#willdlife

Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge, Gateway Rd, Commerce City, Colorado, USA

Dragons are real

The Americas have their Great blue heron, here in the Old World lives the near identical Grey. Outside of large cities, where boldness is a virtue, they are shy birds. Always keeping their distance, and getting a clear look at one is synonymous with them taking wing for our gaze disturbs them. They are usually seen as a grey ghost out the fields, or heard as a rough squawk in the evening when something has disturbed their peace.

Only caught in fleeting glimpses it is easy to pass them off as dreary drab birds. But in fact they possess a delicate beauty to those who look closer, and with unexpected colours too in the right time of year. And when their hackles raise, yellow eyes burning as the wind takes hold of their long black crest, they look for all the world like dragons come to life.

Papilio Glaucus and Thistle