I hit a Dove yesterday on the way home from work with the MINI. It scared the crap out of me. I was minding my own business driving along with the windows down listening to some tunes on the Ipod, then all of the sudden I see the bird veering from my right side and "WHAM!!" the bird hit my passenger side mirror then the B-pillar, and landed in my backseat. The outside of the MINI went unharmed but the bird, inside of the MINI and its pilot didn't fare so well. When the bird hit, feathers, seeds and other not so pretty stuff went all over the inside of the car and me. I had to pull over in a gas station to dispose of the bird (didn't know what else to do??) and to try and clean up most of the feathers.

When I got home I immediatly vacuumed and re-Nero'ed the interior then showered. It was a very weird, sureal experience.

Lately I have been noticing more and more birds veering at my car and getting away at the very last second. My girlfriend said maybe because the are dive bombing the chrome side scuttle when it reflects the sun but who knows?? More reason to "black out" the MINI I suppose. Has anyone else experienced birds diving at their car or just not seeing it till the last moment??

 

they think its food

 

I think Doves must have poor eyesight. When they are in a roadway it seems they are never going to fly out of the way. That had to be a scary experience, along with being a messy one. Glad your ok!!

 

BBQ pigeon?

 

Wow.... that would've scared the pants off me! Glad you are ok! Now you need to make a decal showing how many things that the MINI has defeated. Sort of like the fighter pilots and their kills....

MINI 1
Bird 0

 

That is weird. Glad the only thing was a messy interior, and that the bird hadn't flown into you. Some birds veer at the last minute.

I was driving down our street several years ago and this bird flew right into our bumper. Feathers flew and the poor thing landed dead in the gutter.

But the strangest was about 20 years ago. I was driving on the highway toward Manhattan when I saw these birds in the fast lane, pecking at the ground. As I approached, they took off. But one of them was too slow and as it took off it rammed into my windshield, and its neck got caught in my windshield wiper. I turned the wiper on but the bird stayed.

So I had this bird mounted on my windshield the entire drive into the city. The toll collector looked at me kinda strange. So I said, "Went hunting. Missed the deer. Got the bird though." He laughed.

Finally got rid of the bird when I parked at my friend's apartment. Lifted the wiper and it rolled into the gutter. Had a good anecdote for the party.

CROC 411

 

MPETUOS had a recent encounter with a bird:

http://www.hrmini.com/component/opti.../topic,2683.0/

 

LMAO! sorry but ive hit a few birds in my day but never had one land in the car!

I just recently was driving my son home from school and a duck launched off from the side of the road and missed us by a few feet, then WHAM! it's partner didn't fare so well. i got lucky, it hit the front bumper, i would have hated for it to have hit the headlight.

i do notice that birds dive around cars a lot. my 07 mazda3 is all black and they dive around that all the time also. maybe it's a flying excersize for them. or they are just that friggin stupid

 

Oh... ew. And I was all pissed that I had to slog through the carwash this morning. I'm never driving with my windows down again.

 

I hit a bird as I was road tripping home from the dealership. All I saw was a small brown bird swoop down in front of my windshield, heard it hit, and then a red smear went up the windshield and over the roof of the car. I was thanking god that I had the sunroof closed.

I think I just clipped it, but I doubt the bird made it. Viola was unscathed other than desperately needing a bath when I got home.

 

A bird dove across the street in front of me one day, went under the car, and hit the M7 brace I think. I look back to see a huge ploom of feathers and the bird bouncing down the road. Poor thing got run over by the SUV behind me right afterwards.

I hit a squirrel around the next bend right after that

 

I've got a few birds , the last one was a duck, I ducked, my mini did not, and got a nice dent in the bonnet . Oh well, I seem to get quite a few rabbits too............... Early morning country commute I guess....

Nik

 

Well, with the amount of birdies you're hitting, you should take up golf.


Sorry, I had to type this.

 

Had some close calls with some birds in the past, including one Canadian Goose that I thought was going to run out into the road and attack me. So far, haven't been hit by one. I have been hit by a Great Dane. I still can't believe there wasn't a dent in the door from that.

 

I used to have a wo-worker that I commuted to work w/ who was an avid hunter. I think I hit more things w/ my car than he ever did hunting

Nik

 

Heh... I hit my parents' Great Dane on more than one occasion. Yes.. on purpose. And yes, very gently - she was just so big and stupid. You pull in the driveway and honk and her and she just stands there and barks. Pull up farther and more of the same. Bump into her and she looks at you like "um... why?" and finally goes on the porch.

I've chased down the baby geese in our parking lot. Would have run them over if there weren't laws against it. I went out at lunch fully expecting Lewis to be covered in goose poop like the rest of the parking lot, but seems I've put the fear in them young.

 

Hit a crow while on the way home from a weekend trip. I'm driving watching this thing land hop around then look up I would have swerved but I think the car in the next lane would have caused more damage. "Thump" and that was the end of that. I went through a major down pour next so the only thing I had to deal with were a few stray feathers.

 

Wow... you disturb me... and yet somehow, I find myself admiring your evil scheme which has produced geese that won't poop on your MINI. *takes notes for Viola's plans of world domination*

 

I have been noticing a lot of birds diving in front of my car recently too. I hit a bird about a month ago, it got stuck in the bumper grille, poor thing may have lived if I had known I hit it, its little foot was caught in the mesh. Then, just the other day, a bird dove right in front of my car, luckily it veered back up right in time and very lightly brushed my windshield. Scared the crap out of it though, had a big smear of poop right up my windshield.

-Chase