Well I did pitch down once, but that was in a glider at thermal speed just over the stall; if I had pulled back the stick, I'd be going down anyway;)

And yes, I have seen a hawk fold his wings and go into a plunge from a bit above me. You can sneak up on birds occasionally in a glider; perhaps the hawk had his attention focused on a juicy squirrel.

Exactly what your instructor did. Happened to me when I was with an instructor. I was fairly new PPL student but he took control and landed straight away to check for damage.
Rather be safe than sorry, as we couldnt see if there was any problem with the flaps which is where they hit

Now, now. Come to think of it, we did have trouble catching up to the ducks..;)

Probably Mallards. Those are some bad ducks.

I can remember making an approach late at night into an airfield where a friend was supposed to have put on the runway lights for us.
It was pitch black and at around 400 feet there was a loud bang on the windscreen of the twin.
He had not turned up so we diverted.On landing there was blood on a three inch diameter of the screen.
Don't think that burd strikes are confined to daylight!

I can understand landing if the strike happens on takeoff but do you return if you are 20 miles out or divert en route?

No you appraise the strike. Are there an vibrations? Any abnormal engine indications? Are there any control problems? How large was the impact and where?

I would not land just for a bird strike unless there were other reasons to do so.
Ok just after takeoff Ou might as well nip around and land but there are bird strikes and BIRD strikes.

Pace

Two of my worst bird strikes occurred at night, both at the same time of night (about one in the morning), and both at 10,000'.

If I experience a bird strike, unless there's clear evidence of something wrong, I'm not returning to land. It's a good, safe, conservative decision, but not necessarily required. I've had bird strikes at the start of 11 hour journeys, and pressed on. Unless I have reason to believe that I have a problem, then I'm not going to get too worked up simply because I hit a bird.

If the controls are fluttering, or if there's a bird sticking through the window, that's another thing. A little blood and feathers, or some bird parts flying around in the cockpit (ala the bird that went through the air vent), not really a good reason to terminate the flight.

I had a mate turn back soon after take off on a ferry flight in a Seneca, the bird hit the HF wire and distorted what ever window it was running through, maybe the CV panel?

Said it was very interesting landing a slightly over weight plane at Dark o'clock in the morning. Luckily Christmass island is a big runway.

Bloody good pilot is Trav.