23 July, 2017            Guest “bird” photographer – Mediterranean Sea – 1959

Here are a few “birds” my late father photographed while aboard the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga (CVA 60) in the Mediterranean Sea in 1959:

Foreground: F3H Demon
Middle: Line of Douglas A-1 Skyraiders
Rear: A4 sitting on catapult

After Dad died in 2012 we found a lot – 10,000 as it turns out – of old slides in his basement. They didn’t cross any of our minds at the time. When Mom died earlier this year we began cleaning up and found them. I began to poke through them not long ago and found this:

Box of slides my Dad took almost 58 years ago:

They’re photographs my Dad took fifty-eight years ago! This was a couple of summers before I was born. It says “October” on the box because that’s when he got home and had them developed, I’m thinking. I put that slide plus six more from that series on a page attached to this blog. There is a link to it below the banner at the top of this page, or you can click here and see it: USS Saratoga (CVA 60)  

A few pictures of my usual stuff (it’s early summer and it’s hot) then one more of Dad’s. There were still killdeers at the Y this week:

Killdeer in the grass on the northern edge of the parking lot at the Tuckahoe YMCA:

And I can’t let a week go by (hopefully) without a Red-tail picture. This one is a regular, on a cell phone tower in the parking lot between the Westbury Apothecary and the Divine Faith Child Care & Learning Center:

The obligatory Red-tailed hawk:

A lovely magnolia blooming so close to our driveway that I can lean my head through my open car window and stick my nose in it:

Magnolia that’s been greeting me as I get in and out of my car this week

If I put up an obligatory Red-tail photo I also have to put up an obligatory dogs-at-Pony-Pasture-this-morning photo. I apologize for the finger smear on my iphone lens:

Mackey, Turner and Yuki hike the Wetlands at Pony Pasture this morning

If you find errors in this blog post, it’s because I put my editor on this train at about 6:45 Thursday morning and she’s not home yet!:

Early morning at the Amtrak station

The river this morning:

Any way you look at it, the James River is lovely

One more picture Dad took at in 1959. Take a look at the Saratoga link to see a few more if you like planes or aircraft carriers; here is the link one more time: USS Saratoga (CVA 60). Last plane, last picture for this week:  

USS Saratoga, CVA 60
McDonnell F3H-2 Demon of Fighter Squadron VF-31 
Mediterranean Sea
1959

Have a great week, all best,

Jay