Here the beaver seems to be nonchalantly munching on a twig. But wait! Is a beaver, symbol of industriousness, ever nonchalant?
This is a custom home the beaver built or helped to build for the family. It’s located in a fine (for beavers, at least) southeastern Virginia neighborhood: The Great Dismal Swamp.
These four images may be the very last ones of penguins that I ever post! Have I said that before?
These penguins, mostly Gentoos, huddle together against the swirling sand of the Falkland Islands.
These stately King penguins are taking a stroll along the shore of South Georgia Island.
Can anyone figure out why this penguin is named a Chinstrap?
And last, but certainly not least, this King penguin chick is not yet ready to learn what will become its most amazing skill: swimming.
First it has to lose the hair!
The stories about huge crocodiles in northern Australia are not myths! I was glad to be safe inside a boat when this giant reptile swished by so effortlessly. He seemed to be unconcerned about us, possibly even unaware of us. But was he?
This coastal gorge along the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, Australia, is named after the English clipper ship Loch Ard that sank nearby in 1878. Of the 54 people aboard the clipper, only two nineteen-year-olds survived. Both of them floated in through the narrow opening in the distance.
To the right of the gorge opening and protected from the sea by its high walls, is this quiet cove with its waters lapping gently against the rock face and spilling silently onto shore.
Aside from the occasional larger-than-normal wave, this clever seagull has found nature’s perfect bird bath. The gull flapped around in the water enjoying a bath, then quickly ascended whenever a large wave came crashing in. This cycle was repeated over and over again.
I am keeping with the pond theme from my last post, but showing a more abstract image of very different sort of pond. The “flotilla” on this milky pond are fragments of the bubblings and churnings of nature at Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.
This field of mounds built by magnetic termites in northern Australia has the look and feel of a cemetery, especially in this image taken at dusk. The magnetic termites were given their name based on the belief at the time that that they lined up their mounds according to the earth’s magnetic field. However, it is now understood that these clever termites build the mounds according to the sun’s passage in such a way that the hot rays fall on the knife-like edges of the mound rather than on its broad face. I get a little nervous about termites in general thinking they are going to eat my house! I was relieved to learn that these creatures live on grasses and other vegetation as do many of the other termites in Australia.
