John & Dale Stokes, owners of S.O.A.R. here at Lookout Mountain, put on 3 shows a day for the people that visit Rock City, Monday thru Friday's. They have a great blogspot also, and they are listed in my index to the right, Save our American Raptors. They did me a huge favor when Wendy's folks where in town for a visit, so to repay them I took some picture for them. I am still editing,cropping,etc... to make them the best that I can so that they may use some of them for their show. During the time that they are not here, they are very busy going all over the country doing shows for Schools, and other community activities. If you know of a school that needs something very entertaining, and a educational presentation,,, their show can't be beat !
Here are a couple of pictures of their bird friends.
Can you count the number of thermals that you have shared with this birds brothers & sisters? The red-tailed hawk is very hard to keep up with !
This picture is VERY deceitful. Looks like a normal Bald Eagle at first glance, huh?! !
Well, Atsa Yazhi is not. I really hope that the hunters that did this,,,,,is prosecuted to the full extent of the law(if not worse!) This is positively the saddest looking picture that I have ever taken. This is the second Eagle that I know of, that this has happened to. The first one that they had, Osceola, is now doing the shows at Dollywood. You should really read about that bird(Google it!). John even had a harness made for her, and took her hang gliding sometimes. Now that is a great sight to see !
They allowed me to hold her for a little while that day. What a majestic being. It was the first time for me to be this close to one of these great soaring machines. I have thermalled with a couple of them, just to be left in a puff of wispy cloud dust. Of course, their wing-loading is a little better than mine, so I have an excuse(not).
There was a little bit of clarity, and kinship while I was watching the show. It was quite windy that day, and partly cloudy, with cummies everywhere. I caught the hawk & the eagle doing exactly what I had been doing most of the morning. I had been looking at the sky and feeling the wind. I like to think that during those brief moments, we were of one mind. We were both wanting to Touch the Sky ! I have NO doubt that Di Vinci was correct.
Unfortunately, none of them will ever be able to feel free flight again.
I guess if I had one word that describes me best, it would have to be~~ birdwannabe !

While holding this beautiful creature,,one thought kept creeping into my head,,wonder if it's going to bite my face off? & I think my nose is bigger than his, gessshhhh

The next couple of days looks like it is going to be stellar, if it doesn't OD tomorrow afternoon. With it forecasting 51% humidity on Saturday, and 40% on Sunday,,,imho, it won't happen(keeping fingers crossed).

Saturday looks like a Lookout day (330 degrees, about 8 on the surface), and Sunday looks like a Henson's day (360 degrees, about 10-15).

Saturday should be a great day to stay in the fishbowl and play for a while. I need to get use to this new GT race harness. I just stepped up from an High Energy, which I've had for almost 15 years. Thank goodness for Dennis Pagan and his informative articles. You can always count on that guy to publish something for every need in our great sport. The article that he just had in the magazine about stepping up to a higher performance harness was right on time ! Thanks!

Sunday looks like a great day to try the run from Henson's back to Lookout, down the beautiful Sequatchie Valley ! I've never made it the whole way, who knows,,,,maybe on Sunday. 1st for everything.

News at 11