Bird Strike on the LACC Sunday ride
The most bizarre thing happened on my ride this past Sunday and I’ve got a great video to go with the story thanks to my friend Howard Brown.
I was doing what I do most Sundays and enjoying a bunch ride on Sunday morning around Homebush with the guys from my bike club LACC. For those who know the area we had come along Hill Road and turned left into Pondage Link and I was on the front. The next thing I heard and felt this soft thud which I later realised was a low flying black bird with really bad flying skills. It had ploughed into my back wheel right in the middle in line with my rear cassette.
I slowly came to a stop with the encouragement of Warren who was beside me and looked down to see this poor (very dead by now) bird wrapped around my rear cassette. I was fairly shocked and horrified and one of the guys suggested turning my pedal backwards to free it. That worked and it plopped onto the ground where someone else scooped it up and put in on the median strip.
And the ride resumed with bird feathers all over my rear derailleur, cassette, chain and spokes. Very bizarre. That’s definitely not something you see every day.
I’ve since done a little research and identified that my bird was called a Purple Swamphen and is ‘common’. I was pleased to read that it hangs out in small groups rather than one of those that mates for life. It is also listed as an accomplished flyer!!!
Click on this link for the video Bird Strike on the LACC Sunday ride
After your incident with the purple swamphen, Val, Romany & myself were on the lookout on our ride this morning. We saw one in the long grass beside the armory train track but further on the cycle/walking track at Newington a large rabbit ran across in front of us but unfortunately no helmetcam to record it! Keep an eye out for those rabbits too, looks like we need to talk a bit more and louder so they can hear us coming.