Originally Posted by ItsJustMe
I just ignore them. In my experience, birds are extremely good at this and won't actually hit you hard enough to do anything.
I guess if they got to be too bad I might be tempted to bring my racquetball racquet with me on rides and take a swing or two.
I have a couple of handheld electric bug-zappers that look like plastic tennis racquets. If they were actually hitting my helmet I'd really consider running some conductive tape in alternating bands over the top and powering it up. Just to see what kind of noise they made when they got jolted.
The eyeball stickers on helmet sounds like something more realistic to try.
Sadly, they do hit you. I have had one on the shoulder trying to hang on. It was really windy and it must have misjudged slightly and ended up clinging to my shoulder. It scared the .... out of me. On my MUP there is one section where if you are the loan rider you can guarantee to get a helmet strike every morning.
I use the little flashing lights and cable ties these days. They work.
Interestingly, my dad told me if you feed them - i.e., you are nice to them rather than thinking they are the enemy, they won't swoop you. They have a pretty good memory for shapes and remember who, what was nasty to them. Don't think they are quite smart enough to recognise you from every other cyclist, but none-the-less, feeding them might help all other cyclists too.
Having said that, I must confess to not having dropped off any breadcrumbs on my way to work....