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‘The mountains are calling’
‘The mountains are calling’
Mountains matter—that’s the message from the United Nations for International Mountain Day, observed on December 11. More than half the world’s population relies on mountains for fresh water, food, and clean energy. When mountain ecosystems are threatened by climate change and land degradation, it endangers not just plants and animals, but also the people who depend on mountains to survive. Here at Mount Kilimanjaro, viewed from Chyulu Hills National Park in neighboring Kenya, the peak’s shrinking glaciers and ice fields are being closely monitored by scientists.Desktop Version
A peek at an explosive peak
A peek at an explosive peak
We"re looking at Lassen Peak, a volcano also known as Mount Lassen, and its reflection in Manzanita Lake. This stunning scene can be found in Northern California"s Lassen Volcanic National Park, which was established on this day in 1916. The volcano erupted between 1914 and 1917 (with some activity as late as 1921), but these days the surrounding area is a calm destination of trails, lakes, and stark lava beds. One of the least visited parks, Lassen was the first national park in California to fully reopen after being closed for COVID-19, although it implemented some restrictions to park services and facilities. The park also includes acres of mud pots, hot springs, steam vents, and fumaroles to remind you of the heat that"s below you, including Boiling Springs Lake—one of the largest boiling lakes in the world at over 500 feet wide.Desktop Version
Travel Sunday: On the Ganges in Varanasi, India
Travel Sunday: On the Ganges in Varanasi, India
These floating candles are part of the Ganga Aarti ceremony, a nightly Hindu ritual here in Varanasi, which is a holy city for followers of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism, all of which are ancient religions of India. Tourists join congregants who gather at the river’s edge as practitioners make offerings of light to the goddess Ganga, the river’s namesake. In addition to Varanasi’s religious significance, this diverse city in North India also draws tourists for its ornate temples, silks, and archaeological sites.Desktop Version
Across the great plains of Africa
Across the great plains of Africa
This time of year, from late January to early March, babies arrive on the Serengeti. At the height of the wildebeest calving season, thousands of calves are born every day. Moments after birth, these youngsters can walk, and in just a few days, they"ll be able to run fast enough to keep up with the herd. That"s a good thing. Calving season isn"t just a draw for safari tourists wanting a front row seat at the start of the circle of life, but also for predators like lions, cheetahs, and hyenas on the hunt for easy prey.Desktop Version
Shadows on the solstice
Shadows on the solstice
Roughly 5,000 years ago, ancient inhabitants of the British Isles somehow dragged as many as 40 giant stones—the heaviest weighing an estimated 16 tons—onto this grassy plateau in what is now England"s Lake District National Park in Cumbria. They then grouped them into the stone circle at Castlerigg, seen here casting shadows from the low winter sun. Archeologists believe stone circles were arranged to align with solar and lunar positions. They were used in elaborate rituals to celebrate occasions like today"s winter solstice, the shortest day (and longest night) of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.Desktop Version
Guiding ships to safety
Guiding ships to safety
National Lighthouse Day brings us to Port Clyde, Maine, where Marshall Point Lighthouse keeps watch over the Atlantic. Lighthouses have long played an important role in seafaring, and for many, they symbolize a simpler, more romantic way of life. Many lighthouses offer tours and some even let guests stay overnight, so they can get a feel for the life of lighthouse keepers who once tended the lights in the days of oil lamps.Desktop Version
Venice by night
Venice by night
In Venice, Italy, the third Sunday in July is known as "Festa del Redentore" (The Redeemer"s Feast), which commemorates the city"s salvation from the plague in the 16th century. As Italy still reels from being hard hit by the new coronavirus, the holiday is particularly poignant this year. It traditionally features a fireworks display, a regatta, and a temporary bridge that connects the Zattere promenade to the Church of the Redeemer on the island of Giudecca. While this year"s celebration will look different due to COVID-19, it will still be an important and festive day for Venetians.Desktop Version
Kelp buddies
Kelp buddies
These sea otters in Alaska are floating amid kelp—an important flora friend to the endangered marine mammals. Sea otters live mostly in the water and use the thick blades of kelp to anchor themselves as they sleep and to keep their buoyant pups from floating away. Just as the kelp helps otters, sea otters help the kelp, too. They ensure the kelp"s survival by eating sea urchins. If sea urchin populations are left unchecked, these spiny vacuum cleaners of the sea destroy kelp forests by munching on holdfasts that tether kelp to the ocean floor. The resulting clear-cut areas, called urchin barrens, are devastating to the overall ecosystem. Kelp forests provide food and safe harbor for hundreds of fish species and other sea creatures. They also remove carbon dioxide from the air, a benefit to us all.Desktop Version
New beginnings
New beginnings
