Our friends, Karen & Wayne are making their trek
back south and heading home from visiting their family and friends in the
northern states. It works out, that they can spend a few days relaxing at Jackie’s
house on Conesus Lake. They arrived late on Friday night, so fun began on
Saturday morning!
We were lucky to get glimpses of the Geneseo Air
Show right from her deck and front yard! No need to walk along the flight line
late in the afternoon heat at the National Warplane Museum in Geneseo. Many of
the pilots are World War II veterans who served as gunners or pilots in the
European Theater. I am sure for these soldiers, the airshow brings back a flood
of memories, some are good and some are sad. W7 is the most famous plane from
the National Warplane Museum!
The service of these area of soldiers are remembered
during the July 13 and 14 airshow, known as “The Greatest Show on Turf.” It features
an array of vintage warbirds – P-51s, Corsairs, B-25 bombers – and a
demonstration of a contemporary fighter, the A-10 Thunderbolt II. A sense of
history and an awe of flight, particularly among vintage warbirds flying
decades and decades after their service to our country, is what draws many eyes
to the air.
An A-10C Thunderbolt II, is not the sleekest
looking airframe in America’s arsenal. The plane’s ungainly appearance includes
a snub nose with a giant 30mm cannon, a large bubble canopy sitting forward of
the plane’s wings, and twin turbofan engines mounted above and behind the
cockpit, hardly the look of other fighter jets with pointy nose cones and
low-profile cockpits. The A-10 is nicknamed the “Warthog,” as much for its
appearances as its toughness and lethal performance in combat. In an aerobatic
demonstration, it highlights a jet so quick and nimble it can complete a 360-degree
turn in an area about the size of a football field, while only several hundred
feet above the ground. The A10 flies as fast as it could go (more than 500
mph), as slow as it could go and pulled as many g-forces as possible (more than
7 Gs) put the plane through a series of Cuban Eight rolls, split S turns that
quickly change direction, and double aileron rolls (a 360-degree revolution on
the plane’s longitudinal axis). They also took the jet upside down.
Geneseo is the only New York appearance this year
for the Arizona-based team. They are the public affairs arm of the Air Force.
It’s just one of the tools they use to engage the public. Their mission is to
recruit, inspire and retain airmen in the Air Force. The A-10 Demonstration
Team, based at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona, consists of one pilot,
one superintendent, a non-commissioned officer-in-charge, three crew chiefs and
specialists for avionics systems, aerospace propulsion systems, electrical and
environmental systems, and public affairs. The team originally consisted of two
east and west counterparts before both were deactivated in 2011 when budget
cuts grounded many of the military services’ demonstration teams. The A-10 team
flew in heritage flight formations alongside vintage warbirds in 2012 and 2017
before reactivating as a single-ship demonstration in 2018. The team will
perform at about 25 events this year, having already flown at the Indianapolis
500.
A breeding female and a breeding male Goldfinch
feeding at the neighbor’s feeder. Adult males in spring and early summer are
bright yellow with black forehead, black wings with white markings, and white
patches both above and beneath the tail. The breeding females are a duller
yellow under an olive drab. These are active and acrobatic little finches that
cling to weeds and seed socks, and sometimes mill about in large numbers at
feeders or on the ground beneath them. Goldfinches fly with a bouncy,
undulating pattern and often call in flight, drawing attention to themselves.
Charlie and Wayne found the planes and the birds very
interesting! Yeah, right!
Putting up a Purple Martin house is like installing
a miniature neighborhood in your backyard. In the East, dark, glossy-blue males
and brown females will peer from the entrances and chirp from the rooftops all
summer. The largest swallows, Purple Martins perform aerial acrobatics to snap
up flying insects. At the end of the breeding season they gather in big flocks
and make their way to South America.
Despite the term "scout" used for the
first returning Purple Martins, the first arriving individuals are not checking
out the area to make sure it is safe for the rest of the group. They are the
older martins returning to areas where they nested before. Martins returning
north to breed for their first time come back several weeks later. The earlier
return of older individuals is a common occurrence in species of migratory
birds.
The geese are diving. What are they diving for? Geese
are known to graze on terrestrial vegetation found in fields or on aquatic
vegetation that they obtain by dabbling or upending in shallow water.
These guys are less than 5 feet from shore, where
the water is shallow and if the land owners don’t have a mat in the water,
there is ample vegetation to snack on!
We enjoyed a great evening, including dinner at Yard of Ale, in Piffard with Jim, Jackie, Karen, and Wayne.
Most would say this is a seagull, they are mostly correct … it is a Western Gull. This one is getting ready for its “first winter.” You can tell by the lighter clove-brown head and body, but head, throat, and breast lighter and more streaked. Back and wings dark, with light edgings to feathers, Bill black with pale base. Legs are gray with pink overtones. Eyes dark brown. One is standing look-out, the other one is content to roost on the cover to the boat.
Nothing beats the sun starting to set and the colors
in the sky over the lake!
I do love me some sunsets!
We never say good bye … just see you later!
