average photos on Flickr

2.3m waves - online estimate by Kilrymont Ian

11 2

That was the average I saw quoted on a tide-time site for East Fife. From the shore it looked less, but from past experience I knew that having your feet on dry land always shrinks apparent wave heights... When your boat is at the nadir of the wave trough and you've lost sight of land till the following swell rides your boat up to the next crest, those waves look like boat eaters and every mile separating you from home harbour seems to take an hour to be covered, the moment of crossing the bar and feeling the deck level out under your feet - is welcome beyond compare.

Before I forget - the bird's a winter-plumaged Black Headed Gull. In the glow of the afternoon sunshine their legs and bills looked strongly orange, not the deep red I'm more used to seeing. Fooled me into thinking the storm had blown a fleet of different birds ashore from those normally seen.

Côte de Wormeldange - heartbreaker by Real_Aragorn

156 15

Average grade: 12.5 %

Length: 0.8 km

Height start: 100 m

Height top: 200 m

Ascent: 100 m

Maximum: 22 %

19 January 2021: Experts are calling on politicians to strongly discourage or even ban foreign travel. by RudyMareelPhotography

20 2

19 January 2021: The 7-day rolling average for people testing positive for the virus stabilizes and the number of people being hospitalised with the virus continues to fall slowly but surely. The same is true of the number of people with the virus that are dying. On average during the week to 15 January 2,017 people a day tested positive for the coronavirus, that is down 1% on the week. Meanwhile, several outbreaks of the British mutation of the virus have been reported. In one case it has been confirmed that the source of the infection is people that had travelled during the Christmas holiday and not stuck to the rules concerning quarantine on their return. The result is that thousands are quarantined due to the negligence by a few. The question of how to keep out more contagious coronavirus variants of the virus is what is now preoccupying the country’s politicians. Waiting for the beneficial seasonal impact on the spread of the virus and the effect from groups immunity via people who have had the virus and via vaccinations I continue my corona walks. On display today is a pleasing urban alignment that I pictured alongside the river Scheldt – Ghent, Belgium.

City of Hollywood, Broward County, Florida, USA by Urban Florida Photographer

170 8

Hollywood is a city in Broward County, Florida, located between Fort Lauderdale and Miami. The average temperature is between 68 and 83 degrees. As of July 1, 2015 Hollywood has a population of 149,728. Founded in 1925, the city grew rapidly in the 1950s and 1960s, and is now the twelfth largest city in Florida. Hollywood is a principal city of the Miami metropolitan area, which was home to an estimated 6,012,331 people at the 2015 census.

Joseph W. Young founded the city in 1925. He dreamed of building a motion picture colony on the East Coast of the United States and named the town after Hollywood, California. Young bought up thousands of acres of land around 1920, and named his new town "Hollywood by the Sea" to distinguish it from his other real estate venture, "Hollywood in the Hills", in New York

Young had a vision of having lakes, golf courses, a luxury beach hotel, country clubs, and a main street, Hollywood Boulevard. After the 1926 Miami hurricane, Hollywood was severely damaged; local newspapers reported that Hollywood was second only to Miami in losses from the storm. Following upon Young's death in 1934, the city encountered more terrific hurricanes and not only that, but the stock market crashed with personal financial misfortunes. It felt as though the city was tumbling slowly piece by piece with all of those tragic events taking place.

Hollywood is a planned city. On Hollywood Boulevard is the Mediterranean-style Joseph Young Mansion, built around 1921, making it one of the oldest houses in Hollywood.

Credit for the data above is given to the following website:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood,_Florida

Great cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo)-3704 by George Vittman

32 10

The great cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo), known as the great black cormorant across the Northern Hemisphere, the black cormorant in Australia, the large cormorant in India and the black shag further south in New Zealand, is a widespread member of the cormorant family of seabirds.

