View allAll Photos Tagged CLOSETONATURE
Creteil is a suburb South East of Paris. Lac de Creteil is a beautiful lake near Creteil Prefecture.
This image is included in 2 galleries :- 1) "Birds 3" curated by Grisu and 2) "Animals" by Martine Everaerdt.
This was taken with my mobile phone at the 1st hole of the Par-3 Island Course at Latrobe Golf Course during the golden hour of the morning. Flocks of wood duck are honorary residents of the area, where there are plenty of water and aqua critters they can feed on. The ducks would leap into the reservoir whenever golfers get too close.
This was taken in Feb 2010. The grass was dry despite quite early in the morning. A few galahs were digging deep to find food.
This image is included in a gallery "Pack of Galahs" curate by Bear among bees.
Near Smith Beach in Yallingup, Western Australia, Canal Rocks is a series of rocky outcrops forming a natural canal, as shown in the picture.
This image is included in a gallery "Stunning Bird Shots-IV" curated by Anandamoy Chatterji.
This was taken during a wine tasting session at Majella Winery in South Australia. Just outside the cellar door, amongst flower beds, a couple of Superb Fair-wrens were jostling along - and as always they were hard to capture...
This is a view just below Splitpoint lighthouse: terra-cotta like limestone cliff, disintegrated rocks, white foaming waves, roaring winds, fast shifting clouds - all exciting elements are there - all attest to the power of Nature - and yet there is untamed, raw beauty. The rugged limestone stack on the left is called Eagle Rock. Eagles are local to Aireys Inlet, and the head was once called Eagles Nest Point. The area is within the Eagle Rock Marine Sanctuary.
Beyond the horizon is Bass Strait.
The bug like things on the plant are chrysalises. The adult butterflies tend to gather round the chyrsalies, together with attendant ants, look after them / protect them.
According to papaki2008 :-"Lycaenidae have a special relationship called myrmecophily -In some species, larvae are attended and protected by ants while feeding on the host plant, and the ants receive sugar-rich honeydew from them, throughout the larval life, and in some species during the pupal stage."
Valokuvaaja - Photographer
Markus Kauppinen
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A stunning close-up portrait of a giraffe in its natural habitat, framed by soft bokeh and golden light. This image captures the essence of the African savannah, where grace and curiosity define its tallest resident.
Esperance is a beautiful town in the south west of Western Australia. These little windmills are used to pump water from wells to irrigate nearby crops and supply drinking water for farm animals. Beautiful mungi flowers are in season and are in the background.
This image is included in a gallery "Clement Tang" curated by Pixi2011.
This image is included in a gallery "Celebrating yet more Ducks, Geese, and Swans of the World" curated by Jeffrey Caldwell.
The Magpie Goose has a black neck and head, with a characteristic knob on the crown (larger in males), which increases in size with age. The underparts are white, with contrasting black edges on the underwing. The bill, legs and feet are orange. The Magpie Goose differs from most waterfowl in having strongly clawed toes that are webbed only on their basal halves (i.e. only partly webbed). Females are slightly smaller than males.
Magpie Geese are widespread in northern Australia, where they may congregate in huge flocks, often comprising thousands of birds. They breed in large colonies late in the wet season, with the biggest recorded at Daly River in the Northern Territory — it covered 46 km2. The species was once also widespread in southern Australia, but disappeared from there largely due to the drainage of the wetlands where the birds once bred. There have been attempts to reintroduce Magpie Geese back into southern regions, but with varied degrees of success. (birdlife Australia)
This image was taken at the Serendip Sanctuary, which is a 250 ha protected area in Victoria, Australia, near the You Yangs and the town of Lara, some 22 km north of Geelong and 60 km south-west of Melbourne.
This image is included in 2 galleries:- 1) "La Mer 1" curated by OK Gallery and 2) "Fels und Gestein, XXX." by Götz Wiedenroth.
This interesting-looking rock can be seen when travelling along Cape Thumberland tourist drive, in Port MacDonnell. Cape Thumberland is the southest point in South Australia.
This image is included in a gallery "Natural Rock Art" curated by Ardan.
This was captured near Mutitjulu Waterhole, Uluru.
The rock art around Uluru is evidence of how cultural knowledge and Tjukurpa stories have been passed from generation to generation. It is extremely difficult to accurately date the rock art at Uluru. Carbon dating can only pick up the age of the rock and the materials used for the pigments, rather than the paintings themselves. However, Anangu people are believed to have lived in the Uluru region for at least 30,000 years. The rock art is an important historical and scientific record of human occupation in this area.
The park’s rock art sites have many layers of pictures, symbols and figures painted on top of each other. This is because the same sites have been used in Anangu education for tens of thousands of years.
Anangu traditionally made their paints from natural minerals and ash. The dry materials were placed on flat stones, crushed and mixed with kapi (water) or animal fat. The most common paint colours are red, yellow, orange, white, grey and black. These colours come from a variety of materials. Tutu (red ochre) and untanu (yellow ochre) are iron-stained clays that were very valuable and traded across the land. Burnt kurkara (desert oak) provides both purku (black charcoal) and tjunpa/unu (white ash).
The Mutitjulu Cave has many examples of concentric circles, which can represent a waterhole, a campsite or a place of significance. Multiple concentric circles linked by lines may represent a journey. (from Kulpi Mutitjulu website)
The Frenchman's Peat at Cape Le Grand National Park in Western Australia was named by surveyor Alexander Forest during an expedition in search of good country for pasture in 1870. The shape of the peak on top of the solid rock mountain was thought to resemble the hats worn by French troops in the 1800s. The Mungi flowers grow wild and bloom around Christmas in Esperance and Western Australia. Here they glow reddish orange in the late evening sun.
