When the Light Fades

When the Light FadesSerengeti National Park, Tanzania We had been waiting with them for some time. Three siblings motionless on ancient granite, still deep in the boneless sleep that lions carry through the heat of the day. The light had been changing around them for an hour, the sky slowly draining into that blue that is not quite dusk, not quite dark, pressing down over the plain with a kind of held breath. And then, almost imperceptibly, something shifted. Two still

Atlantic puffins return to the same burrow every breeding season

The one being groomed has its eyes closed

not yet fully committed to the pattern they will carry for life

He raised dust with each step and held his ears like wings and for a moment the morning belonged entirely to him

that we deserved a proper introduction

total way that only apex predators can afford

That is what the books say

I did not do anything clever to make this image

What came next was the oldest sleight of hand in the bush

Neither seems to give it much thought

there was nothing but mist

she had climbed