In the bird world, it’s usually the males who have the brightly colored plumage, while the females settle for drabber feathers and fuller figures. Such was the scene in our front yard the other day, when a scarlet male strutted across the lawn while his partner waited in the shadows, blending into the background and hopping about before joining him in flight. These grainy pictures don’t do them justice; their beauty cannot be captured or stilled. It’s a beauty that can only be experienced in fleeting form, the way most beauty exists only as a passing fancy.