The great cormorant is a large black bird, but there is a wide variation in size in the species wide range. Weight is reported to vary from 1.5 kg (3.3 lb)[6] to 5.3 kg (12 lb). Males are typically larger and heavier than females, with the nominate race (P. c. carbo) averaging about 10% larger in linear measurements than the smallest race in Europe (P. c. sinensis). The lightest average weights cited are in Germany (P. c. sinensis), where 36 males averaged 2.28 kg (5.0 lb) and 17 females averaged 1.94 kg (4.3 lb). The highest come from Prince Edward Island in Canada (P. c. carbo), where 11 males averaged 3.68 kg (8.1 lb) and 11 females averaged 2.94 kg (6.5 lb). Length can vary from 70 to 102 cm (28 to 40 in) and wingspan from 121 to 160 cm (48 to 63 in). They are tied as the second largest extant species of cormorant after the flightless cormorant, with the Japanese cormorant averaging at a similar size. In bulk if not in linear dimensions, the Blue-eyed shag species complex of the Southern Oceans are scarcely smaller at average. It has a longish tail and yellow throat-patch. Adults have white patches on the thighs and on the throat in the breeding season. In European waters it can be distinguished from the common shag by its larger size, heavier build, thicker bill, lack of a crest and plumage without any green tinge. In eastern North America, it is similarly larger and bulkier than double-crested cormorant, and the latter species has more yellow on the throat and bill and lack the white thigh patches frequently seen on great cormorants. Great cormorants are mostly silent, but they make various guttural noises at their breeding colonies.

Albino in Lake Kerkini, Greece

Variations

A very rare variation of the great cormorant is caused by albinism. The Phalacrocorax carbo albino suffers from loss of eyesight and/or hearing, thus it rarely manages to survive in the wild.

For more information, please visit en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_cormorant

'Death Valley Reflections' by skypointer

89 8

On August 20, 2023, Death Valley NP was in the path of Hurricane Hilary's remnants. Some regions received more than double the average annual amount of rainfall.

The unprecedented amount of rain caused widespread flash flooding, damaging roads, and forming a shallow lake in Badwater Basin's salt flats.

After the partial reopening of the park, I desperately wanted to capture a nightscape with the stars reflecting in the temporary lake.

During November New Moon, I had a Los Angeles flight. The weather forecast was pretty dire for the single night I was able to go to Death Valley, but I decided to take the risk.

When I arrived at Badwater Basin, the sky was covered with dark clouds, and while scouting, I felt a slight drizzle. After nightfall, heavy rain started falling for more than an hour. My hopes for a successful shooting sank very low, but I nevertheless set my alarm to check the sky conditions every hour. At 1 a.m. a few stars became visible, and half an hour later, I decided that it was time to dress and head out into the dark.

At 2:30 a.m. the sky in the south had all but cleared. Now, I had high hopes that the clouds would completely disappear, allowing me to shoot the desired Milky Way arc. It soon became apparent, though, that the clouds were rolling back in and at 3:30 a.m. the sky was again fully covered.

The resulting image is not exactly what I hoped for, but I like its mood a lot.

EXIF

Sky:

Canon EOS-R, astro-modified

Tamron 15-30mm, f/2.8 @ 15mm

IDAS NBZ filter

iOptron SkyTracker Pro

4 panel panorama in portrait orientation, each a stack of 6x 60s @ ISO1600, unfiltered & 3x 180s @ ISO6400, filtered

Foreground:

Canon EOS-Ra

Sigma 28mm f/1.4 ART @ f/2

2 row / 8 panel panorama in landscape orientation, each a stack of 6x 30s @ ISO6400

Star reflection: single exposures from the lower row

Selfie: Single exposure 15s @ ISO12800

Grand Canyon Southern Overlook by James Watkins

55 38

THE EVENING NEWS

Catalytic confrontations

Calculated crawl,

Embryonic isolations,

Future free-for-all.

Energetic exhortations,

Apoplectic brawl,

Catatonic saturation,

Isometric balls.

Egocentric salutation,

Fatalistic fall,

Megalithic mumbo jumbo,

Paganistic pall.

Pugilistic palpitation,

Excavated sprawl,

Perspiration aggravation,

Aspirated wall.

Ammunition malnutrition,

Superstition stall,

California concentrated,

Captivated thrall.

Bound and ground,

Then taken down,

By the very best-

With one more show

Worth watching,

And then we’re headed west.

Recreation generation,

By the book denomination,

Families filled with hesitation,

RVs racked for roaming.

Picking up the pieces,

Laid down on the land,

With wasted wealth and watersheds,

And regions raped by man.

Calibration castigations,

Asymmetric aberrations,

Guided tours with revelations,

Ratted out and ruined.

