We went out for a walk on Scott Boulevard and saw a lot of yellow things. We were looking for Goldfinches. We saw mostly yellow flowers.
Compass flowers were everywhere. It looked like most of the flowers were facing east. However, it turns out that it’s the leaves that point east.
Black-eyed Susans competed with the Compass Flowers. Both made it more difficult to spot the male Goldfinches, which are brilliant yellow. We never got a snapshot or video of any of them, though we could see them flitting about at lightning speed.
We also saw a yellow airplane flying repeatedly around and around above fields and over the land surrounding Scott Boulevard. It seemed to be painted both yellow and black, raising the question of whether it’s linked to University of Iowa. It seemed to fly in ellipses from east to west and back. It was a mystery.
Later, my romanticizing imagination led me to think maybe the pilot was drawing a massive compass flower in the air, tracing the path of each petal.
Eventually, Sena said several times she thought the plane was crop dusting, which I pooh-poohed.
After we got back home, I took a close look at the videos I shot of the yellow plane. Using my video editing software, I could mitigate the camera shake artifact and sharpen the still images I got from the best clips.
I found one image which displayed a number on the tail, N942QC. The tail number is an alphanumeric code which identifies a specific airplane. I looked it up on the FAA Registry.
The plane was probably not drawing fanciful ellipses. It belongs to a company called Thompson Aero Inc, which operates in Amana, not far from Iowa City. It’s been in operation for 38 years. The business description says: “This organization primarily operates in the Crop Spraying Services business/industry within the Agricultural Services sector.”
Once again, Sena is right about the importance of mundanity.
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