First Cardinal Flower bloom

I spent most of the day writing and trying to arrange interviews, so I had to postpone any walking until after supper when it was nearly twilight. As I hiked downhill towards the millpond, the Wood Thrushes were putting on a concert and a few Bullfrogs were moaning out their mating and territorial calls. I was hoping that I might sneak up undetected on either a Great Blue Heron—there's plenty of evidence... OK, heron poop... on the rocks to show that at least one is roosting by the dam at night—or on one of those mystery crepuscular dragonflies, and come away with a picture. In their absence I came up with something else. The first Cardinal Flower of the year, which has been displaying increasingly fat buds, now has flowers. They're so intense that even I, the red-green colorblind naturalist and photographer, can see them. They're dazzling to me. I wonder what they must be like to someone with good eyes.