Alpha Dog
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|  #1 Posted on 3.6.04 1957.56
Reposted on: 3.6.11 1958.04 | At the risk of sounding like I've gone, well, BATS, has anyone else noticed a marked increase in the number of times they've had to tap their brakes or swerve or both to avoid missing a low-flying bird on some sort of involuntary kamikaze mission? I am talking a serious increase here, like 10x more often, to where it's pretty much every day.
Now it's been a while since I've seen Hitchcock's "The Birds" and I did see "The Core" and realize the science behind it is completely warped, but this bird thing has gone beyond coincidence and into freaking weirdness.
Now, I live in Phoenix, where it is starting to get damn hot (Buck-o-Nine today, if you're scoring at home), so shouldn't the birds be back north by now? Phoenix is an expanding city whatever surrounding natural habitat (i.e., the desert in this case) these birds had are being eliminated, but this shouldn't be a reason for their sense of direction to be off this badly.
My question is: W's, worldwide, have you noticed an increase incidence of bird-near-misses? It is just a desert thing or a southwest/west coast thing, or just an Alpha Dog in his Ford Ranger thing?
I keep worrying that I am going to have a chick in the car and smack one these little bastards like Dave Winfield and have to go Costanza and spend mucho coin on tiny instruments so I vet can operate on it (Yeah, I know it was squirrels, but the rest of the reference fits fine).
I wish I could say I am joking here or had some kind of joking hook, but my questions are, astounding as it seems, serious. | Promote this thread! |             | cranlsn
Liverwurst
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| #2 Posted on 3.6.04 2014.56
Reposted on: 3.6.11 2017.41 | I don't know about 10x more, but I've had a few close calls, with the most recent being a fricking turkey vulture. (aka - really big, UGLY bird)
It flew across the road, in front of my car. In the ensuing, "What the hell was that!??" moment, I nearly drove off the road. It easily had a wingspan of 5-6 feet.
| Tenken347
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| #3 Posted on 3.6.04 2053.10
Reposted on: 3.6.11 2054.21 | | Nothing here in Florida. All the turkey vultures went back north about a month ago, and I haven't had any run-ins with anything on the road. | emma
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| #4 Posted on 4.6.04 0127.42
Reposted on: 4.6.11 0128.18 | Originally posted by Alpha Dog
At the risk of sounding like I've gone, well, BATS, has anyone else noticed a marked increase in the number of times they've had to tap their brakes or swerve or both to avoid missing a low-flying bird on some sort of involuntary kamikaze mission? I am talking a serious increase here, like 10x more often, to where it's pretty much every day.
Now, I live in Phoenix, where it is starting to get damn hot (Buck-o-Nine today, if you're scoring at home), so shouldn't the birds be back north by now? Phoenix is an expanding city whatever surrounding natural habitat (i.e., the desert in this case) these birds had are being eliminated, but this shouldn't be a reason for their sense of direction to be off this badly.
My question is: W's, worldwide, have you noticed an increase incidence of bird-near-misses? It is just a desert thing or a southwest/west coast thing, or just an Alpha Dog in his Ford Ranger thing?
I'm going with "Alpha Dog in his Ford Ranger" as my first hypothesis. But let's get a little ornithological, shall we? What part of town are we talking about? And what kind of birds?
We get some migratory species here, but basically, any bird that's around at this point is a native. This is about the time that the first batches of teenagers are getting kicked out of the (bird)house, so there's definitely a population increase, with a higher-than-usual stupidity factor. This is also the time when the quail can get all kamikaze about trying to distract predators (like your Ford Ranger) from their babies. Or perhaps you should remove the large bag of birdseed from the roof of the Ranger.
Or maybe you just remind them of Tippi Hedren. | DrDirt
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| #5 Posted on 4.6.04 0745.43
Reposted on: 4.6.11 0747.30 | | Here in the wilds of Kansas we are always having swallows and meadow larks play chicken with cars. The bigger problem is pheasants and wild turkeys. | | ALL ORIGINAL POSTS IN THIS THREAD ARE NOW AVAILABLE |
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