Why did the chicken cross the bike path ?
 

Keep running across these little guys on a regular basis when I jump on the bike path lately. Getting harder to spot them as they blend in quite nice. The good thing is I slow down knowing that they are in a certain section every time I've seen them. I have been quite surprised that the bike path repair station is still intact, and have even seen people using it.

If out foraging, the chickens won't necessarily respect property boundaries.

Around here, we've had problems with people feeding geese on the bike paths (too lazy to lead them away from the path before tossing out some food).

Chickens, and birds in general, can be hard to spot on the road. There's an unusually distinctive shadow pattern on the local MUP that I keep mistaking for crows or large grackles at night.

Most of the critters I see are rabbits, cats, possums, armadillos, deer. Easy to see at night with lights because of their glowing eyes.

The only critters I worry about are dogs and owls. Dogs for obvious reasons. Owls are less obvious -- they're known to occasionally (but not often) attack humans, either defending their territory or mistaking us for prey. Usually they can see us well enough to realize we're too big to carry off, but there have been uncommon reports of joggers and hikers suffering scalp and face gashes from swooping owls. That was even a theory in the death of a woman whose death resulted in a murder conviction, despite some unexplained injuries that the defense consultant said were probably due to an owl attack and that the death was an accident rather than a murder.

Every time I pass one particular rural spot at night where a nearby owl is hooting, I keep thinking "Make it look like my ex-wife dunnit."

That is the worse!! And then there's goose droppings all over the trail and when the geese are spread out all over the trail and won't move, you have three choices...1) go around and risk getting nipped at, 2) wait for them to move on their own (can take many minutes sometimes) or 3) plow on ahead and pray they move and don't nip at ya. I've done all three and would prefer they just not be there.


:)

Those little guys were hard to see and easily hit if you didn't know that they might be there. Hitting one on a bike is dangerous and someone could get hurt.

If you could borrow a herding dog for a couple of hours, that will get them to leave and may keep the geese away for days. Possibly weeks. I got a good solid two weeks once.

To Croos, or not to Croos, the bike path.

Nice video.

Riding through farmland on Wednesday evening, and I flushed a hen pheasant from beside the road. She went out right over my head, scared the hell out of me! The cock came out about 100 feet further on, but far enough in front of me that it didn't startle me. I've had plenty of grouse flush from under my feet while hunting, but I didn't expect the big scare while peacefully riding on my bike. I didn't even have a shotgun along!

Yah nice vid. 140 looks to be a stinker! Funny how the chickens ake a commotion as you pass.

There is a chicken Living down Town, Here .. this time of year the Salmon cross the flooded roads.

I almost hit them when I encountered them the first time they showed up on the bike path. Now I know they are their so I can keep a lookout for them. I just hope they don't take out someone who isn't paying attention, and not expecting a surprise on the trail.

Why did the chicken cross the bike path? Because some idiot built a bike path between the chicken and where it wanted to go! :D

The birds that give me the most trouble on the confluence trail are the geese. More precisely, the little calling cards that turn the path into a goose-poop minefield. I've heard that wild turkeys can be aggressively territorial, but so far none of them have bothered with me.

The only bird attack I have had, was from a red-winged blackbird defending his/her nest. Flying in circles to come diving in and give a chitter and peck on the top of my helmet, again and again, for quite a distance. That attack was just amusing, since my helmet protected the top of my bald head.

No chickens, but occasionally a sunbathing Crotalus oreganus helleri.

So far they've always been stretched out, so the tactic has been to pass about six inches in front of their nose so they have no opportunity to strike.

They can bend double fast so passing them on the back side is NOT a good idea.

Late on this, but just a couple!

My motorcycling brother hit a pheasant on his BMW. He says he likes it all the more because it smells of Sunday lunch

And I catered a French Alps Ski Chalet a couple of years ago. Every weekend's arriving guest Coach driver asked me if I wanted the pigeons, ducks, geese he'd hit. Most drivers didn't stop, but he got kudos for care from the passengers, and a bottle from me!

Hamster
 

Why did the hamster cross the bike path? It was tied to the chicken.

The other morning, on my way home from a night shift, (5 am), I see a pair of eyes down the trail lit up by my light. As I approach , I see it is a raccoon , hurrying off the path into the woods. Off to my right , I see his/her companion, must have been the biggest raccoon ever, luckily he also ran off into the woods. Along this same section , in the early morning, the problem is usually the rabbit population, constantly running across the trail. Pretty funny really.