Close call with an Owl (2016)

Not as impressive as any of the other animals here, but colliding with a wasp which results in it going inside your shirt can be quite interesting, especially when it decides to sting its way out of the situation .

I hit an owl on a rainy night. I was driving a car down a lonely road near a pond and was watching a huge frog just clearing the pavement as I approached. A big owl apparently was also watching and swooped down from the opposite direction, snatched the frog and was struggling for altitude as I locked up the brakes trying to avoid it. It was a glancing blow, and it dropped the frog but I'm pretty sure the owl lived. I later saw a documentary that unlike other birds, owl feathers are not waterproof - a property sacrificed for the absolute quiet flying properties. I think that's why it couldn't gain enough height to clear me.

India: WTF is up with no headlights at night? It seems that more people are using them but some are holdouts. I was there a few months ago and it seems most of the Tuk Tuks have been converted to 4 stroke engines but that's just the beginning of the pollution problem.

pommie john said:

Not as impressive as any of the other animals here, but colliding with a wasp which results in it going inside your shirt can be quite interesting, especially when it decides to sting its way out of the situation .

Click to expand...

I had something similar a while ago, just pulled my visor down and seen a wasp was crawling on the inside about an inch from my eyes. That Commando has never stopped quicker than that day ! Luckily I was able to remove the helmet (and wasp) without it taking vengeance.
sam

Fast Eddie said:

Yes, headlights are often switched off, even at night, even on motorcycles. I have no idea why, it seems Barry to me!.......

Click to expand...

Well, I can add that when I was in Cairo as a tourist back in the 80's. We took a cab at night, after we were underway we noticed that many had their headlight turned off　including our cabby. when we asked why, he turned and told us that it was the sign of a bad driver, if you had your headlights on at nights...go figure.

Onder said:

I was running at about 40 mph a few days ago on my Commando and got wacked in the chest
by a sparrow. He fell down on my leg, recovered and flew off.
Not as impressive a story as most but hey....

Click to expand...

One tough bird, I wonder how long it had a headache for :?:

cjandme said:

Fast Eddie said:

Yes, headlights are often switched off, even at night, even on motorcycles. I have no idea why, it seems Barry to me!.......

Click to expand...

Well, I can add that when I was in Cairo as a tourist back in the 80's. We took a cab at night, after we were underway we noticed that many had their headlight turned off　including our cabby. when we asked why, he turned and told us that it was the sign of a bad driver, if you had your headlights on at nights...go figure.

Click to expand...

Since all the unrest when at Cairo we stay right at the airport JW Marriott now but in the past when we would go downtown the cab drivers, and everybody else, drove straddling the lane markers rather than riding between them. Perhaps it was their way of adding another lane or?

rwalker28 said:

this one is just funny, at least I think so. I was driving down I-10 downtown in Phoenix when a pigeon flew right in front of me. I looked in the mirror and it looked like I ran over a pillow with the feathers flying. I thought he was a goner, but I could tell I didn't hit him, we went under my truck and rolled around on the freeway behind me. Then, to me surprise, he up and flew away. but then it is not hard to hit them, they are pretty slow.

Click to expand...

I was on 51st Ave. South of Greenway in Phoenix on my way to work, on my Commando. Hit a pigeon with my mirror as it was taking off. I was covered with bird shit and feathers but the bird didn't hit me, just the mirror. Had to go back home and change clothes.

John in Texas

pommie john said:

Not as impressive as any of the other animals here, but colliding with a wasp which results in it going inside your shirt can be quite interesting, especially when it decides to sting its way out of the situation .

Click to expand...

Had a wasp fly into my shirt once. Stung me in the armpit. There I was in the middle of an intersection pulling my shirt off to get the damn thing out, before it stung me again. At least a bee dies after it stings you unlike a wasp that can and will keep stinging you!
John in Texas

JimNH said:

cjandme said:

Fast Eddie said:

Yes, headlights are often switched off, even at night, even on motorcycles. I have no idea why, it seems Barry to me!.......

Click to expand...

Well, I can add that when I was in Cairo as a tourist back in the 80's. We took a cab at night, after we were underway we noticed that many had their headlight turned off　including our cabby. when we asked why, he turned and told us that it was the sign of a bad driver, if you had your headlights on at nights...go figure.

Click to expand...

Since all the unrest when at Cairo we stay right at the airport JW Marriott now but in the past when we would go downtown the cab drivers, and everybody else, drove straddling the lane markers rather than riding between them. Perhaps it was their way of adding another lane or?

