Let's Not Meet Again

Do You Want To See A Dead Bird?

I am a 25 year old female from Ireland. This story happened when I was 20. It still creeps me out to think about it!

So I decided to take my parent's caravan to a seaside destination for three days. Roughly three miles away from my caravan site was a famous tourist attraction, and I got up early one morning and decided to make the trip there. I borrowed my mum's bicycle for this wee getaway and so set to cycling the three miles.

The journey consists of a mile through the village I was staying in, and then two miles down a lovely country pathway (the pathway leads straight to the tourist attraction). I had cycled through the village and was on the pathway. There was no one else that I passed along the way, the path seemed empty, but beautiful!

While cycling I saw a class old abandoned railway track up on a bank. I think the railway track must of been an old children's ride because it was rather small. It had trees all around it and their leaves were drooping over it, and there was moss growing on the tracks, all very picturesque.

I was into taking photographs at the time, and I wanted to take photographs of this. I stopped and got off my bike. If you can imagine, I was on the path, and up a level was the bank that the tracks were on. I put my bike on the stand and went up the bank and began taking some wee photographs. I was happy snapping away, and I didn't notice a man walking the path towards me. At this point I was taking pictures of the birds in the trees.

I didn't think anything of the man until he stopped at my bike (down on the path). I looked at him but continued taking pictures as his presence made me feel uncomfortable straight away. He was a middle aged man, roughly 5ft 6". He was a bit overweight, had a beard and he had those glasses that make your eyes look big. He was wearing black trousers and a blue waterproof coat.

For a few seconds he didn't say hello, didn't smile, just stared. He asked me, 'Are you taking pictures of the birds?', I smiled politely and said yes, they are very pretty. Now it didn't feel like he was 'looking' at me, it felt like he was 'watching me', and although I understand that most people are harmless, he gave me the 'heebiejeebies!'. After another prolonged pause, as if he was thinking of something to say, he said, 'I saw a dead bird, with his head broken off, down in there. Do you want to see?' When he said 'down in there' he was pointing to the right hand side of the pathway, which went down another level into deep dark forestry. The exact spot he was pointing to was an opening in the trees and an unofficial walkway down into the forest; really just a muddy downward path. I said no thank you. He continued to watch/stare at me, and bearing in mind he was standing right beside my bicycle, so I felt like I couldn't escape if I wanted to. He asked me a third time if I wanted to see it.

It was so unnerving because he wasn't smiling, or acting friendly and relaxed, it was as if he was just trying get something done. At this point I took out my phone from my bag and began to call my mum (should have been the police), when he saw me do that he took a second and then he finally said, 'Okay, okay', put his hand up and walked away, looking back at me. When he was far enough away I went straight down to my bicycle and sped off. All the while on the phone to my mum telling her about it.

When I got back to my caravan that night I checked every cupboard and the bathroom so many times. I made sure the door was locked so many times. I also rang the police and made them aware of what happened, incase some poor girl would unfortunately say yes. The policeman told me I was right to call, because that doesn't sound like normal behaviour.

I hate thinking about what he might have been up too. Maybe it was innocent, but you can't take a chance with something like that. I was tempted to go back and check if there really was a dead bird, but I think I made the right decision not too.

'Want to see a dead bird?' man, let's not meet!