Buzzard ALERT!

Turkey Vulture Mirgration Presents Danger to Motorcyclists

This is passed along both as an interesting (almost) incident AND, primarily, as a SAFETY ALERT message.

Below is the account of the story - keep in mind - this species, for whatever reasons, has recently migrated from Mexico and Southern Texas to our area - and they do NOT act like other vultures and buzzards that we are used to. They delay their take off untill you are too close for avoidance, then take off, frequently into the path of the motorcycle. They also present a hazard to automobiles. We have already receive one report of a cracked windshied.

Willie and I took a short trip yesterday (Sunday) on the motorcycle. We headed out of our street, wearing two brand new matching Billet Silver helmets with J&M built-in audio. We pulled out on Highway 11 heading north-west and accelerated up to the 70 mile per hour speed limit in a relatively short time – as those bikes are want to do. There wasn’t much traffic Sunday morning, the weather was a balmy 75 degrees and the sun was shinning brightly.

We weren’t even a mile down the road when I spotted this big bird – I mean it could feed a family of 6 on Thanksgiving if that gives you an idea. He, or she – IT, I guess, was sitting along side the road in the grassy area about 1 to 3 feet in from the grass line off the shoulder. I remarked to Willie through the intercom – which was sounding good thanks to the new J&M mics and speakers – ‘Look at the buzzard’. It was sitting there like and owl or something. As we approached, the darned bird decided to get animate. He, or she – took off in an arc trajectory that carried it out toward the road in a path that interested our GoldWing. The point of intersection was on the front of the very right side fairing just about the level of the mirror. I made some loud expletive noise as the bird hit the bike. It flew up in the air in a flutter of now dislodged feathers and landed back in the grassy area off the shoulder with its little feet sticking up in the air.

Except for their heads, those are really beautiful birds. Very pretty feathers – a lot like an eagle. It wasn’t moving at all when we pulled the u-turn and circled back.

We looked at the bike to assess the damage. There were no broken parts that we could see. It had mad quite a loud thud when it hit. There was some clear, or almost clear, looking substance in the area it hit. I guess it was buzzard snot or something. A few scratches on the front of the fairing, and buzzard snot around the area AND on the mirror, or BACK side of the mirror assembly. We got a paper towel and cleaned the substance off the bike fairing and windshield and then cleaned the mirror, hopped back on the bike and continued.

Some time later I noticed the speaker grill was missing off the right side speaker. We were far enough along by that time that we decided to continue our journey with the bare speaker cone staring out at us from it’s place within the fairing.

Later that same day as we were returning home we stopped to locate the grill. I found it at a distance of 75 feet north of the buzzard’s remains. It was in tact with only a very minor scratch – perhaps slightly distorted in shape. I do not know how the grill – which is INSIDE the fairing windshield, got dislodged during the incident – but it did. I also do not know how we were able to find it along the road later that day, but we did.

After retrieving the grille, it was decided that this would be a good photo op – so we did. See the attached picture.

I have always been extremely cautions when confronted with situations where there are cattle in the road. Cattle are very unpredictable and motorcycles often seem to spook them into even more irrational behavior. Most of us know the damage a small deer can inflict on an automobile – imagine a cow or bull versus a motorcycle: Cow 1, Motorcycle zero!

I guess the lesson for everyone in this one is, if you see a big turkey, or buzzard, or turkey buzzard, or other flying mechanism along the road, take extreme caution. We were lucky things did not get worse! It could have hit one of us. That in itself could be very serious. Additionally, a driver could lose control of the bike in such a situation.

Keep on bikin’ but be careful!

Regards,

Turkey Vulture or 'Buzzard' did not fare as well as the bike.

Update - Spring 2005 Hill Country Tour - Buzzard 'Attacks'

Several of us encountered more 'Buzzard Attacks' in the Spring 2005 Hill Country Trip Report.

Art, leading the pack on Barney, was attacked by a buzzard – much like the one that hit the ‘Silver Buzzard’ – err “Silver Streak” – so named by our Busy Bee friends from Hugo.

He came within a FOOT (as in 12 inches, not 5-toes) of hitting Art in the HEAD – or helmet, as it were. Art said he could have reached out and grabbed the buzzard’s feet. I can verify that – I was right behind him. Art also said he did not see the white under the wings, as the species that the ‘Silver Streak’ intercepted had. (This is also the species that Danny identified as being a recent migration from Mexico.)

Here is the scenario: The buzzards (or vultures to be more correct) sit ON or ALONG side the road. You can see them ahead for a distance. BUT – unlike most OTHER birds, they do not take off early. They seem to wait for the last second, then they fly up. This creates the problem.

Art actually swerved into the OTHER LANE to avoid collision with the darned bird. (Boy! Those 1800’s sure can maneuver!) The road was clear at the time with no opposing traffic in the other lane.

I have found that honking the horn seems to stir them up a bit earlier – but not much. The BEST DEFENSE is to SLOW DOWN when approaching one or more of the big birds in or around the road ahead.

I am going to add deer whistles to the bike to see if that wards them off any earlier or not.

Be aware – they linger, then take off - sometimes into the path of the motorcycle. And they are quite large. They have more mass than, say a softball. And you would not like a soft ball to hit you in the helmet / head or the bike at 50 to 70 MPH!! Imagine that! (And we won’t even mention speeds above 70 – that would be illegal. – I guess, in that case, ‘illegal’ could lead to an ‘ill eagle’ – groan.)

Just wanted to get the word out about this potentially very dangerous situation.

As most – if not all – of you know – I have been biking (and driving four-wheels) for many years in this area – and do not recall this type of behavior until this year (2005). We all know how the squirrels do – playing Kamikaze with us – and how the armadillos don’t get out of the way – and how the rabbits frequently run right under the wheels – and all such sorts of behavior. But, to reiterate, this is the first year I can recall this ‘delayed take off’ behavior from the big birds along the road.

Had it not been for the previous alert(s), Art and I may not have slowed down nor been as cautious as we were and could have had a collision with the rather large bird. Keep alert! This is something new - and it can be very dangerous!