Click to expand...

I was going to add that lane straddling thing in my other post, really just the strangest thing to experience, but it was a bit off topic. I have had an encounter with wasps before. Once while riding on some back country roads in north Houston, I had a flannel shirt on and the bastard got his legs tangled in the fibers and just kept on stinging me on the left side of my torso until I got it pulled over and stopped and ripped my shirt off. The other time was in California, while driving in an older Toyota sedan that we had picked up for cheap. The A/C was broken and so the windows were down, somehow the damn thing flew into my shirt through the back of my collar and crawled down a bit until I moved and squished it a bit between the seat and it started to sting me. Again, pulled over jumped out and pulled my shirt off, looking goofy in the process, but at that point who cares right!

I had a similar experience with an owl.
In 1973 I was heading back home for work, later on Monday morning, it would have been about 3a.m.. Pressing on, on a beautiful swoopy, bendy road at about 90 mph. All of a sudden my vision was overwhelmed by a huge white thing, I just had time to duck my head, huge thump on the top of my head, inside of the helmet filled up with white things, just about able to wobble to a stop. It took me 5 minutes, seemed like 5 hours, before I stopped shaking enough to light a cigarette. The white things in my helmet turned out to be feathers. A couple of cigarettes later and I carried on. It turned out that The "huge white thing" was a barn owl, adults are about 3 feet wingspan.

cheers
wakeup

I was riding on the lovely twisty roads in southern Missouri many years ago and I spotted a Mama turkey up ahead crossing the road with a bunch of chicks walking behind her. I was going about 70 MPH and it was clear they would be across the road before I got there, so I motored on. When Mama got across the road she inexplicably decided to go back across, saw me, did the time/speed/distance calculation in her tiny brain and decided she should fly instead of going back to the side of the road... I ducked and she just grazed the top of my helmet. I am very happy I didn't find out what damage would be caused by 20+ pounds of turkey going straight into my face at 70 MPH. I'm not sure which is worse, dumb animals or dumb drivers.

I grew up in the city and that has it's own set of problems. When I was 24 a 10 year old boy riding a mini bike ( lawn mower engine on a small frame) ran a red light at night. He "T" boned me on my right side. All I can remember was watching my bike sliding on its "crash bars" chasing me across the intersection. Amazingly the only damage was to the crash bars and turn signals. No one got hurt. Another time I had just got home from a 3 1/2 month, 18,000 mile cross county trip. My second night back I was coming home from a friends house and got hit by a drunk. The crazy part was he was on foot. For some reason he darted out from between two parked cars carrying an open bottle of booze. He told the cops he heard me coming and thought he could run across the street quick enough. Three months later he pasted from alcohol poisoning. Now I live in the woods and have to deal mostly with critters.

Wasp up into arm for 3 good stings before a pullover and strip off jacket. Groundhog whack , small wobble after forks compressed. As for India , Cairo and other developing countries not running lights at night : The use of lighting robs energy from the motorcycle. I kid you not. That is what they said.

7/16/2006
Tales from The Buckeye Rider
‘Pa’s Hunting Trip

With a weather forecast calling for blistering heat we thought it would be prudent to get our riding in as early as possible to prevent being cooked like a pig in a blanket inside our full coverage gear.
With my son Chris on his Honda CBR and I on ‘Pa’ my trusty Norton we pulled out of the driveway at 6: am, not quite dark but the sun hasn’t come up yet either. Our favorite East/South east route follows the Little Miami River, the East Fork, over the ridge to the Ohio River. The fog was thick and persistent only clearing on top of the highest ridges.
Early morning fog is worse than riding at night; sometimes the visibility was less then one hundred feet on top of my visor needing constant wiping just to see that far!
We rode four different roads up and down the hills from the Ohio River (US Rt. 52) to the ridge line (Ohio Rt. 125) constantly ducking in and out of the fog. From the ridge the fog blanket lying through the cornfields look absolutely beautiful, in the fog however lurks the unknown.
On Rt. 222 we are going through a twisty uphill section when a groundhog darts out onto the road, hesitates, looks me in the eye then steps right into my path KASPLATHUMPTHUMP! Following in my path Chris gets sloppy seconds, proving once again that wildlife is slippery when wet.
We stopped at the “Chilo Dam Nature Preserve” at the intersection of Rt. 222 & Rt. 52 and watched the fog waft over the Ohio River, sometimes showing an unobstructed view of Kentucky and then just as quickly limiting visibility to almost nothing with huge barges appearing and disappearing like ghost as they powered upstream. This is a very pretty, well-kept Clermont County park with clean bathrooms and historical plaques describing the working of the now defunct ‘wicker’dams. This is a great place to stop and ease the saddle sores.
We are almost home, having been out almost four hours, and the temperature is rising by the minute. Riding on one of our secret routes that follows a creek on a road that gets more bicycle traffic then motorized Chris, in the lead, flushes two turkey vultures from the side of the road. The lead bird stays low and swoops away from my path but his partner takes flight without letting go of his lunch and can’t quite get the speed or altitude needed to avoid disaster. ‘Pa’ and I collect “lunch” on the front fender, headlight, and tank and across my chest; meanwhile the buzzard gets my left forearm to his torso and gets thumped to the ground hard. Those things are even uglier up close, and his lunch really stinks!
Once home my jacket, pants, gloves and motorcycle get a well-deserved bath. Other then that it was just another Sunday morning ride.
Ride On
Dave