"A thin waxing crescent Moon lies two degrees north of Venus on November 28th. Venus is at its southernmost declination for 2019 about one hour before it reaches aphelion on November 28th." (November 2019 Celestial Calendar
Started by Dave Mitsky)
Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty. As the second-brightest natural object in the night sky after the Moon, Venus can cast shadows and, rarely, is visible to the naked eye in broad daylight. Venus lies within Earth's orbit, and so never appears to venture far from the Sun, setting in the west just after dusk and rising in the east a bit before dawn. Venus orbits the Sun every 224.7 Earth days. With a rotation period of 243 Earth days, it takes longer to rotate about its axis than any planet in the Solar System and goes in the opposite direction to all but Uranus. Venus does not have any natural satellites, a distinction it shares only with Mercury among planets in the Solar System. (Wikipedia)
This is a stretch of beach viewed from Urquhart Bluff between Anglesea and Lorne along Great Ocean Road. The beach opens to Bass Strait, whereas light rain and onshore wind bring the waves in . . .
Very close encounter : while photographing dragonflies at a pond, unannounced, this Grey Fantail landed silently on a dead branch a few feet from me. There was just enough time to set my lens's range to 1.5m and fired a few shots. Luckily the light compensation was spot on.
This image is included in 2 galleries :- 1) "Stunning Birds Shots" curated by anandamoy and 2) "COLORFULL BEAUTY BIRDS VOL 7" curated by Jean-paul Vancoppenolle.
The parrot emerges from the hole, takes a few look around before flying away to go about its business.
I love the glow around the body, especially the head.
This image is included in a gallery "Fels, Namensbestandteil "Teufel", "Devil" etc." curated by Götz Wiedenroth.
The water in the large bath looks like a green paint.
Between geysers and colorfully steaming mud bogs, the Wai-O-Tapu volcanic era offers no shortage of wondrous attractions. The Devil’s Bath may not have as many active reactions as other features in the vicinity, but it is still the most eye-catching (and the most intriguingly named). The pool sits in a slight depression likely created from a massive eruption from underground. It is well out of reach of visiting gawkers but can be seen clearly from above. The bright green water gets its color from deposits of sulphur that rise to the surface and float on top. The green identifies that active mineral while other hues found across the park such as blues, reds, and otherwise signify other volcanic elements.
The origin of the demonic monicker is unknown, but given how unnatural the pool looks, it would almost come as no surprise to see Satan himself rise from the still lake.
(Sourced from Wai-O-Tapu Official site)
This image is included in 4 galleries :- 1) "Animals", 2) "Life" , 3) "Insects" and 4) "Macro Photography" all curated by jwhyb.
This image is included in 2 galleries : 1) "COLORFULL BEAUTY BIRDS VOL 7" curated by Jean-paul Vancoppenolle and 2) "Blue and Green" by Lena Dezaneka.
This bird is sun bathing its throat pouch.
This image is included in a gallery "Exceptional" curated by V. Vasant Kumar.
Autumn evening air is fresh - the light is warm and beautiful - a Grey Fantail is sitting on a thin twig - in a wink of the eye the bird is gone, clean as a whistle. The air is still fresh and the ligh is still warm and beautiful, and I keep standing still .... taking flight shot is a tricky business.
I took a twig to a nearby nusery and was told that it is a Kunzea Ericodes, commonly known as Burgan or White Tea Tree. It is an Australian native, the flower is white.
They perch at the trees in the left and pounce where bugs get near : a few bugs can be seen in the top right hand corner.
This was taken at the Grand Aquarium, Ocean Park Hong Kong. Ocean Park Hong Kong, commonly known as Ocean Park, is a marine mammal park, oceanarium, animal theme park and amusement park situated in Wong Chuk Hang and Nam Long Shan in the Southern District of Hong Kong. It is the second largest theme park in Hong Kong, following Hong Kong Disneyland.
The life span of seahorses - classified as fish - ranges from one to five years. There are 46 species in the world. Three species of seahorse {Spotted Sehorse / Yellow Seahorse / Estuary Seahorse (Hippocampus kuda), Longnose or 3-Spot Seahorse (Hippocampus trimaculatus) and Great Seahorse / Kellogg’s Seahorse (Hippocampus kelloggi)} have been recorded in Hong Kong waters and they are moderately abundant around coral areas and in eastern Hong Kong waters down to about 7 m depth. They are listed as vulnerable or endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. According to senior scientific officer, Shadow Sin Ying-tung, "They are in danger because of over-exploitation for Chinese medicine use, degradation of habitats and by-catch in commercial fishing."
A pair of yellow mongooses emerges from their burrow in the Namibian wilderness. One stands guard while the other seems to be caught mid-conversation—perhaps an alert or just a little morning gossip in the desert.
Established in 1876, the Georges Island Lighthouse is a 15.8 metres tall, white octagonal reinforced-concrete tower , with a fluorescent red vertical to seaward. The light is fixed white. It is also known as Halifax Harbour Inner Light and Fort Charlotte Lighthouse.
Halifax Harbour is a large natural harbour on the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, located in the Halifax Regional Municipality. The town of Halifax largely owes its existence to the harbour, being one the largest and deepest ice-free natural harbours in the world. Before Confederation it was one the most important commercial ports on the Atlantic seaboard. In 1917, it was the site of the world's largest man-made accidental explosion, when the SS Mont-Blanc blew up in the Halifax Explosion of December 6.
This was an hand-held HDR image taken on board Murphy's Ferry Cruise while sightseeing in Halifax.