Pigeons over here have the tendency to fly out from hedgerows very suddenly.
I've been stuck by two of 'em!
The last time I was on my Yamaha FJ1200 cruising fairly quickly at around 80mph and being followed, not too close, by a couple of cars
equally keen to get home on a nice summer evening.
WHAMM!!!!
It took a moment to realise what had happened, my head was snapped back a little and the bike wandered albeit briefly across the centre line
of the road. I regained control and headed for a bus pull-in a couple of hundred feet away to check for damage and collect my composure.
It shook me up a bit.
As I pulled in the car following me also pulled in. :hun: I got off the bike, took off my helmet, took stock of it's blood-stained appearance and
looked up to see the driver of the car approaching me. He was as white as a ghost!
He stammered "Are you alright?"
I said "Yes...damn thing nearly took my head off!!"
" :cus: Hell! He exclaimed "I thought you'd been shot! I've seen something like that before when a guy got shot in the Army."
He went on to describe what it all looked like to him. He was driving along behind me at a safe distance when saw a puff off white around my head
and then almost immediately a grey bloody mass hit his windshield blotting out some off his view. He saw me pull in and had to ride in behind me.
The bird had hit the top of my crash helmet and had exploded with the impact, and what the guy immediately thought were my brains splattered over his car
were in fact the entrails of the unfortunate bird! He was still sitting on the grass verge smoking a cigarette when I left! I had to chuckle!
The next morning was quite different! My neck was aching and I could scarcely turn my head....it wore off in a few hours.
I'll bet that guy is still telling the tale of the biker who "got shot in the head" and walked away!

hyea:
Couple of pics....click on them!
Here's where the kamikaze pigeon flew out...remember we drive on the left!
Here's the pull-in (bus stop) where I stopped and reassured the car driver that I was OK!
That happened in 1994....I'm not going to forget that in a hurry!! :doorag: