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Monday, April 15, 2013

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.

Sky Pilot....

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.

Bird On A Wire

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

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