The Bird Phenomenon

Every spring something very weird happens to me. And if it's written here it has to have something to do with a bike, right?

Last Saturday while on my way home from my long ride I was passing by PIR. Wait I should back up a little bit. I was cruising down Marine Drive and listening to TAL. I had noticed that a bird was hovering above me and having difficulty maintaining its position in the wind. It's fluttering about is what I supposed attracted my eye to it. Now every spring for the past 5 years I've been the victim of a single solitary bird attack. Just one. This bird was making me nervous. I was keeping a very close eye on him. I remember thinking "oh shit here it comes," "this is it," "today is the day." I was hoping that it would be as benign as the rest had been. The bird to my surprise lost interest and flew off. Maybe that would be the attack, maybe I wouldn't have to worry about full contact wrestling with a bird this spring.

Back to PIR, cruising along, cooling down. I look to my right and see some black birds duking it out or playing or whatever they were doing but some impressive aerial maneuvers for sure. Deciding that I should pay attention where I was going, I focused my attention on the path in front of me. As soon as I took my eye off the birds I felt a breeze and heard a flapping and then my helmet got heavier and there was scratching and clawing and pecking. I turned real fast and swiped at whatever it was that was on me. When my eyes finally focused after whipping around it was a black bird bobbing and weaving, shucking and jiving, making quick work of me. Full contact bird wrestling, I couldn't escape it this year. I got away from where it didn't want me and it landed on a near by post to keep an eye on me. I was lucky I didn't wander out into traffic while defending myself from this unwarranted sneak attack.

Nature can be cruel sometimes.