Taking care when driving through the country side

[Jez]

Happens so much at this time of year for reasons I'm uncertain of, maybe because the days are lighter people drive less cautiously as in the winter months due to better light conditions or wildlife being very active because of the same reasons or both, but sadly I keep seeing a lot of road kill at this time of year! It saddens me to see numerous squirrels, stoat, blackbird & pheasant mowed down all mowed down these last couple of weeks, I just wish people would drive just a few mph slower around where I live in regard for the other wild inhabitants that we live among!

Just wanted to get that off my chest!

[agrumpycow]

I've noticed that too, counted at least 15 dead badgers plus other birds/animals along the A55 between Chester & Bangor a couple of weeks ago

[Blackdogjnr]

It saddens me too.
One of the best things we ever did was move from the city to the countryside, but the flipside of that is that I have to pass so many corpses on the way home every day.

For some reason people just don't think animals are as important.
Perhaps they think they are lower in the 'food chain' and a lesser life form.

It'd be unthinkable to drive at 50mph past a school, but if a pheasant gets in front of the car, it's a case of 'tough luck' for some people.

Odd.

But one of my biggest beefs is that cars and roads are so darn fast and people seem to want to plough everywhere at breakneck speed, all the time.

[Cellarman]

It's not that simple. Quite often an animal will suddenly change its mind and turn back right under the wheels of a vehicle, even though it has slowed down. I have seen this happen a number of times, once with a domestic cat which, despite the driver's attempt to avoid it, ended up a victim, and the car was not moving fast. On another occasion, I watched two wagtails, having a damn good scrap, go cartwheeling straight into the front of a car. But for all that I am convinced that many roadkills are the deliberate actions of some drivers.

[Blackdogjnr]

Oh absolutely.

The roads near me have lovely thick hedges on each side, so naturally the flight path of birds is often directly at car-level and it is a bit of a lottery. Also, rabbits in particular ar notiriously hard to avoid..

But I can categorically say that the majority of cars that travel up and down those roads near to my village are going very very very fast.

The point being, that like the speeding adverts on TV, the driver has much more control at a more reasonable speed and the victim has a slightly better chance of survival too.

[tufftie]

As I think Jez said we live on a windy country lane and the cars belt up and down it..they barely brake in time for another car let alone wildlife. It broke my heart to see one of our squirrels dead on the road the other day, I semi buried it. We have to do a bit of work for the farmer so I'm hoping he will let us put up some 'slow down - wildlife on road' signs. some people will take no notice but some will and even if it means a few less dead animals it will be worth it. When I feel a bit better I might start up some sort of door to door campaign...

[Frenchy]

Badgers are now very active and many are killed by road traffic.
I've seen several badgers lately, all on the road side...

[Badger Watching Man]

Sadly true. I've been trying to get a good view of my local stoat for a year or so now, and today I found it dead on the road.

Of course, it may not be the same stoat - there's obviously more than one - but I still take it a bit personally. It was almost as if I knew the little chap.

I buried it decently. It seems an odd thing to do, but it somehow made sense.