Catastrophic congregations,

Commutated castings,

Calvinistic computations,

Debonair and prancing.

Altruistic aspirations,

Stoned, bemoaned abbreviations,

Terrified with trepidations,

Gnomes long gone and gassed!

Honed and cloned then overthrown,

Granted one last wish-

Celebrated, then negated-

Dangling near the dish!

Partisan un principles,

In petrifying packs-

With news and views

And loop-de-loops,

And stab-them-in-the-backs.

Ready for the ruckus,

Sitting at the shrine,

Thought they really

Had the goods,

Now listen to the whine.

Thought they had it marketed,

Cornered and refined,

Around the town

The lie unwound

And then they lost their mind.

Settling to the bottom,

They slid to lower ground,

Between the lines and valentines,

some lost their royal crowns.

Terroristic tinkering,

Tumbling and tinkling,

Fundamental farkles

Helpful and home grown.

Patriotic particles,

Hidden in the articles,

Compact and post partial,

Buried to the bone.

Vacuumed packed

And gunny-sacked,

Pre-segmented squalls,

Appalachian apparitions,

Headed to the malls.

Fevered and fantastic men,

Marching to the moon,

With masticating matriarchs,

In subcutaneous swoon.

Breasts blown up beautiful,

Complicated castings,

Fallen faces on the floor,

Mesmerized for masking.

Sacrificial sublimations,

Surrogates sublime,

Tetrahedral analgesic,

Sentimental crimes.

Pawing, pungent prisoners,

Soothing, sexy swine-

Sows and cows and sinning sons,

Tasting tempting wines.

Navigation nuances,

Nuptials by Nair,

Feudalistic fragrances,

Held up with heavy hair.

Practical imbalances,

Factory un repairs,

New wave cold and chemical friends,

Facts blown up with air.

Salivating swindlers,

Solo Simon says,

Highfalutin prostitution,

Fixed up with the Feds.

Sports and courts and teasing torts,

Women going wild-

Dow Jones Average hemorrhage,

Help the homeless child.

Down the daunting highway,

Less than overnight,

Covering ground without a sound,

Filtered by first light.

Lazy lit up lethargy,

Loosed by lying lips,

Bought the farm in small degrees,

Then sailed a sinking ship.

Galvanizing garrisons,

Gathering at the line,

Pushed ahead though nearly dead,

They won it one more time.

Tested in the tumult,

On solid ground they stand,

Groping with the changer,

Positioned close at hand.

Nightly, brightly flickering,

Turn the clicker off-

Before you go,

Don’t miss the show,

An evening totally lost!

James Watkins

Desert sand dunes along the Brahmaputra river, Tibet 2017 by reurinkjan

88 10

Landscape of Tibet

Tibet is the highest country on earth with an average elevation of over 4000m. The lowest regions of Tibet are still over 2000m above sea level with Jomo Langma (Everest,Sagarmatha) ཇོ་མོ་གླང་མ being the highest point at 8848m. Tibet is covered in grasslands, mountains and valleys.

Many of Asia’s largest rivers have their headwaters in Tibet such as the Ma chu རྨ་ཆུ་ ( Yellow River), Dri chu འབྲི་ཆུ་ (Yangtze), Nag chu ནག་ཆུ་ - རྒྱ་མོ་རྔུལ་ཆུ (Salween), Yarlung Tsangpo ཡར་ཀླུངས་གཙང་པོ་ (Brahmaputra) and Dza chu རྫ་ཆུ་ (Mekong). Western Tibet (Ngari) is a high, arid region with few people, while southeast Tibet (Kham) is forested and suitable for farming. Northern Tibet (Amdo) is covered in vast grasslands filled with yaks and sheep and central Tibet (U-Tsang) is the most densely populated area of Tibet lying along the fertile Yarlung Valley.

www.landofsnows.com/los/Landscape.html

On A Glass Land by kawkawpa

12 9

When a step sends us sliding on a glass land,

we learn wariness.

We’ll believe second, letting others take the lead;

examining the benefits of believing -

an environment much won.

As life’s afternoons disappear

and the daily dark comes so soon,

we mark any opposite with warning -

too busy alive, being one...