Spring means more than just April showers and May flowers. It"s also the season when many baby animals are born. The rainy, warmer days bring new plant growth, which means nursing and foraging moms can provide their newborns with larger amounts of higher-quality food. It also maximizes the "growing season" for spring babies, giving them time to increase in size and put on fat before winter arrives.Desktop Version
The Colosseum of Rome, Italy
The Colosseum of Rome, Italy
A photographer who goes by the name Paperboyo (real name Rich McCor) took this photo, and many more like it. Using paper cut-outs placed at just the right angles, McCor’s photos add an element of whimsy to the world’s famous landmarks. The project began when McCor was thinking of ways to photograph the iconic landmarks of London ‘in an original way.’ Spurred on by the enthusiasm of those who saw his photos, he quickly added more like these to his portfolio. As of this writing, there are no known incidents of a giant octopus taking over Rome’s Colosseum.Desktop Version
Joan charges Riverside Park
Joan charges Riverside Park
Joan of Arc leads the charge through New York"s Riverside Park for our celebration of International Women"s Day. This year’s Women"s Day observance is particularly meaningful in the United States because 2020 marks 100 years since American women won the right to vote nationwide. That victory was the result of a long, difficult struggle by suffragists—women who faced ridicule, slander, imprisonment, and outright brutality for their efforts to claim the right to vote. These women often drew inspiration from Joan of Arc, who became a feminist symbol of the female warrior for universal rights. In their marches and demonstrations in the early 1900s, suffragists often dressed as Joan and invoked her heroism in defiance of a male-dominated culture.Desktop Version
Gazing down on planet Earth
Gazing down on planet Earth
It"s Earth Day today and we are high above the blue marble looking down on the border between Arkansas and Mississippi. Those small, blocky shapes are towns, fields, and pastures, and the teal green is the mighty Mississippi River. Anyone who has flown in the window seat of an airplane and gazed down at Earth below might wonder why the colors in this image look so unreal. That"s because they are. This image was taken in 2013 by Landsat 7, a NASA satellite that uses thermal infrared sensors to help scientists better distinguish flora, fauna, water, and manmade objects. For almost 50 years, NASA has been using satellite imagery to understand how climate change and population growth are affecting our fragile planet. These satellites help NASA see where deforestation and wildfires are happening, where glaciers are melting, and how rising waters are encroaching on cities.Desktop Version
Where the glow of the holidays lingers
Where the glow of the holidays lingers
On the shores of Lake Lucerne and bestride the River Reuss, you"ll find the medieval Swiss city that shares the lake"s name. Emerging from a Benedictine monastery founded here in 750, Lucerne is today the largest town in central Switzerland. The central of three ancient, covered wooden pedestrian bridges of Lucerne"s Old Town has a unique feature. The interior of the Kapellbrücke (Chapel Bridge) is painted with religious scenes and allegories to edify those walking across it to the nearby St. Peter"s Chapel.Desktop Version
Góða ólavsøku, from the Faroes!
Góða ólavsøku, from the Faroes!
The festival known as Ólavsøka spans several days, but officially July 29 is the big day of merrymaking in the Faroe Islands. What exactly are the Faroese people celebrating? Technically, they"re observing the death of Saint Olaf. The Norwegian King Olaf II is said to have died in battle on this day in 1030. A century later, he was sainted by the Catholic Church.Desktop Version
Protecting endangered giants
Protecting endangered giants
In honor of Wildlife Conservation Day, we"re looking at these two white rhinos strolling through the Amakhala Game Reserve in South Africa—with a friendly oxpecker bird on their tails. The large anklets they"re wearing are used to track the endangered animals and protect them from poaching. Both white and black rhinos live in open savanna, but the adult rhinos" only real predators are humans who hunt them for the illegal trade of their horns. Although they are known for being large, tough animals, rhinos are easily poached during their daily visits to the watering hole. Southern white rhinos now thrive in protected sanctuaries like the Amakhala Game Reserve. But the northern white rhino subspecies is believed to be extinct in the wild with only a few captive individuals remaining. Black rhinos have doubled from their low point over the past two decades, but still number only a fraction of their population in the early 20th century.Desktop Version
Paris is photo-ready this week
Paris is photo-ready this week
Today we"re featuring an image of the Jardin des Tuileries and the Louvre to highlight the Paris Photo art fair happening through Sunday at the historic Grand Palais. Paris Photo is the world"s largest art fair dedicated to photography. Since 1997, the mission of the fair has been "to promote and nurture photographic creation and the galleries, publishers, and artists at its source." Starting today around 200 exhibitors, leading galleries, and specialty publishers, along with Parisian cultural institutions, will give visitors a unique look at both historical and contemporary photographic works of art.Desktop Version
On the rebirth of the Olympic Games
On the rebirth of the Olympic Games
