Whirly-Bird Roost

Last January, while visiting the kids and Evie in Colorado Springs, we took a day-trip to Pueblo, CO. Among the activities that day was a stop at the Pueblo Weisbrod Aircraft Museum, next to the airport.

For those who've not been, it's pretty good. A lot of neat stuff is inside a large hangar, with larger vehicles parked outside in an enclosed yard. Among them was this Piasecki H-21 Shawnee. After Piasecki left his namesake company in 1956, it was renamed Vertol. Boeing later acquired Vertol in 1960.

The H-21, also called the "Flying Banana," is one of those funky twin-rotor helicopters. The successful CH-46 Sea Knights and CH-47 Chinooks were further developments of that basic design.

While the H-21 is pretty neat to shoot by itself, this pigeon resting on the aft rotor hub made me laugh. Yes, I know, I'm easily amused, but it tickled my fancy. I liked the idea of a feathered wing resting on a metal wing (the helicopter's blades are essentially rotating wings); the animate at peace with the inanimate. It seemed so...lyric. Especially with the way the bird looked at me in this shot. It's almost like he's saying, "what?"