We are very fortunate to have a fellow rider, Fiona, who is Australian. She has a wealth of information about the local fauna and flora that she shares with the group. Early on she warned us that it is magpie mating season and that they aggressively defend their territories during this season. In particular, they attack bicyclists who ride through their territory. When she first told us about it I thought “oh, it can’t be that bad”. After all, magpies in the US aren’t that large and I have never seen them act aggressively.

Well, I was wrong! In the past two days I have had two different birds swoop down out of the sky and dive bomb my helmet!! Thank goodness she warned us or I probably would’ve crashed not knowing what was happening!! I guess cyclists have tried all sorts of strategies including attaching spiky things to their helmet or painting an eye 👁️ on the top all to no avail. Lucky for me they didn’t manage to hit the vents in my helmet because they can cut the scalp and draw blood 🩸.

There is even a website http://www.magpiealert.-com where you can look at where attacks have been reported this year. Crazy!!

More about the critters on the trip to come. Thanks for following