I've had to stop for turkeys before. On one part of my ride, the road is cut into the side of a hill, and one day there was a line of about a dozen turkeys launching off the top, flying over the road at about head height for me, landing on the far side of the road and continuing down the hill.

In years past I've had deer run in front of, and once beside me, and I've had a red-tailed hawk fly alongside me for about 50 feet once, that was cool. I had to yell at an idiot possum a few days ago, it was just standing in the road looking at me. Squirrels usually run, I've stopped and chased a few snakes off the road and rescued some turtles, though the snappers are on their own. Coyotes take off when I get within about 50 feet. Dogs sometimes come out to the road, but not very much, and they've always been obviously friendly, I've never seen a dog that worried me. One time an owl flew over my head in the pitch black, scared me good. I've also had some birds dive-bomb me and hit my helmet in nesting season.

My commute from my office on campus to my house involves a pretty nice descent on a bicycle only path which cuts through some grassland areas. It's pretty easy to reach about 37-40mph toward the bottom, and you're pretty much guaranteed to see a ground squirrel, deer, or some other critter. Luckily I've never hit one but the thought of flying over my handle bars at 30+ frankly scares the crap out of me.

A buddy of mine was skateboarding down this same bike path and did manage to hit a squirrel. Squirrel was toasted but my friend was left with a split skull.

I've come close to nailing squirrels, that's about it (so far.) I live in fear of getting too close to a skunk. There are MANY skunks here and ye gods, do they STINK!

Someone just had to ask this question. Yesterday, I was thinking how lucky I was not to be able to contribute to this thread. I just hit a possum on the ride in this morning. Not sure how I managed not to wreck.

Tim

helmet/wing collision with a turkey once..I just hate it when during my dark morning commute, the "pile of leaves" on the trail takes wing just as your front wheel passes.....

You guys encounter interesting wildlife on your commutes. I've seen rabbits, deer, raccoons, geese... but turkeys? If I wanted to ride past a flock of turkeys, I'd have to detour through the poultry department at Safeway.

Actually, come to think of it, there are two turkeys at the petting zoo that I occasionally ride past on my way home from work, but that hardly constitutes a flock, nor am I in any danger of running into/over them.

I've got wild turkeys that I see on my ride, but they've never been in danger of me whacking them.

Skunks ... now, that'd be trouble.

There's nothing that smells worse, or lasts as long. Had a girlfriend hit one with a car. The Opel was never the same.

Hmmm I see squirrels all the time but they seem to know to stay out of the paths of cyclists... Maybe it's regional?

The only time something gets in my path is usually due to kids zigzagging all over the trail obliviously.

Deer!!! Spooked several out of the brush in the evening ride home this week.

Last weekend was riding with the kids on the American River Bike Trail (Sacramento) and stopped to let a rattlesnake with four rattles cross the pavement in front of us.

Suicide Bunny Squad often try and ambush me, I heard a guy died a few years ago when a pheasant, (males can be nasty during mating season), stuck it's head in the front wheel and he endo'd breaking his neck. Took the police awhile to figure out what happened

I've had crossing incidents with, Rabbits, Gophers, Deer, Coyotes, had Grouse burst from under the front wheel, ( they will stay there until the last second. )

The one that really got me worried was twice missing a Porcupine by inches. Feel much better about that since I got my MagicShine 900, first night ride with that, saw the sucker while it was off the pathway.

In our area they started a stocking program about 20 years ago which resulted in quite a population.

As for other animal encounters, something furry darted out from some bushes and was cleaved by my rear wheel. I simply could not stop and I'm still surprised I stayed up.

Yesterday I reduced the population of woolly worms by about 35,000. Damn things cover the road this time of year.

So, yesterday on a nice ride through town, I was on the local bike path and there was a smallish owl just hanging out in the tree. Pretty cool. He was probably waiting for one of the mice/rats that populate the trail to show a little fur.

Three snakes sunning themselves on the path and one suicidal squirrel. Almost a deer too.

On a morning commute I felt something dragging in my front wheel. I thought it was the front brake so I brought my bike to the LBS before work for them to check. I picked her up after work and the repairman said there were 2 problems with the front wheel. One was the brake pads were dragging on the rim. And second, there was a messed up raccoon paw wedged under the fender. The repairman always looks at me funny when I go in for tune ups now.

Commuting one day in the Boulder, CO area, a bird flew into my spokes and commited suicide (same as the other guy from Denver). All's I saw was feathers. The freakiest one was almost hitting a black bear. Lived in Maryville, TN and would do a mountain bike ride in an area close to a Bear Sanctuary. Came bolting down the mountain, and around a blind curve, and there was a bear standing in the middle of a fire road. Slammed on the brakes and came to stop about 10 feet away from the bear. We just stood there and stared at each other for about 10 seconds, and finally, he bolted down the road. I wasn't scared for some reason. It reminded me of a large dog or something.

Ran over a possum last week. I didn't see him in time due to fog and got him with both wheels. I think he went on about his business. I know I did.

Here's my weirdest situation. Let's see if I can paint the picture. I was riding down a two lane neighborhood street in the center of the right hand lane. I come across two rabbits in the road - one in each lane eating something or other off the road. As I'm rolling up to them, I started contemplating how to avoid hitting either one of them. I put myself in the head of a rabbit and applied human logic to the situation. I thought if I was a rabbit in this situation, I would scatter into the grass closest to me - meaning that one rabbit would go to the right and the other would go to the left. Worst case, they would both scatter in the same direction (safety in numbers). So, the most prudent course of action was to ride toward the middle of the road to give me the most time to react to the rabbits. If they stood still, I would go right between them. If they scattered into the grass, I would miss them by a mile. If they went to one side or the other, I would have time to swerve. What I didn't expect was that the rabbits would act like squirrels. They froze just long enough for me to make my move to the center of the road and get right up on them. Then they each made a juke move toward the grass closest to them (one faked right and the other faked left), then they criss-crossed in the middle of the road. The symmetry was a thing of beauty except that I nearly ran them both over. Not sure what the lesson here is, but there has to be one.

I run over a Chipmunk once I was very sad, those guys are so cute... I actually stopped and buried him deep I didn't want him to get eaten by vultures.

Encountered many odd creatures but haven't run over any, except a few squirrels.
Oh.. except one time a Minnesota mosquito flew into my front wheel. Broke several spokes and ruined my fork before I did an endo...

Not on a commute but on a mountain bike ride- came really close to hitting a bear, who was nestled into bunch of blackberry bushes. He was so startled he leapt right in front of me and ran down the path less than an inch from my front wheel- glad I didn't hit him!

On my commute it's been near misses- thank goodness- with geese, lots of rabbits and did hit one squirrel on my folder-- sad and gross.

That is sad. Did he have a big "A" on his sweater?

Most of the time I see skunks, they have their nose in the grub holes and they waddle away if they object to my presence. My only collision was a small bird to the helmet last summer, twice in a week time frame. I've had deer outrun me and jump across the road in front of me.. that's kind of odd.