Duck!

You don't need to, but we did on our way to church today. This can be a birding post. On our way to church today we saw one bird:

Mallard (female)

We were driving down a steep hill (for those familiar, it's the corner of Bastanchury and Associated, coming down from the intersection with State College). We were almost to the intersection, and slowing down to stop, thankfully, when we notice a female mallard swinging out in flight over the road from the left. Not too interesting, so the first impulse is to disregard it as one of those many events that your consciousness assigns to "not important" while you're driving so you can focus on the road. I still can't remember that part very well. I can't remember, for example, if the bird was taking off just off the left side of the road, or if it came down and over the road from Craig Park.

Anyway, the bird soon impressed itself on my mind (and Libby's!) as VERY important, as it straightened its course directly at our car. It was low, and in the ensuing second it became very clear it was going to hit or nearly miss our car. I slowed further, Libby yelled, and...

BAM

... the duck slammed into the top of our windshield.

Oh my gosh. That was a very loud thump. "We just killed a duck," I thought with alarm. My eyes had gone directly to the point of impact, above the rear view mirror. It was wet. Just water, but for a second I was really worried. Libby turned around, and I turned around as we came to a stop at the red light. The duck was walking into the middle of our lane behind us. It was alive, but for how long?

The light turned green and we headed off, throwing glances behind us. No point in getting out to do anything, as we'd be endangering ourselves and others. You'll all be glad to know that there was no damage to our car, and on the way home, we couldn't see the duck anywhere along the road. It might have been in the gutter on the far side, of course, but we prefer to think we may just have hit Super Duck. At least, we know we hit Stupid Duck.