Rainy Day Tornado

 It was a cold and rainy day and I didn't really feel like going out to take pictures.  I had a few ship opportunities but I spent most of the weekend on the road.  I'm gonna be on the road tomorrow, so I decided to take a break.

That is a good day to bring out one of my diecast aircraft for a few pictures.

Today it was the Panavia Tornado.

The Tornado was a join venture between British Aerospace of the UK, Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blohm of Germany (west Germany at the time) and Aeritalia of Italy.  It was designed to be a twin-engined, multirole swing wing combat aircraft.

It was operated by the Royal Air Force, the Luftwaffe, Italian Air Force and the Royal Saudi Air Force.  It saw heavy use during Desert Storm, the Bosnian War, the Kosovo War and the Libyan War.  

It had a crew of two.  Had nearly 17,000 pounds of thrust and could carry almost 20,000 pounds of ordinance.  It had the capability of reaching Mach 2.  The plane first flew in 1974 and was introduced in service in 1979.  The Royal Air Force retired their fleet in 2019.  The rest still use them.

Spot the Turkey

 After getting some pictures of the Alpena, I decided to head a bit north.  Ended up on Michigan Highway 61.  Granted it is not the one made famous by Bob Dylan, I still can't help thinking about the song.

As I was driving along, I saw some turkeys.  Unfortunately, they saw me and as my camera was ready, they were in the brush.  So, spot the turkey.

The Alpena Unloads in Essexville

 I saw that the Alpena was heading to Essexville today.  There wasn't much else going on, so I decided to head up there.  Since I'd rather listen to the game on the radio than watch it on TV, that was no big loss to me.  I also wanted to give my drone a little work out.

She was docked in the normal place and the lighting was pretty decent, so I was happy.

Pulled the drone out but the wind was a little stronger than it seemed but the drone was doing fine.  Just had to pay attention a little more.

Got a little altitude.

I like this angle.

Getting a beam shot.  One of the things I like about using the drone with ships that are docked is that I can experiment with different angles.

I think I like this one too.

Probably my favorite angle because it's enough of a bow shot and it gives an idea of size.

Looking from above, this was about as far up as I could go.

Pulled out.

Back to the quarter shot.

From the front.

With altitude.

Another side shot.

My favorite of the day.

A bow shot.

Heading back.

I like this shot too.

I went over to the park to get some shots with my regular camera.

I think I like this the best.

One more before moving on.

Catching a Juvenile Red Tailed Hawk

 I went up to my cousin's for a Christmas dinner.  Today was pretty much the only day that everyone could meet, so we had it today.  It was pretty nice to see my cousins and the meal was pretty good.

I decided to take River Road the rest of the way up.  It runs along the Saginaw River.  Occasionally I will see freighters or wildlife.

I knew I wasn't going to see any freighters, so I was banking on seeing some wildlife.  I saw an eagle as I first turned onto River Road.  He flew away as soon as I got my camera out.

As I was continuing up, I saw this guy land.  I stopped and got out to take some pictures of him.

Apparently it is a juvenile red tailed hawk.

It was pretty cool to see and I'm fairly happy with the pictures.

And then it flew away.

Catching the Tregurtha on the Rouge River

 I saw that the Lee A. Tregurtha was going to make her way up the Rouge River.  I like catching ships on the Rouge, so I headed over that way.

The Lee A. Tregurtha was heading down from Marquette.

She had a load of taconite.

And she was delivering that load to the Rouge Steel Mill.

I stopped at a little park that is next to the Fort Street Bridge.  I decided that I wanted to use my drone here.

I was trying different angles with my drone.  I kind of like it a little lower.

She gets closer.

I think I like this shot.  It's fairly well balanced.

I decided to raise my drone up.

Looking down on the ship.

Another shot.

It's amazing watching these ships come through the Rouge River.  It doesn't seem like they have enough space.

I really like this shot.  You can see the Detroit skyline off in the distance.

So then I headed over to the Dix Avenue Bridge.

I think this is one of my favorite places to shot on the Great Lakes.

The neighborhood is a little rough but it's pretty industrial, so probably safe.

The water was almost smooth enough for a reflection.

You can see the bow thruster symbol in the water, sort of.

I've said it before but I really like the scrubbers that have been installed on these ships.  The steam from them make them look like steamships again.

She gets a little closer.

You can see a little bit of the bridge here.

A shot of her pilothouse.

She comes out on the other side.

The water seemed a little smoother on this side.

One of her hatches.  These hatches all have standard dimensions so that they can pull up to almost any loading dock.  Giant chutes come over and deposit the ore in them.

Her Plimsoll lines.

A gangway.

I never noticed this sign before.

Her work boat.

Her stack.  All ships have unique stack markings.

A shot of her stern.

Old Glory in all her glory on Thanksgiving afternoon.

She makes the turn for her slip.

As I said, it was smoother on this side, so you could see the reflections better.

Probably my favorite shot on the lakes.

She makes the turn with Old Glory flapping in the breeze.

And one more shot before heading home.