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21st March, 2022, 4:46 pm
I saw a burrowing dragon in my yard! Perforonae Andontus. I only managed to get a photo of it's tail, but I don't care, I'm so excited! I've seen flashes of them around the neighbourhood before, but never one so close. It's the right season for the females to be hunting for a good place to dig their warrens, so it might have just been passing through- I hope that isn't the case though. I hope she loves our garden and digs her burrow here and stays forever- though, I don't think my family would like that much. I wouldn't be surprised if Dad called animal services to relocate it if that happened. The middle of our suburb probably isn't the best place for a nest of any kind, anyway.
When I move out I'm going to live right on the edge of a huge forest, where tons of different dragons live right on my doorstep. And I'll keep a huge garden full of plants the local species like- lots of flowers and fruits to attract prey, or huge trees to drop plenty of twigs for their nests- I guess it would depend where exactly I go. Burrowing dragons live pretty much everywhere in Australia, from what I know, maybe I should find where they're the most common. I can't imagine my future garden without them.
2nd April, 2022, 5:07pm
I almost forgot that I started this blog- oops! But when I saw this dragon today, I remembered my last update here- I saw the Perforonae Andontus again in my yard!!! She was in the strawberry patch again, and again I only got a photo of her tail. This time it was my fault though, I sat and watched her eat a whole strawberry before I got out my phone, way too slow for a good shot.
It's been a little while since I saw her last, so I'm pretty sure she hasn't settled anywhere nearby. Or maybe she still hasn't decided on the perfect spot for her future family and she's reconsidering the spacious yard with the delicious red snacks. Most likely she has started at least a shallow burrow somewhere within flying distance and she just stopped by for a snack. I looked it up and apparently strawberries can keep growing all the way through autumn, so maybe she'll keep stopping by for a little while. I hope so. I could probably use some company over the school holiday.
My biology teacher got mad at me for drawing dragons on my classwork, so I've started bringing a sketchbook to all my classes. She said I need to pay attention while she's speaking, but I swear I'm the only one who actually gets any work done in her class. Maybe she just doesn't like that I spend the whole time talking to- well, I probably shouldn't put her name online. I guess me and my friend can be a little loud, but we also actually finish all of the worksheets unlike everyone else. I don't know why she had to pick out me of everyone- aren't dragons scientific anyway? That barely even counts as a distraction, right? They are animals, even if ones no one thinks much of anymore. Maybe I should tell her that next time she complains- although, she probably won't, since I'm not drawing on my work anymore. Oh well.
June 4th, 2022, 8:32 pm
Again I forgot about this blog! I'll have to update the art page too, I've done a load more drawings. I got a photo of a dragon again in my yard again, this time out the front. It was only a gliding dragon though- I've seen the burrowing dragon a few times but never long enough to get another photo. I know she's been in the yard when Dad kicks up a fuss about having to reorganise the garden bed, she likes to dig up the plants to test the soil underneath. I tried to explain to him that she's just looking for a place to nest, but he didn't seem to like that idea .
I've been having a lot of fun messing around with my sketchbook, I always thought you needed a ton of fancy art supplies to make something look cool but I've just been using whatever I can get my hands on and it's looking pretty good so far! I think I'm a bit proud of it? I mean I don't think any of my friends would be interested in it, they always seem annoyed when I'm drawing while we chat. I guess they've never complained, but they shouldn't have to, right? It's common courtesy, or whatever. I do like drawing though, sometimes it feels like my fingers get all itchy if I can't draw an idea I've had. Is that weird? It sounds weird. Maybe I just described it wrong.
One time I saw a bull dragon at the zoo, and it itched its face with its wing. I bet quadrupedal animals like cows would love to have an extra set of limbs to scratch their faces. All they can do is swing their tail around and hope flies won't sit on them.
Bull dragons are interesting because they don't seem at first glance to be tridactyls (like burrowing dragons are!), but that's because their 'foot' bones evolved into hooves. If you look at their skeletons, especially compared to a mammalian bull, it becomes a lot more obvious. Though, looking at their wings it becomes a lot clearer even on a live dragon, you can clearly see the long 'fingers'.
Oh, tridactyl means 'three fingered' if you didn't know- humans and most other animals are polydactyls or 'five fingered', even animals that don't actually have fingers at all, like whales! They have five sets of 'finger' bones inside their flippers! They're left over from when they were the same ancestor they share with hippos. Isn't that incredible? For some reason a few species of dragons evolved to have only three fingers, though most of them are extinct now- maybe those facts are related, haha. Even dragons like the gliding dragon have five claws, even though one of them is a smaller dew claw. I read somewhere that dew claws aren't vestigial though, they're actually very useful in animals like cats to climb both up and down trees without losing their grip- I bet the same goes for gliding lizards!
June 20th, 2022, 5:27pm
Goddamnit! I had the perfect opportunity to get a good photo of her, our resident burrow dragon, but my stupid phone wouldn't focus on her! She was staring right at me for what felt like forever, but by the time I could adjust the camera she was already gone. I hardly even got a good look at her- though I think she took a good look at me, at least. I hope she knows I'm not a threat to her or her nest wherever it is. Do you think that dragons can smell how you're feeling, like dogs can? Burrowing dragons have an exceptional sense of smell, though it isn't quite as strong as a dog's.
That reminds me, my friends were talking about what kind of pets they want to get today. Everyone was arguing over if cats or dogs were better, and then all the dog people started arguing over which breed is the best. I didn't really get a say because the only pet I would want is a dragon, but apparently exotic pets don't count for some reason? I know one girl in our grade has a pet cockatoo and no one thinks that's odd- birds and dragons both evolved from dinosaurs, doesn't make them equally cool? Or at least equally not-weird? Whatever.
I don't actually know what kind of dragon I would want to have, if I did have a pet one. I think when I was younger I asked my parents for every single possible species of dragon at some point, I don't remember what reasons they gave against keeping each one. Clearly none of them were suitable pet material though, because the only animal they went and bought was our smelly old cat. Ok, he isn't really that bad, he was pretty fun to play with when I was younger, but now he's going grey and can't quite jump onto the couch to sit with you unless you give him a lot of encouragement.
Our old Darcy could be a lot worse though, I know cats are one of the biggest predator of suburban dragons, an d our old man has always been an indoor cat for exactly that reason. I remember Dad protested this at first, saying something along the lines of "What about his natural instincts?" but Mum responded "Then you can clean up the mess he makes bringing in the 'natural environment' for dinner!" He laughed and changed his mind pretty fast on that one. Or maybe I'm thinking of something that happened in a sit-com we watched together, or maybe it happened while we were watching tv and talking about getting Darcy? It was too long ago to remember.
