Song of Sunset – Thursday’s Special and Michelle’s Weekly Pet Roundup

A strip of water’s spread in the setting sun,
Half the river’s emerald, half is red.
I love the third night of the ninth month,
The dew is like a pearl; the moon like a bow.

~ Bai Juyi 
Song of Sunset on the River

Great blue heron standing in water falling at sunset.

Great blue herons at waterfalls have been a recurring theme in my blog. For example, the post at the link here features a heron dwarfed by towering, rushing, rippling tendrils of water flowing over a dam: Great Blue Heron Fishing in Waterfall.

The photo in today’s post shows the same waterfall and the same great blue heron as the link above.

Most of the time, the heron could be seen actively fishing at the base of the falls, retrieving fish unlucky enough to have been swept over.

Sometimes, the heron could be seen perched in a stand of trees just downstream, preening and even sleeping.

And sometimes, some special times, the heron would stand atop the dam, with the water rushing over his feet and stare off into the distance at the colors of the setting sun.

Those were magical moments to share, heron and human.

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The waterfall photos, including this one, were all taken with a 35mm camera, in my own pre-digital era. I could have punched up the saturation on today’s photo give it some pizzazz, but that would be wrong.

The experience was subtle and lilting, if a sunset sky can be described as lilting, and I wanted to share it just the way it was as twilight overcame sunlight entirely that evening, sublime and still.

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Thanks to Paula and WordPress for the Thursday’s Special Non-Challenge Challenge nudge.

And thanks also to Michelle for the Weekly Pet Challenge Roundup prompt.

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(This took place May 2005)

© 2013 Babsje. (https://babsjeheron.wordpress.com)