Artifacts of my Father's War Experience

 My father, Richard L A Sterba, was a navigator and bombardier on a B-17 during the Second World War. He served with the 301st BG, 353rd Squadron and was stationed in North Africa and later Italy. My dad flew more than 400 missions and only stopped because he got shot down over Yugoslavia and was smuggled to safety by the Yugoslavian underground. The Air Corps' policy was not to send people out again after such an experience in case he should be captured on a future mission and tortured and thus might put those valiant resistors in danger, so they pulled him back to California for the last few months of the war to be an advisor for Hollywood war films. As we age we have to go through our parents' estates, which seem to comprise an awful lot of papers and I wanted to include a couple interesting ones here. 

For example, this is a leaflet in Hungarian asking the people if their consciences are clear. The bombers would drop these to try and encourage resistance against the Nazis.:

                                       

Today I happened upon a poem written by my father about what those bomber missions felt like and I wanted to put it out on the web, because it is not only a historic document, but because I am sure it will resonate with others wh have had similar experiences.

                         

A Little Birding during Warbler Season

We have a little birding group that has developed as the warblers have been coming through on their way to Canada.  (Click on the image below to enlarge them and see just the pictures! ;-). )

I have never been particularly good at bird photography because I am unwilling to lug around a tripod, but I still love to post pictures of what I see.  We headed off to a little park along their Mississippi River and were fortunate to see the Cedar Waxwings migrating en masse.

They are lovely birds with the dramatic yellow stripe at their tail bottoms.

I am not sure what some of these birds are, and of course I didn't capture a lot of the ones we saw, but I'll post the ones that might be recognizable.

This is a hairy wood pecker. I know them, because we have them at home!

We watched him looking for dinner.

Here is the intrepid birding team!

Way across the river there was a bald eagle surveying his territory.

I was also fortunate to capture a shot of this yellow-throated warbler.

I have no idea what this one is!

This is not the same bird, but may be the same kind!

This week we went camping at Glacial Lakes Park and got a chance to see a different cast of characters!

We had heard red starts at the on the other trip, but I had been un able to get a picture of any.

We seemed to be camping on this guy's territory so I had many opportunities (but of course I still didn't get a crisp shot!)

There Mississippi is a beautiful river, so no wonder it attracts so much wild life.

Early on our first walk after  setting up our tents we saw this scarlet tanager.

There were also lots of wildflowers in bloom. These white ones are tiny, but so pretty! I guess they are common chickweed (stellaria media).

I don't know what this bird is. Could be a Phoebe or a cat bird, I guess.

I got very excited when I saw this yellow flower, because I thought it was a wallflower, but it turns out it has 5 petals instead of the 4 of the brassica family, so I guess it is an evening primrose.

This region is dominated by gigantic and gorgeous bur oaks. They have fringy acorns, but are best known for the beautiful ridgy patterns in their bark.

Here is a better idea of what the landscape of the area looks like. there are numerous lakes formed by (disappeared) glaciers.

Hunting time!

Somebody found some dinner!

Our campsite was lovely a combination of shade and sun and we were accompanied by the music of the redstarts as we (Not me I was lazy) prepared dinner.

The next morning we had a lovely walk. We used Merlin to identify birds from their song and I was lucky to catch this yellow throat as he took a rest between serenades.

I was overjoyed to capture this little guy - a ruby crowned Kinglet. They are a common bird, but they flit around so furiously that I rarely have a chance to get a good view, let alone a picture of them.

I find the white around the eye quite fetching.

This is a fuzzy shot, but I love the exuberance of it!

I don't have a good view of this songster, but here is another shot.

 

 

 

This yellow warbler also sang to us.

It was nice of him to choose bare branches for a rest.

I believe this is probably a thrush, but I never got to see the head.

Here is another little songster, possibly a red poll, but more likely a chipping sparrow!

I think this one is a red-eyed vireo (and immature one that hasn't developed the red eye yet). We heard its song repeatedly, but couldn't definitively locate one.

This seems like an idyllic image to end with!