It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's a Super Guppy??

I live just a couple of miles from Wright Patterson Air Force Base; I live a few more miles from the Dayton International Airport.  I grew up here, and have gotten used to hearing planes overhead all times of the day.  I am glad we no longer experience the sonic booms - although we got used to them, too.

Wright Patterson Air Force Base has on it's outskirts, one of the best places to visit for airplane or flight aficionados.  That would be the National Museum of the United States Air Force.  The museum has certainly changed since my early teen years when it was about the size of an airplane hangar.  Today, one of my dear friends can easily spend two days going through it, and would probably prefer to spend at least 3, if not a week!

There have been two times I've had my attention drawn to the sky only to have my mouth drop open in amazement.  And both times I knew about the event ahead of time, but there was no preparation possible to witness them.

The first time was WAY too many years ago when one of the Space Shuttles was being moved, and was stopping at Wright Patt.  I was playing tennis near my house when the plane carrying the shuttle flew over.  The shuttle is big enough, but the plane carrying it was larger!  I don't think I'll ever forget the image of the absolute enormity of that vision, and it wasn't all that close (several thousand feet above me, at least).

Tonight I was out back looking for the Super Grouper, also called the Super Guppy, to fly overhead before landing at Wright Patt.  The Air Force Museum had been in the consideration for one of the shuttles, but we lost out on that (and yes, many of us are still ticked off) and the Super Guppy was delivering what we received instead - NASA's first shuttle crew compartment trainer.

I definitely heard the plane long before I saw it.  That's good because it let me get my neighbor's attention so she could see it too!

Thankfully, I had been out back looking for the plane for a while, and had decided I'd missed it.  I went about taking some other shots in the backyard, and heard a different kind of engine noise getting louder and louder . . . and then suddenly, there it was!

  
All three of these pictures were taken on the highest zoom level (200 mm), but I cropped the first two an additional two times to get the greater detail on the plane (you can see NASA and the logo on the tail fin on all 3, but you can easily read it on the first two).  This pic is more how it appeared to me from the yard.  I must say it looks more like a dolphin that a guppy though!

It's funny though that I had plans to be out and about doing things with friends most of the afternoon.  One thing was rescheduled for Monday and another was pushed back until 6:00.  I was able to get a lot of things done around the house and was getting ready to leave to visit a MetroPark when I saw a clip on the news and decided to go out back.  Guess it's even nicer that I didn't get all bent out of shape over the rescheduling, especially since I got to witness and photograph this.

Another first!

Wow.  So very happy with the pics I got today at Eastwood MetroPark!  AND I do know how very blessed I am to have so many MetroParks to visit within 30 minutes of home.  There are also several other parks and hiking trails to visit that aren't part of the same system, so there's plenty of variety for my wandering eye!

For several years, I drove by a stretch of land next to a railroad track that had a lot of thistles growing.  They looked so pretty, but it was never safe to stop there and take some pictures.  Today, I took the entrance to Eastwood by the lake, which is not where I normally go.  I was surprised to find thistle growing down by the lake, and in varying stages of blooming.  I would have been a happy camper just from getting those photos, but it got better!

I figured since I was close to the lake, I should probably get at least a couple of shots of it.  I'm glad I did.


Then, I drove around a little more before turning around to head back to the main road to the entrance I normally use.  As I was slowly driving along looking at the scenery (no other cars on that road), I saw a "new" bird and tried to stop so I could get a better look at it.  Unfortunately, all I know is that it had a black back and white underbelly; could be a whole lot of different birds.  Bummer.  But, it was still nice to have spotted it, even if I don't know what it was!


So, I resumed my drive out to the main road and on to the other entrance to the park.  I was about halfway to where I wanted to park, and I looked over toward the water and couldn't quite figure out what I saw, but hoped it was either a crane or heron (neither of which I'd seen before!).  So, I pulled onto the shoulder, turned the emergency flashers on, grabbed the camera, and ran across the lane (well, as close to running as I get).  As I got closer to the water, I slowed down and peeked around the foliage, and saw . . . 

 . . . a Great Blue Heron!  I'm not subjecting you to the numerous very similar shots I took, just a few.  Jenny @ I'd Rather Be Birding!, this is a HUGE first for me, and I have you to thank.  If you hadn't encouraged me to begin blogging, I wouldn't be making opportunities to stop at the parks to take photos.  You've pushed me to try different perspectives and styles that I might not have gotten around to for quite a while.  THANK YOU!

A baby Canada Goose (gosling) . . . loved the downy feathers!

An adult Canada Goose with some goslings.  With all of the "floaties" on the water, it looked kind of like twinkling lights. 

I love the bridges they have, at least to look at.  Today I went over them for the first time, and they are pretty steep.

There were a lot of mallard ducks, mostly males.  I think I saw a total of 3 females.  I wasn't sure I'd caught this guy in flight - I was moving and so was he!  What a thrill when I saw it.

The way these two guys were standing cracked me up - the way they both rested their bills on their chests . . . kind of a motionless strutting if that makes sense to anyone but me!

And the last few shots are more pics featuring reflection.  The rocks above made me wonder at first where the shore line was.

I felt like I saw double, double of the female duck . . . one of my favorites of the day.

When I saw this shot, it reminded me of the scenes in Mary Poppins that mixed animation with live shots.  The log and turtle seemed to come out of the "drawing" of the tree and sky . . . You're probably right to think I need to tone down the imagination a little (just not too much!).


All of this fun and creativity packed into about an hour.  I love catching these kind of images.  This needs to be my job.