It's a bird ... it's a plane ... it's a

So where do I begin?

Let me tell you about those strange things in the sky.  Actually there are several peculiar things over head and maybe it was the sounds I was hearing at first more than what I saw.  First there was a small airplane circling above.  Engine at full throttle, it began climbing rapidly in a wide circle above.  Around it went, rising higher and higher until I lost sight of it.  My attention waned and I continued my slide into a partial nap while slightly reclined in my chair next to the picnic table outside.

Almost asleep, this odd little sound appeared from above ... not one, not two but a string of puffs of noise that reminded me of someone snapping the wrinkles out of a bed sheet after taking them off the clothes line.  ( I know many of you are far too young to remember but before clothes dryers, people actually hung their clothes outside on a line to dry).  Pooft ... pooft ... pooft ... pooft ... and on it went.  Apparently it was just enough sound that it brought me back to consciousness and I opened my eyes.  Directly above, maybe five thousand feet or so, was a line of skydivers.  The colorful formation of parachutes, eight in total, began forming a huge, but ever dimensioning circle above and were slowly descending.  Now I've been to enough air shows and county fairs to have seen skydivers before but this was almost like it was a personal show just for me.  Our camp is out in the country a bit with few people around and there I was, half awake, head tilted back, a bright blue Texas sky and I was getting my own private skydiving show.  Pretty neat.  As it turned out they slowly drifted further north, landing near a small private airport about a half of mile from me.  But before long another plane repeated the experience this time dropping off four jumpers this time.  By then I found my binoculars and enjoyed the show up close.  This went on for another hour or so ... then I drifted off to sleep again.  Life is good.

I'm not much of a bird watcher but out here in central Texas there a good number of big birds flying around.  Sort of like UAV's (unmanned aerial vehicles),  they float around on the thermal currents looking things to do and probably eat.  A couple zoomed over the other day that forced me to get out the 'bird book' to help identify these large black with white wing tipped critters.  The locals would have had a laugh it I had asked about them as they are pretty common down here but these turkey vultures were interesting to watch.  Not as colorful as skydivers but they do keep the road kill cleaned up.

The next and final aerial mystery happened when we were at the local pecan farm buying some of the delicious native nuts.  BTW there are lots of pecans grown around here and the season is short so we try to stock up.  Anyway we were just leaving the pecan store and I could hear a helicopter flying very close.  It was tightly circling just about the scrub brush across the road when all of a sudden there was gunfire nearby.  Lots of high caliber gun fire.  It was so close you could see it was a shooter hanging out to open side door of the helicopter blasting away. Puffs of smoke from each round fired was silhouetted against the bright blue sky.  Needless to say lots of things were going through my mind as this was all taking place.  Strangely taking cover wasn't one of them but getting closer to see what was happening.  I opened the door to the store and asked the clerk what in the world was going on and he said they were probably shooting wild pigs.  Apparently these ornery little tusked critters like to eat pecans and make a mess of the ground surrounding the nut trees so they were not well liked here in pecan country.

Relieved that they were not shooting at people but pigs, we hopped into the car and looked for a way to get a closer look.  I quickly located a small road leading to a series of building adjacent to the field where all the shooting was going on.  As we approached the building the copter swung around our way, low to the ground with the open door (and gunner) away from us but heading for the barn as we were.
 

We arrived at about the same time as the copter did and as it sat down a person dressed in all black and welding an M4 style semi-automatic emerged from the open door.  One of the ground personnel approached and took the gun and the shooter took off their helmet.  Out from under that menacing black helmet flowed locks of long blond hair.  A women?  Just then another young woman approached our car and wanted to know what we wanted.  I explained my curiosity and said I wrote a travel blog and thought this might make an interesting story.  She was the marketing director of the outfit providing the helicopter and training that satisfied the requirements to license people to shoot things from helicopters here in Texas.  As it turns out, todays trainees were all from a women's shooting club in Austin who each had paid $350 each for the 4 hour training session and live fire helicopter ride.  So the ladies weren't shooting at pigs but at human like targets placed in the brush.  Bet you don't say no to one of these gals if they ask you out on a date.

I guess shooting pigs from the air is a sought after sport, but somewhat costly to undertake.  I was also told that any pigs taken were usually donated to the local food bank so some additional good comes from this unique way of hunting.  I also think the outfit probably trains law enforcement sharpshooters as well but she didn't volunteer that information.  I asked the marketing girl if I could return at a later date and take some pictures and she gave me her number and suggested I give her a call when I could come out.

And so it goes.  Continuing to seek out the weird and unusual while still livin' the dream.

Phil