No bird box story, but this morning AB, AR and I were biking down the Leslie Street Spit towards the lighthouse when one of those funniest moments of the year happened. The three of us were riding side by side at a pretty good pace when a dumb white bird decided to cross the road on foot right in front of us. AR and I slammed on the brakes. I came to a stop within a foot of the bird.
AB was on the far side, so he didn’t see the jay-walker at first. By the time he skidded to a stop, his wheel came right over the bird’s butt! My eyes went wide seeing the collision. OH CRAP! My first thought was what to do with this injured/dead bird? Move him off to the side of the road and just leave him there? We were in the middle of one of North America’s most important breeding grounds for many birds, so this might be some rare, endangered species that we just ran over. Crap, should we report him to the conservation society here? Given that this bird was dumb enough to jay-walk across the road and NOT fly off at the incoming freight trains, I won’t be at all surprised if their species was endangered.
Anyway, AB backed up his bike and the darn bird just got up and continued walking across the street… as if nothing happened. WTF.
This was definitely one of the weirdest, closest encounters with nature in my experience. Nature never fails to surprise!
Now Rich, mechanical 2 wheeled metal vehicles are not natural. :P