Took a birl through the borders today. Through the Moorfoots to Innerleithen then over to St Mary's Loch (the eastern part was like glass) past the Grey Mare's Tail to Moffat. Coffee and a fried egg roll at the Cafe Ariete. Then back up the 701 to home.
On the way down, there was lot of shotgun fodder around. Much more than you'd expect at this time of year even. Had a couple of near misses. Then just south of Broughton a hen pheasant broke cover on the other side of the road. I was doing about 60 ish and I know what a mess these beasties can make so I prayed it would freeze or double back and backed off the throttle a bit ...
Aaargh. It tried to fly out of danger. Straight towards me. A very solid "thwack". I looked down and there it was looking up at me from the junction of the crankcase and the offside barrel. Looking very glassy eyed and the contents of its crop and various other bits spread around the lower part of the bike.
A couple of cars passed me going the other way. At least one saw the decoration and gave a double take. The bird dropped away before I could come to a halt. So it's road kill now. Had me sweating for a micro second though!
One less for the shotgun brigade. It was a double barrel that got it anyway I s'pose.
On the way down, there was lot of shotgun fodder around. Much more than you'd expect at this time of year even. Had a couple of near misses. Then just south of Broughton a hen pheasant broke cover on the other side of the road. I was doing about 60 ish and I know what a mess these beasties can make so I prayed it would freeze or double back and backed off the throttle a bit ...
Aaargh. It tried to fly out of danger. Straight towards me. A very solid "thwack". I looked down and there it was looking up at me from the junction of the crankcase and the offside barrel. Looking very glassy eyed and the contents of its crop and various other bits spread around the lower part of the bike.
A couple of cars passed me going the other way. At least one saw the decoration and gave a double take. The bird dropped away before I could come to a halt. So it's road kill now. Had me sweating for a micro second though!
One less for the shotgun brigade. It was a double barrel that got it anyway I s'pose.





