OK, from the how high do birds fly files: Years back when I had my pilots license, I was tooling along with a friend and our wives in a Grumman Tiger at 6500 ft. We were halfway over Long Island sound at night when WHUMP, and I Mean WHUMP. Even strapped in I whacked my head on the canopy I jumped so hard. At first I thought we threw a jug (Blew a Cylinder). My friend Wayne, also a pilot was sure of it since he couldn't see a thing out his half of the windscreen. He thought it was engine oil. A quick glance at the instruments showed that wasn't the case, then I saw feathers & and one bird leg sticking out from under the front of the cowling. We landed uneventfully 20 minutes later and on inspection & clean up figured we hit a spotted owl. Half of the bird sliced itself under the cowling onto the cylinder and was actually half cooked, grill marks from the cooling fins included. The rest hit the windscreen. My friends wife was 6 months pregnant and said if that didn't cause a miscarriage, nothing would. Definitely one of those "It wasn't funny at the time". So if anyone asks you how high a Spotted owl can fly the answer is at least 6500' Rick Tejera President Editor SACnews Saguaro Astronomy Club Phoenix, Arizona saguaroastro@xxxxxxx www.saguaroastro.org -----Original Message----- From: az-observing-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:az-observing-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Andrew Cooper Sent: Tuesday, October 10, 2006 7:04 PM To: az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [AZ-Observing] Re: specks flying in formation It is surprising how high some critters get. When observing the Moon I often observe high altitude bats crossing the face, probably up a thousand feet or more. Apparently they are hunting moths that also get up there. Andrew Jennifer Polakis wrote: > Last night when we were watching the Pleiades get occulted, I noticed specks flying across the Moon. At first just one or two here and there I discounted them as floaters or dust or something, but they were soon followed by an entire gaggle ~maybe 30 or so in the standard V formation but still nothing more than just specks. I noticed a few more stragglers after that. So, I'm thinking probably some migrating geese or cranes? Did anyone else notice? We were using about 100x. If they were geese flying in front of the Moon, how far away do you think they were? > -- > See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and > please send personal replies to the author, not the list. > > > > -- Andrew Cooper ---------------------------------------------------- http://www.siowl.com -- See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and please send personal replies to the author, not the list. -- See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and please send personal replies to the author, not the list.