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AIBU?

I've just ran over a pheasant :(

191 replies

lexiepix · 26/02/2015 17:32

On a narrow country lane, doing 50, they usually move out of the way but this one stayed right in the middle.

It made such a thud, a huge cloud of feathers afterwards and I've just been picking the feather out of my grill.

I had no idea what way it was going to go so didn't swerve, also I didn't break much as expected it to move as they do 1000s of times before.

I'm feeling really shit about it. Am I a total cunt for not slowing or swerving?

OP posts:

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Hakluyt · 27/02/2015 09:52

Ah. By narrow country lane you meant not a narrow country lane. Who knew?

ThatBloodyWoman · 27/02/2015 09:57

One of those 'narrow' country lanes,eh?

fedupandsickofeverything · 27/02/2015 10:02

Dh once had a pheasant fly headfirst into his car, it managed to decapitate it's self by wedging it's head through his radiator grill! It was not pleasnt mess to clean up.

lexiepix · 27/02/2015 10:06

Sorry but that's my idea of a narrow country road that is an A road. I did say several times it is a A road.

It is narrow and country though.

OP posts:

Coconutty · 27/02/2015 10:07

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

FelineLou · 27/02/2015 10:18

It was bred to be shot at by someone with a shotgun. It had a happy release from what may have been an agonising slow death if the shooter was not very good.
But pick it up, hang it in the shed for a few day then clean, pluck and eat. Or feed to pets if too bruised. At least it is useful then.

EveDallas · 27/02/2015 10:21

Yep, that's a narrow country lane. The left/right lanes are narrower than a normal road, and there are country fields either side.

If OP had meant a single track lane, she'd have said a single track lane (that's how we killed 7 pheasants in a weekend). But she didn't. She also said, from her very second post When I say narrow country lane I don't mean that narrow or country, its a narrow A road through farm land where it is 60. She also quantified that over and again.

It's not OPs fault that people haven't bothered to read what she wrote.

ThatBloodyWoman · 27/02/2015 10:26

7 pheasants in a weekend Eve ?
How come?

Pangurban · 27/02/2015 10:39

This happened to me once. I was on a straight part of a country road. Either side of the road had deep ditches. Cock pheasant climbed out of ditch as I was approaching. There was a vehicle right behind me. I wasn't driving fast, but blasted pheasant, instead of staying put, continued out onto the road as I was becoming parallel with him. They have absolutely no road sense. It is a horrible feeling that something that was alive is now dead because of you. It was unpredictable. The reference someone gave with horse riders is different as they are already on the road or are so large they are visible. They don't wait hidden in a ditch and then commit a suicidal kamikazi onto approaching cars. I lived near a game reserve, so lots of these around. They used to come into my garden. Interestingly, they were one birdie my little grey cat didn't even attempt to approach.

Although a straight part of the road, you couldn't see if anything approached from the fields behind the ditch because of the hedgerows. One day, I saw a woman parked in her car, sobbing. A golden labrador had come out onto the road, and she had hit and killed him. If he was going fast, she wouldn't have been able to see him before he came out onto the road. She was in bits about it.

Country roads can be really dangerous.

lavendersun · 27/02/2015 10:50

7 is a lot good score.

ThatBloodyWoman · 27/02/2015 11:02

7 is a huge amount in a weekend.
I'd love to know how that came about.

QueenOfCats · 27/02/2015 11:06

Poor Phesant

I slow down and stop for bloody pigeons though

PiggyPlumPie · 27/02/2015 11:10

I killed a massive bird on a driving lesson. The stretch of road was notorious for flocks of them just sitting there. My instructor sat next to me saying "Keep going, don't brake" because she knew what was going trough my head.

"Keep going, they will move" as I heard the thud. "But they always move!" says she! Apparently it was the talk of the driving instructors for days.

Still, I learnt not to brake for birds.

lavendersun · 27/02/2015 11:16

Lets get a grip here - had it not been run over by the lovely lexiepix it would have been made to flee the sanctuary of the crops/hedge/woods by the beaters and then shot at, maybe once, maybe a few times by the guns. If it escaped there would always be the following week's shoot to contend with and so on and so on.

It was only a pheasant.

BigRedBall · 27/02/2015 11:29

It's just a flipping pheasant. Not an endangered tiger or anything. What's the problem? 50mph is quite slow for that kind of road. I sometimes get stuck behind someone doing 45/40 and it's very annoying.

TweeStuff · 27/02/2015 12:05

Great idea to post the street view of the road . Now all the posters who could 'magically' tell you were definitely speeding can STFU .

I would go 50 on that road too - (but not if it was raining or poor light). You would be able to see a child or horse from a long way off. I slow right down if there are bends or hedges.

coalscuttle · 27/02/2015 12:40

7 isn't that much if there have been a lot put down near you. There is an estate near me that puts down 100,000 each year and the ground is crawling with them in places

lavendersun · 27/02/2015 12:47

Me too Coal, we are surrounded by three large estates who all have big shoots, have still only managed 3 in a day though.

I counted the squashed ones on my drive this morning - 6 birds in 20 miles plus a few rabbits/hares and a deer.

Just a part of living in the countryside.

Hakluyt · 27/02/2015 12:52

There wre times of the year round here when it's practically impossible to avoid baby rabbits

ThatBloodyWoman · 27/02/2015 14:04

We've lived on land where there's a shoot for nearly 20 years now.
I know what its like to have crowds of pheasants around.
7 in a weekend or 3 in a day is an awful lot.

BoredFatCat · 27/02/2015 14:22

i never see phesants in london only foxes. Well maybe you provided a meal for a hungry animal or human some people eat road kill

EveDallas · 27/02/2015 14:53

The 7 in a weekend was because we chose to visit my sister in her deepest darkest Cotswolds village on the Glorious 12th (not so glorious for the pheasants) and the bloody things were jumping out at us from the hedges. This was down single track roads, and I doubt we went over 20mph throughout - what with the amount of Land Rovers, Springer Spaniels, men in plus fours and horses all over the place.

We killed 7, but I reckon we probably swerved for about 30. We avoid it like the plague now.

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lavendersun · 27/02/2015 14:57

Thing is though that the amount of them being killed must depend on the estate's proximity to national speed limit roads etc., etc..

The road I kill the most on is spanned by an estate at either side with feeders within 30 feet of the road at regular intervals. The road has bends, but has mile long straights and is 5 miles long (I know this because I ride my bike along it too).

I am not going to drive at 30 mph just because there might be a pheasant without any road sense somewhere along the 5 mile stretch, in fact, thanks to this thread, I noticed that I was doing 55mph this morning.

Stupid - I don't think so, I could see a mile ahead on a lovely sunny day.

lavendersun · 27/02/2015 14:58

Single track too and my horses are at the end of it so it is 4 x a day minimum for me.

coalscuttle · 27/02/2015 15:05

EveDallas the glorious 12th refers to the grouse season. I can assure you there are no grouse in the Cotswolds!!

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