We had two interesting encounters with birds on our back and forth trip from
Atlanta to College Station, TX over the weekend.

The first one occurred when we were about 10 miles south of Easterwood
field, located in College Station. In the distance, I picked up a large
bird at our altitude which was doing 360's and didn't seem to be aware of
our presence. As it turned towards our flight path, I realized that due to
the time, turn rate, distance, and speed, it would be a collision risk.

As I pulled up and into a hard left bank, Kelly asked me what the heck I was
doing. After leveling off, I pointed out the right window to show her the
VS.-22 Osprey we'd avoided. About that time, the Osprey called the tower
and we ended up more or less following it to the field to land.

The second bird encounter was with a formation of a dozen or so ducks. We
were over Alabama at 11,500' headed NE and the ducks were probably at
11,300' headed South. They were flapping like mad, which isn't a surprise
given the altitude and their wing loading. Somehow, Flight Following missed
giving us the traffic warning. ;-) I told Kelly that if we'd hit the
ducks, it would have made a real ducking mess...