Capt Claret:
Sorry been off doing day one of recurrent simulator.
While you may be a "chick magnet" lights are a proven strategy to reduce the chance of birds strikes - not radar as we have disccussed on this forum many times. Without a lot of details on the actual events I can't offer any reasoned explanation other than bird type and altitude coupled with aircraft phase of flight and wind can have a huge effect on how birds detect aircraft and react.
On the issue of what to do after a bird strike, there are no firm answers. One thing to bear in mind is that if you have taken a bird in to an engine and there "appears" to be no damage, be very careful, there are documented cases of the damage not being detectible and then the engine failing at a later time or when inspected, damage requiring repair being found. When in doubt I will return for an inspection.
The same concept can apply to airframe damage. You may not think that the airframe is damaged, but it is. What is most interesting is that on fly-by-wire aircraft there is no direct feedback to the controls from the surfaces and they may be damaged or experiencing flutter from other damaged airframe parts and you cannot detect it. This type of event has already occurred with an A320 after sustaining FOD to the stabilizer on takeoff.
The key word is caution. Aircraft and engine certification standards for bird strikes are very basic and do not contemplate encounters with very large birds (above 8 lbs), multiple larger birds (above 4 lbs) or the damage/failure of multiple systems. This can occur when you encounter a flock of gulls or waterfowl.
Two things I always remember:
1. Be very cognizant of bird activity and delay approaches or takeoffs if required.
2. Don't fly above 250 knots below 10,000 feet. The machinery was not really designed for bird impacts at high speed and the higher you go the bigger the bird you are likely to hit. Impact force goes up proportionally to weight and as the square of the speed.
Bird strikes have the potential to put an aircraft into a damage scenario that will test your decision making, CRM and pilot handling skills to the maximum. Past events have include multiple engine damage and failure along with pitot static damage or engine failure, slat damage and loss of hydraulics. Events that we do not train for on a regular basis and are not directly part of the certification matrix.
Off for dinner and then studying before round two early tomorrow morning.