Who has hit a bird or animal at speed?

[DuciD03]

I was on a long sweeping off ramp doing about 100 km/h (60 mph) where 4 lanes merge into 2; light traffic, but a car was merging from the right so I moved to the left lane ... saw a little tan and gray sparrow swoop over the car; and then coming at me; I ducked but the little fella hit me in the upper chest; looking back in the mirror he was swirling in the backdraft on the road ... rip ... little fella ... I felt bad.  It didn't hurt at all; but did scare the crap outta me.

There must be some other stories out there; I recall hearing some bad accidents where a guy hit a turkey and knocked him out & off the bike ... other care to share ...

[filter]

I have a pretty good story... but it wasn't on a Duc.

So, I was riding on my '84 Nighthawk 650 on a rural 2 lane highway in Minnesota in the summer.

I'm the only vehicle in sight, riding along at a leisurely 65 mph, and I see a sparrow ahead of me flying around.  It swoops down ever so gracefully, in the blink of an eye...

And completely IMPALES itself on my clutch lever!

I'm in utter shock.  The bird is sitting there, upside down, utterly dead, with my clutch lever sticking straight through its chest!

Since it was rather disgusting and I was not thinking clearly, I decided to try and speed up and hopefully the wind resistance would knock it off my lever and I could move on.  After I surpassed 100mph I realized that the sparrow evolved to not have any air resistance and so this was a stupid plan.

I slowed down and batted at the mangled bird with my hand... in a very scared and wussy way.

The force of my blow caused the entire torso of the bird to tear away, and all that was left was its ass and two little legs sticking up, stuck to my  clutch lever, traveling at 60 mph!!

After another swipe of the hand, the bird's ass fell off, and I wiped the blood and guts off my clutch lever... in shock as to the chances of the bird hitting my clutch at 65 mph.  I'm also glad it wasn't the brake lever or I may have been in a far worse situation!

[Mother]

I killed a family of raccoons at 70mph

[zarn02]

That's a disgusting story, filterban.

I was riding the 900 up a freeway on-ramp and a bird (a pidgeon or dove, I believe) jumped up to start flying and get out of my way. The bird ran square into my right hand. It didn't hurt, but it did startle me. I was only going 50-60mph at the time. The bird dropped down to the ground, not sure if it was killed or just stunned. No gore, fortunately.

Not a very interesting wildlife run-in story, I admit. Sort of hope I don't acquire any "interesting" stories.

[zarn02]

I killed a family of raccoons at 70mph

Apparently Mother is pimping the evening news. What a tease.

You could at least say "details at eleven," and then wait a while to tell us the rest.

[Mother]

details at eleven

[corndog67]

I smacked a blackbird with my throttle hand at highway speed once, killed the sh_t out of the bird and made my hand bleed a bit through my glove, which were fairly light summer gloves. 

[JetTest]

I took a crow to the upper left side of the chest at about 80mph. Big cloud of feathers, but did not see what happened to the rest of him. Pretty good thump, kind of set me up out of my normal crouch.

[DY]

Not on my bike, but i once flew into a bunch of seagulls.  Most of them whizzed by, but one unlucky fella met his demise at the leading edge of my left wing.  I watched as his body wrapped around the front of my wing, with his entrails sliding towards the back.  Moments before touchdown, what remained of him was no longer being held up by wind-resistance, and he slid off the wing. 

[vampire]

hit a bird! don't know what kind! it was black, it hit my right foot!! feathers everywhere!

the other story, was driving my car in a very hot day, a pigeon was flying 1 meter above the ground only and right in front of me!! facing me! it elevated but pop!! hit the windshield, looked back, after 5 seconds of silence, it hit the ground and again, feathers everywhere

[ArguZ]

Once I drove just out of town speeding up when a young owl on the right just got started its last flight.
It started with a dive and tried to get some air when it suddenly turned left and crashed into me...
It flew off to the side and I stopped to check it out...
Seems it broke vital parts of its body and I couldn't help myself and took it home.
The poor bird died that night from it severe injuries...
My mother took it to the pet stuffer and since that day it sits proud with spread wings in our hallway.

[Bun-bun]

I slowed down and batted at the mangled bird with my hand... in a very scared and wussy way.

The force of my blow caused the entire torso of the bird to tear away, and all that was left was its ass and two little legs sticking up, stuck to my  clutch lever, traveling at 60 mph!!

Coming home from work one afternoon in my work van. I'm driving, an employee in the passenger seat, both front windows open. We stop at a light. Out of nowhere, a pigeon flies thru his window, straight across, and out my window past my face. Didn't hit anything.
Took me a minute to realize the light had changed . . .

[silentbob]

http://ducatimonsterforum.org/index.php?topic=18593.0

[fasterblkduc]

A bird killed itself on my helmet once.

[DarkDucati]

I hit a squirrel with my front wheel doing about 85.  As I continued zipping down the road, my thoughts quickly went from "wow, I'm glad that didn't cause me to crash" to "wait...I felt a big thud under the front tire but nothing under the rear".  Then I started hearing this odd noise from the front area, kinda like sqeauling.   Crap, did something get damaged?  Wait, maybe the reason I didn't feel a second thud is because there's now a bloody rabid squirrel clawing his way up my forks and any second now he's going to leap out and have giant fangs and go zombie on me.   I freaked myself out pretty good, deserted Sierra road and alone, so I stopped.  No squirrel to be found, but there was a new big tear/hole in my exhaust wrap just back from my front wheel.  Guess he fell off before he got to my neck.  Whew.