Jay Honeck wrote:
Paraphrased from Sport Aviation this month:

Hitting a Canada Goose exerts the same force as dropping a 1000 pound weight
10 feet.

Yikes! That would make mince-meat out of ANY GA aircraft.

We've got large flocks of (what appear to be) sea gulls congregating on our
field over the last few weeks. At this time of year we also get flocks of
migratory birds (ducks and geese) stopping over, too. The place looks like
a bird sanctuary.

I've come very close to hitting birds, but (knock on a burnt-orange Cessna
dashboard) thus far have gotten away clean. Last night, while landing in
the last glint of twilight, I saw a very large bird go zinging past me while
on short final. There was nothing I could do but cringe...

Anyone ever hit a bird? Anyone got a good bird avoidance plan they'd care
to share?

It brings to mind the old story of the testing (FAA?) done with a gun
that would shoot a chicken at a windshield. Unfortunately an
inexperienced tester bought a frozen chicken. (The momentum impulse
depends on the velocity, mass and compressibility.)