Darnit, He Should Have Jumped !

[Fish Chris]

Alright, so how many of you have Seagulls in your area ? We have tons of them, and they often hang out where ever a bunch of people are, looking for food scraps. Thick at Bodega Bay CA.

Anyway, you can drive around all day long, every day, in a parking lot full of Seagulls..... Or 10 billion of them at the landfill, and the faster you drive, the faster they jump. Its like they are so used to cars, they know the drill. I honestly can't ever remember seeing one squashed by a car ?

So yesterday, I'm driving around Bodega Bay, "really slow".... like 10 mph. I see a whole Japanese family parked, and fishing, hanging out, etc. It looked like they just through out some bait or something, as several Seagulls were swooping down, off the side of the road. Suddenly, one of them lands right in the middle of my lane. I was going so slow, I could have easily stopped, but then I figured.... Eh... They always jump out of the way at the last second anyway.

So as this Japanese lady looks toward the front of my truck, the bird goes out of my sight below my hood.... then, right when I was thinking, "That thing better jump...... Wump... Wump ! And it really was like running over a big pillow !

But ahhh buddies ! You should have seen the look on this Japanese ladies face ! She put her hands over her mouth, and ran out to look at it, dead, and squashed ! She was obviously horrified !

Anyway, a person might say, "It's only a Seagull"...... but I really wouldn't kill one, just for the sake of killing it.

Fish

[00 mod]

Weeding out the one with bad genetics! (Dumbest always get hit first!!!!)

Jeff

[Tuckahoe Joe]

Ha! The japanesse lady made it kind of funny. Like you said, I wouldn't purposely run an animal over but sometimes its unavoidable. I ran over a skunk a couple weeks ago. He was moving across the road at a good pace and I thought for sure he'd be off the road by the time I got up there but he decided to stop right in front of my tire. Theres a lot of deer around here and sometimes they'll be standing on the side of the road and wait for you to get right on top of them before running out in front of you.

Last year when we went on vacation we were sitting in an outdoor eatery and there were quite a few familys throwing food to the seagulls. There were signs everywhere that said 'don't feed the birds'. They were swarming and swooping all over the place. I just kept thinking "if I get pooped on..." But I don't blame the seagulls. I wouldn't mind running over some stupid people though.

[Sam]

I don't think she was disturbed that you hit the bird.

I think she was upset that she could not eat it.

[Sam]

Chris, on the Historic James River there are buzzards all around Dutch Gap. They will steal the rubber from your windshield wipers and mess all over the cars and trailers.

Last week my friend got a ticket as he was leaving the Dutch Gap area.

There was a State Trooper behind him so he was careful not to exceed the 15 MPH limit on the access road.

All of a sudden one of the buzzards flew into his windshield! He had no option but to turn on his windshield wipers to throw the bird off the car.

When he did this the bird flew off the windshield, over the roof and then flopped onto the State Trooper's vehicle.

So what did my friend get the ticket for? Giving the bird to a State Trooper!

Happy New Year!

[CoBass]

Bummer for the seagull. Reminds me of a time I was driving along and a prairie dog ran out in the middle of the road. I moved over a little so he would be between the tires and not get squashed. Right as I got to him, he stood up on his hind legs and caught the license plate right in the face.

[roadwarrior]

We have a pond in the neighborhood with a large flock of resident geese.

As you know, the grass is always gfreener on the other side of the road.

All the neighbors try to be careful, especially in the spring when momma

goose leads her new family across the road, stopping traffic for what seems

like an eternity.

My wife is the most conscientious of all, but pooh-pooh happens! A few weeks

ago one of these geese waddled out on the road at the very worst moment. As

she described it, "The bird just blew-up".

[Redlinerobert]

I don't think she was disturbed that you hit the bird.

I think she was upset that she could not eat it.

[slonezp]

I've hit a couple doves and seagulls before. A guy I work with hit a low flying goose. It got hung up in the ladder on top of his van. The whole front of the van was a bloody mess and he drove around like that for weeks. LOL

[MCS]

I don't think she was disturbed that you hit the bird.

I think she was upset that she could not eat it.

Woulda complimented the shark fin soup and whale steak with a side of sea slug so nicely

[Tokyo Tony]

I'm always amazed at how late the pigeons in Hartford move out of your way when you're walking. It would be so easy to kick one.

[Bankbeater]

A few years back I was sitting at a red light and something gross looking started dropping down on my windshield. I rolled down the window and looked up. Turns out I was sitting under a hawk that had caught some small animal, and was eating it.

[scrutch]

Seagulls = Flying rats.

A few years ago I was driving a large truck when I collided with a very large wild turkey. He was flying across a field and crossed in front of my truck at windshield height! That dumb thing hit right in front of my face and shattered the windshield. Luckily the windshield stayed in place and deflected that bird off to the side or I would have been seriously hurt.

Incidently, We stopped to look for the turkey but it ran off. Those are some tough birds!

[Fish Chris]

Seagulls = Flying rats.

A few years ago I was driving a large truck when I collided with a very large wild turkey. He was flying across a field and crossed in front of my truck at windshield height! That dumb thing hit right in front of my face and shattered the windshield. Luckily the windshield stayed in place and deflected that bird off to the side or I would have been seriously hurt.

Incidently, We stopped to look for the turkey but it ran off. Those are some tough birds!

True, true..... but then I probably wouldn't even kill a rat, unless in were in my house, and getting into my stuff.

About those Turkey's though, yea' ! Those things can cause some serious damage. A few months ago a cycling pro friend of my room mate, was doing a downhill speedrun, at 50+ mph, caught a Turkey in the chest, and died from his injuries. The guy was only 30 yo. Just tragic.

Fish

[Sfritr]

Chris: Sorry for your loss

However, thats called "thinning the herd"

What would have been even funnier is if you would have jumped out of the car, snatched up the bird, looked around quickly like John Belushi in Animal house, jumped back in the truck and sped off.

[RyneB]

great story. I was in my buddies S10 and we were coming home from basketball practice at night. All of a sudden something hit his truck, i look in the side mirror and a deer had ran into the back passenger side of his truck. I dont like killing animals, so this was kind of sad. But the saddest thing was the deer was still alive, the cops came and shot it with a shotgun. That image will stay with me forever. I brake for squirrels too.