petermorwood:

highfist:

brainbubblegum:

morrissarty:

wildanimalwildperson:

I do not own these pics. They were sent to me in an email. But I thought I’d share with you all because they’re just AMAZING.

DRAGONS

I feel so stupid I didn’t know they could fly, I thought they were like CHICKENS, I never questioned it because these pictures never circulate, I am WAY OVER MY HEAD.

Das a phoenix not a dragon. Obviously.

Birds like peacocks may be the real-world inspiration for mythological creatures. Here’s a silent, slo-mo clip of one flying down from a roof. If you’d never seen a peacock before, and your first encounter was one flying across a clearing with the sun behind it and nothing for scale, thinking it was a phoenix or firebird or dragon would make sense.

I read something a long time back suggesting the noise made by mute swans in flight was a similar basis for myth, because it does NOT sound like wings beating.

Watch and listen to a brief solo overflight here. as one swan takes off to avoid another’s aggressive territorial behaviour.

(@dduane and I call its neck-back wings-up posture with bow wave “The Trireme”. NB - If a swan heads for you looking like that, leave. Quickly.)

Here’s the sound of five mute swans flying together (found on the website Xeno-Canto, bird calls from all over the world).

Again, these are wingbeats, not voices. If you heard that sound at dawn or dusk 1000 years ago, what story would you tell about it - the Children of Lir mourning their lost humanity, perhaps?