A thin divide,

we step out onto glass each waking day,

an average magazine couple

come in years to material age,

learning the new dozen mean words

we use along the red answer -

and that’s

only consistent

with how we see ourselves and our lives

on the hungry edge...

not much more than idea animals

of spot purpose and chance effect.

And that glass plane so square

we try to walk on...

Wouldn’t we stick suggested to what felt familiar?

Glass like ice, cold for space...

Beneath us lies a proper place

for hungry lives to go for nourishment...

We, an all-season age

entered upon

now huge minutes;

a found notice lay growing;

a solution of bread and fishes to hunger,

seeing the glass now clear and limitless beneath -

and that makes us question

what we’ve believed to be...

what we’ve believed to be

those fatal edges where the drop has horror to it...

Maybe they’re there – maybe not...

and even if they are – those limits so like walls

despite their opposite fall –

now we know, seeing clear beneath us,

that down there beneath us,

where we for so long

have lived apart

only on the sliding surface,

used to choring effort just to keep a level pace –

that down there beneath us...

grows the rest of us...

alive in this same life...

as much of us as any waking day can win,

and more than we can ever know...

and if we didn’t try to find that out –

what more we may become –

what opens up our afternoons,

multiplies our hunger in so many other ways -

even as our taste is satisfied by fishes

and miraculous bread...

if we didn’t try to find that out –

as worlds swing open wide –

where’s the fun in that?

Hit Head On

Re: "On A Glass Land" - Punctuation has been revised from the version of the poem appearing in my book "Hit Head On." Also, italics was added for this online version. Originally I added italics to simulate the way I deliver the poem in oral presentation, but it seemed to muddy the reading of it more than clarify a difficult poem; so I removed the "emphasis" italics.

The photo was taken at Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA, on Monday March 27. I'd completed the second weekend class in a course on Life Coaching - something that feels closer than anything encountered in my 50 years to being what I want to do when I grow up - and took Monday off too. There was percolating from the weekend goin' on. I drove west in the early morning, not knowing where I would end up or what I'd be doing exactly - just that I wanted to walk, to think, to contemplate, to take pictures, and to read the course materials. On impulse I turned off Route 81 and entered the city, and by following something undefined in me, parked near the college. I walked for a long time - through the campus, then out into residential streets. It was a mulling stroll, not my usual exercise walk (when I do walk, that is - I've been out of the habit lately). The rest of the morning was spent reading, most of the time outside in the sun, sitting in a chair in a grassy courtyard at the law school, the wind clicking the branches of the trees.

I'm on a glass land alright... It's not been once and done - discovering my layer habitat, then keeping that learning. Relearning, I've found, has had to be built into my way of living - reinforcement of knowing - or else it fades... unknowing.... "Life is always pulling you away from the understanding of life." (Anne Morrow Lindbergh) Don't I know it! :)

On the way back to my car I noticed the reflection in the window you see in the photo, stopping abruptly a few paces past the window, then walking backwards to bring the reflection again into view. I might wish for a shot where the window's crosspieces were more symmetrical. But then the reflection wouldn't be like this. I worked with what I had, and made it what you see, enhancing the color and bringing out the blacks and oranges more. The trees reflected in the window were distorted in the first place, the window making them more so. (Check it out on the larger size setting - the intricate lines and the colors are really cool.)

There's something about the photo that speaks to me... the separate panes too... It's not what I originally had in mind for a photo accompanying "On A Glass Land" - I'd thought I'd use something that was definitely evocative of a walking surface - something that would match the theme of there being a "beneath." This photo isn't like that. Literally, anyway. Yet it seems to work with the poem.

And that's one of the best qualities of life and living, ya know? The possibilities... The never knowing from one moment to the next what sure plan will marvelously transmute in a sense of wonder... and through that wonder, for that moment and maybe longer yet, it all feels different... the world... you... You know with certainty that the world and you and everything really is like this - the way you now see it... and potential fills where habit and daily plodding normally live...

There's the fun in that...

average times by Arnd

22 8

Average English Street by Jeff

14 2

My (Spanish) Cactus in front of the Fiat. Don't know where the Focus is made nor the Vauxhall/Saab?

Over 1,000,000 Views !!!! (824,632 Image Views) by _Allen_

11

That's an average of about 260 views per image.

