Dawes Family in New Zealand

Bird Brain

**Warning, graphic pictures included**

Here at Dawes HQ we’re all about preservation of animals.  We’ve been tempted to have Bailey stuffed recently due to his chewing activities but we persevered all the same. We managed to get rid of several rogue ferrel cats hanging around our garden to allow the birds to flourish too.

Over the years we’ve trapped mice and spiders then released them away from their house, not to mention the work we’ve done with the SPCA.  It was today however that nature came to test us, and it came in the form of an endagered Kereru…

Driving back along state highway 2 having had a pleasant family walk along the old Rimutaka railway, we witnessed something terrible.  A pair of native Kereru decided to run the gauntlet of SH2 and began their flight at an incredibly low level across the traffic… the 100km/h traffic.   One took the high road and the other took the proverbial low road, smashing into an oncoming car.

The Police will tell you that speed kills.  I don’t go along with this theory and firmly believe that speed does not kill, it’s all about the kinetic energy released on impact.  The poor broken and most definately dead Kereru having had an impact already, proceeded to be hurtled by the oncoming car back the way it had came and into the path of our car.

It would have been ok had the bird glanced off the window, the bonnet or even the roof, but no – he was dead and he was making sure he took as many people with him as he could.  He struck our car square in the middle of the drivers wing mirror, smashing it to bits and leaving it hanging on a wire.  Having seen plenty of horror movies, I never thought I’d be the one cleaning bits of brain from the car, and between you and me it’s not a very nice task. Especially made worse when your insurance company tell you its going to be at least $500 to get fixed!

Here’s a few photos, but please don’t look if you’re squeamish!