At this instant, neither of us realized the other was present:
Despite what it looks like, the blackbird (maybe a starling) passed just beyond arm’s reach directly ahead of the bike at eye level:
And away!
At 60 frames per second, that’s 466 ms of elapsed time.
Stepping through the video, frame by frame, the bird’s wings flap at a consistent three frames per stroke = 50 ms/stroke = 20 stroke/s = 1200 stroke/min. A bit of rummaging produces a study suggesting a starling’s normal rate is 10 stroke/s, so the critter had the throttles firewalled at war emergency power.
It makes my pedal pushing seem downright inconsequential…
Was that an African or European starling?
I forgot to shout out the license plate…
Someone’s being funny.
From Monty Python:
I also feel compelled to ask if it was carrying a coconut.
May it please the Court, to the best of my knowledge and belief, neither of us carried a coconut during our encounter.