In article ,
"Kyle Boatright" wrote:

How many of you have experienced a bird strike?

I apparently had one the other day and didn't even know it until I was
wiping the airplane down and found a tuft of feathers on the prop's leading
edge, right at the tip. No damage to the airplane and no guts splattered on
the airplane. Maybe I just winged the bird and it survived, minus a few
feathers.


Mine was insignificant for me or the plane, but was fatal to the bird. I
was getting fuel at Greenville, SC one day and the lineboy said, "do you
have seagulls where you live?" He pointed to the left main gear door,
where the remains of a small hawk were lying. I think it was a sparrow
hawk and that I must have hit it on approach.

Another time I was riding in a friend's Bonanza when, on takeoff, we
flew through a flock of pigeons at Van Nuys. No damage to the the
plane, but about a half-dozen dead pigeons.