Dave Mathers
The Buckeye Rider
7/16/2006

P.S. I also have stories about Bulls, Cows, Horses, Squirrels, Turtles, Deer and a variety of other birds.

Pheasant flew out of a hedge and broke my nearside mirror mount, unfortunately being a Bandit
it also broke the mounting for the clutch, one minute road next hedge. Low speed but still bent
the rear subframe and the bird didnt stop to exchange details

Back in the early eighties, I was hooking along on my Atlas in Penang Malaysia and got hit right in the face with an elephant beetle. Another time up there, had a dragon fly hit and pass down into the ear void of my helmet, didn't take long to get the helmet off, don't like open face helmets any more.

htown16 said:

Close shaves keep you focused. My recent one was a vulture on a two lane blacktop, middle of the day. He was in the oncoming lane and didn't want to leave his prize roadkill. Instead of taking off in the opposite direction he flew right in front of me. Those suckers sure are big and ugly upclose but no collision.

Click to expand...

+1
Same thing, somewhere in Northern MD headed to TN for a rally. Kissed the gas tank and hoped for the best... no contact

Here in Downtown Toronto I have to dodge boozed up hipsters looking for cabs on Queen St.

A funny close call did not concern me but two chipmunks. D/t constant close traffic calls off main roads I hug the edge of roads as no time to react if not already out the way, so at 30 mph 1st chipmunk rushes out of thick grass to see me in time to barely stop a 6" from tire path, when 2nd chipmunk runs right into 1st still upright on stiffed front legs to send it tumbling head over heals almost under tires, I looked in mirror to begin laughing ass off as 1st one was given 2nd one cartoonish chipmunk rage for not paying attention - almost killing him.

On a trip to Ohio, following Wesley 60's mph a rabbit ran right between his tires in a sweeper, like an arrow seen coming too fast to react too, which left me grinning at Wes's delayed antics lifting legs while swinging around to see what it was with starled head jerks no crash surprise.

Could fill a magazine so just mention if happen to surprise some big birds going 30's slow, so some them fly out ahead of ya w/o climbing much, to tempt ya to zoom up behind them, good fun - till hot poop jets hit, so remember to hang off to one side of exhaust plume.

My wife and me were on our way to a small upstate New York town to pick up a '71 R75 /5 my 86 year old Godfather decided not to ride anymore, we weren't far from where INOA held the New York rally in '012, it was a year later in the fall. We were driving through Woodstock (yes, that Woodstock), the road was empty and we were wondering what it must have been like for such a small town to host over 400,000 people in 1969, I almost went, but I hated crowds, 'still do.

Anyway, a woodchuck pops out of the bush and starts crossing the road, I take my foot off the accelerator to give the critter time to cross, I was barely doing 30MPH to start with. My wife saw it first and drew my limited attention to a bird that looked like it was about to strafe the woodchuck, it looked like a hawk, and I thought that the hawk was being ambitious or was exceedingly hungry, it was coming in fast, and getting larger by the second; it wasn't a hawk, meanwhile we are getting closer, now I'm covering the brake.

The bird was an eagle! it swooped in grappled the woodchuck, now I'm hard on the brake, a collision appears eminent. The eagle goes to full power while eviscerating the woodchuck, talk about multitasking. The guts of the woodchuck are now spilling out and end up all over my truck's windshield, we can see directly into the eagles eyes, the eagle avoids the collision by inches; what a bird! It was huge.

People in Woodstock, NY don't seem to like strangers; I had to buy 2 gallons of water to clear the windshield, no one had a water hose...