front of me, just outside our village. I stopped to see if I could find it, but it seemed to have disappeared but then I noticed that the radiator grille was broken. There, behind the grille was the dead pheasant. In my ignorance, it was the first time I realised that the radiator grille was plastic and not metal. I picked up the pieces of plastic and went home. I hung the pheasant outside the pub because I knew the owner would appreciate it ...
When we found the cost of replacing the grille (it was a Volvo), OH glued the bits back together and you'd never have known .....

[niemeyjt]

You did absolutely the right thing - sudden braking or swerving risks far more damage and potential injury - even if you feel bad at what happened.

A pheasant with a death wish dented the bonnet on our then brand new Land Rover - and it was where it was folded and could not just be popped out. The dent remains there now.

[Spardo]

Pheasants are the stupidist of birds, I watch them and slow if conditions permit because if they are safely at the side of the road their first instinct seems to be to walk or fly right into the path of the car.

We were travelling through France one day when a Jay flew across our path on a collision course. I thought it had turned at the last minute but when we got to the next stop saw the front half of the bird, stone dead, jammed in the grill facing forward like a bowsprit figurehead on a sailing ship.

But worst of all was when on an early morning start with my lorry through the woods towards Chalus and the north, in the headlights and at the very last minute, I saw a large Badger run out of the trees into my path. There was a horrible thump and the vehicle jumped as it passed over the poor animal. I felt sick but could do nothing. Like the Jay it turned right directly along my path as if to outrun me rather than maintaining a forward course which might possibly have been its salvation.

[Sparkle]

IMHO not as bad as a very small child on her own on a bicycle coming out onto the road between parked cars on a housing estate. Driver stopped in not quite in time as the child was knocked off her bike very fortunately she only had a graze from the tarmac but all the occupants of the car of which I was one were shell shocked. Of course we called the police and as she ran off we had to find where she lived. The front door to the house was wide open and her mother was still in bed it was around 10:30am. The policeman knew the occupant very well and went into the house - he came out saying her mother under the influence of drink wasn't bothered about it and to go on our way as the child wasn't hurt! That was years ago but it still sits on the shoulders what the outcome may have been!

[Hotrodder]

Spardo: "Pheasants are the stupidest of birds, I watch them and slow if conditions permit because if they are safely at the side of the road their first instinct seems to be to walk or fly right into the path of the car."

I don't know so much about pheasants, but around here the cats seem to have a death wish. Countless times I have seen up ahead a cat crossed the road and at the last moment as I approach the damned thing will cross back in front of me. I live on a fairly main road and its carnage. A new flatpack on the road every couple of weeks.

[Pathca]

@Sparkle my cousin did similar when she was a child,except her mother ran out of the house found her daughter lying on the road her leg wrapped around the car wheel and smacked her for getting run over

[Blaze]

@Sparkle my cousin did similar when she was a child,except her mother ran out of the house found her daughter lying on the road her leg wrapped around the car wheel and smacked her for getting run over

That was similar to my mother's reaction when I was a child and was bitten (not badly) by a Lassie collie. She told me never to go up to strange dogs - sound advice in hindsight.

[Nomoss]

I was hitch hiking many years ago, chatting with the driver who had picked me up.
A small animal suddenly appeared in front of us, but he just lifted off the accelerator, without braking, and ran over it.
I remarked that he could have missed it.
He then told me he had never braked hard or swerved to avoid animals on the road since his fiancée, together with her friend, were killed in a head-on collision with a car whose driver swerved to avoid a ****** cat.
I have always remembered that.

[niemeyjt]

He then told me he had never braked hard or swerved to avoid animals on the road since his fiancée, together with her friend, were killed in a head-on collision with a car whose driver swerved to avoid a ****** cat.

That was exactly the sort of scenario I had in mind with my earlier comment.

sudden braking or swerving risks far more damage and potential injury

I do the same (though thankfully not after any such experience) - and nearly every time the bird gets out of the way anyhow. Mrs N makes similar "you could have missed that" comments.