Sky Pilot.....

I was headed over to Deb's dad's place this afternoon, just cruising along. I was coming up a hill, and slowing down to turn the corner to their house, when I spotted some movement out of the corner of my eye. My mind told me it was a bird, but there was something odd about it. I HAD to back up and take a look.

Several years ago, my brother and I were headed to a road project near Hutchinson, Kansas. Since Bob knew all the back roads - no matter where he went - that's what we were on, headed to the job site. We were on a small blacktop - "oil roads", they call them in Kansas - and cruising down a flat spot between a couple of marshy areas. One side was so marshy, in fact, it was a POND that came right up to the road. About 10 feet from the road, a barb wire fence cut across about eight feet of the end of that pond.

Since there were low fly birds in the area - and even a road sign to warn of them - Brother Bob slowed down, just in case. It turned out to be a wise move, because we looked up to see a mid size duck lining up for a landing on said pond.

There he was, lining up his approach like the best pilot you ever saw, except he was just a BIT below glide path -- as he was passing the fence, his neck caught the top wire. All we saw as we rolled by (at a near stand still), was that duck spinning around that wire like he had caught a fan blade! He did his flying trapeze act around the wire a few times, then hung there, limp as a dish rag.

Fence 1, Duck 0

I have no idea what species of bird this one today is, but it was talented! When I backed up to take a good look, the first thing I noticed was his feet weren't touching the wire below him. He was just hanging there, blowing in the wind.

I got out and investigated further. He was a "better" pilot than that duck - instead of hooking himself on the wire, he DEAD CENTERED it! Only trouble was - he was TOO good, and - in his case - dead centered really meant "dead" centered.



I don't know HOW he did it, but you can see in this photo, that his "lips" are caught in the "holes" the twists of the barb wire make.



Some times, pilots are too talented for their own good....