Today marks the 125th anniversary of the first modern Olympic Games, held in Athens in 1896—1,500 years after they were banned by the Roman emperor. (The original games were held at least as far back as 776 BCE and probably earlier.) The 1896 Games were held in the Panathenaic Stadium, in the shadow of the Acropolis of Athens, shown here. Those newly revived games of 1896 included athletes from 14 countries, with the largest delegations from Greece, Germany, France, and Great Britain. The 43 events included a marathon, tennis, cycling, fencing, shooting, Greco-Roman wrestling, and swimming. And while some things haven"t changed over the years, some were pretty different back then. Swimmers were taken out to sea by boat for the longer races and had to swim back to shore. Winners were given a silver medal (copper for second place), as well as an olive branch and a diploma.Desktop Version
Combating extinction with citizen science
Combating extinction with citizen science
Just as every human has a unique set of fingerprints, each zebra has a subtly different pattern of stripes–and that trait is proving valuable in a new conservation effort. A nonprofit conservation project called Wildbook utilizes crowdsourced photos to identify and track individual animals that belong to threatened species. But it doesn’t just identify zebras. The effort extends to whale sharks, manta rays, giraffes and more. This new technology provides a non-invasive way to study the species over time. We’re fans of the project, especially since it helps friends like our Grévy"s zebra, which is endangered.Desktop Version
Nazaré Lighthouse
Nazaré Lighthouse
Instead of Surfin" USA, today we"re Surfin" Portugal—though if you shout a reverential "cowabunga" at these colossal waves, we"re sure the locals will get your meaning.Desktop Version
A good time in the Badlands
A good time in the Badlands
At the close of National Park Week, we arrive at Badlands in South Dakota. Our photo today shows a view from Castle Trail—at 10 miles round trip, it’s the longest marked hike in the park. Spring rain has revived the grasses across the prairie as the sun illuminates the pinnacle rock formations in the distance. Soon, grazing animals such as bison and pronghorn will begin feasting on the fresh crop of grasses. This is also a good time of year to spot some of the dozens of different butterfly species that live in the park and provide a delicate contrast to the park’s rugged landscape.Desktop Version
Bridges to the past
Bridges to the past
The story of this sandstone formation in southeastern Utah"s Natural Bridges National Monument begins around 10 million years ago. That"s when tectonic shifts began slowly lifting what is now the 130,000-square-mile Colorado Plateau above the surrounding plains. In ensuing eons, the Colorado River"s many streams eroded the elevated land, threading it with deep canyons. When water broke through one canyon wall into another canyon, sometimes a natural bridge like this one remained above the breach.Desktop Version
It s superb owl Sunday
It s superb owl Sunday
These two great gray owls look like they"re ready to play, which seems fitting on Super Bowl (or "superb owl") Sunday. Great grays are bigger than most other owls, with broad wings and long tails. But before you pencil them in at the offensive line, consider that most of their size comes from feathers—they"re relative lightweights, tipping the scales at under 3 pounds on average, less than most other large owls. They generally live in pine and fir forests with meadows nearby, hunting small rodents at night and avoiding areas with people. Great grays hunt by listening and watching from a perch, then swooping down on their prey—sometimes plunging into more than a foot of snow to make a diving catch.Desktop Version
Happy Cinco de Mayo!
Happy Cinco de Mayo!
If you’re celebrating Cinco de Mayo today, you may hear a mariachi band playing. The Mexican music style dates to at least the 1700s, but the modern version took shape in the 20th century. It usually features string and brass instruments and one or more singers, often putting a mariachi spin on traditional ballads and folk songs.Desktop Version
To the 155th on the 155th
To the 155th on the 155th
There are multiple monuments to the people who fought and died at the Battle of Gettysburg. Our photo shows the statue erected to honor the 155th Pennsylvania Infantry, a volunteer regiment that joined up with the Army of the Potomac, which was led by Union General George Meade. And 155 years ago today, the Confederate forces began to retreat to Virginia after three days of vicious combat. With total casualties on both sides of roughly 50,000 lives, the Battle of Gettysburg remains the most costly conflict in US history in terms of lives lost.Desktop Version
Goodbye, 2020!
Goodbye, 2020!
New Year"s Eve celebrations around the world will look a lot different this year, but as we ring in 2021 (and bid good riddance to 2020?) we can still enjoy this view of fireworks from a previous year in Spain. The cathedral in the background is the Basílica de Nuestra Señora del Pilar, which was constructed over centuries beginning in 1681, though several churches had been built on the site prior to that. On the left is the Puente de Piedra Bridge, which spans the Ebro River. It"s also known as the Bridge of Lions because statues of lions (symbols of the city) stand at each end of the bridge. Zaragoza is famous for its landmarks and architecture, as well as for local cuisine, and seasonal festivals—which we can only hope return soon.Desktop Version