Thanks to all my flickr contacts for pushing me over the million views mark. I've made some really great friends and contacts on flickr and a there is not a day that goes by that I don't check flickr first thing in the morning and last thing before I go to bed (and as often as possible in between) to see what you all are up to.

I've learned a lot from all the other photographers on flickr and I've been inspired to try new things and expand my skills more than a few times by my flickr friends and I thank you for that.

Happy new year to all my great flickr friends.

Average daylight by GeirB,

22 9

Polartime is here

City of Fort Lauderdale, Broward County, Florida, USA by Urban Florida Photographer

189 4

Fort Lauderdale is a city in the U.S. state of Florida, 25 miles (40 km) north of Miami. It is the county seat of Broward County. As of the 2019 census, the city has an estimated population of 182,437. Fort Lauderdale is a principal city of the Miami metropolitan area, which was home to an estimated 6,198,782 people in 2018.

The city is a popular tourist destination, with an average year-round temperature of 75.5 °F (24.2 °C) and 3,000 hours of sunshine per year. Greater Fort Lauderdale which takes in all of Broward County hosted 12 million visitors in 2012, including 2.8 million international visitors. The city and county in 2012 collected $43.9 million from the 5% hotel tax it charges, after hotels in the area recorded an occupancy rate for the year of 72.7 percent and an average daily rate of $114.48. The district has 561 hotels and motels comprising nearly 35,000 rooms. Forty six cruise ships sailed from Port Everglades in 2012. Greater Fort Lauderdale has over 4,000 restaurants, 63 golf courses, 12 shopping malls, 16 museums, 132 nightclubs, 278 parkland campsites, and 100 marinas housing 45,000 resident yachts.

Fort Lauderdale is named after a series of forts built by the United States during the Second Seminole War. The forts took their name from Major William Lauderdale (1782–1838), younger brother of Lieutenant Colonel James Lauderdale. William Lauderdale was the commander of the detachment of soldiers who built the first fort. However, development of the city did not begin until 50 years after the forts were abandoned at the end of the conflict. Three forts named "Fort Lauderdale" were constructed; the first was at the fork of the New River, the second at Tarpon Bend on the New River between the Colee Hammock and Rio Vista neighborhoods, and the third near the site of the Bahia Mar Marina.

The area in which the city of Fort Lauderdale would later be founded was inhabited for more than two thousand years by the Tequesta Indians. Contact with Spanish explorers in the 16th century proved disastrous for the Tequesta, as the Europeans unwittingly brought with them diseases, such as smallpox, to which the native populations possessed no resistance. For the Tequesta, disease, coupled with continuing conflict with their Calusa neighbors, contributed greatly to their decline over the next two centuries. By 1763, there were only a few Tequesta left in Florida, and most of them were evacuated to Cuba when the Spanish ceded Florida to the British in 1763, under the terms of the Treaty of Paris (1763), which ended the Seven Years' War. Although control of the area changed between Spain, United Kingdom, the United States, and the Confederate States of America, it remained largely undeveloped until the 20th century.

The Fort Lauderdale area was known as the "New River Settlement" before the 20th century. In the 1830s there were approximately 70 settlers living along the New River. William Cooley, the local Justice of the Peace, was a farmer and wrecker, who traded with the Seminole Indians. On January 6, 1836, while Cooley was leading an attempt to salvage a wrecked ship, a band of Seminoles attacked his farm, killing his wife and children, and the children's tutor. The other farms in the settlement were not attacked, but all the white residents in the area abandoned the settlement, fleeing first to the Cape Florida Lighthouse on Key Biscayne, and then to Key West.

The first United States stockade named Fort Lauderdale was built in 1838, and subsequently was a site of fighting during the Second Seminole War. The fort was abandoned in 1842, after the end of the war, and the area remained virtually unpopulated until the 1890s. It was not until Frank Stranahan arrived in the area in 1893 to operate a ferry across the New River, and the Florida East Coast Railroad's completion of a route through the area in 1896, that any organized development began. The city was incorporated in 1911, and in 1915 was designated the county seat of newly formed Broward County.

Fort Lauderdale's first major development began in the 1920s, during the Florida land boom of the 1920s. The 1926 Miami Hurricane and the Great Depression of the 1930s caused a great deal of economic dislocation. In July 1935, an African-American man named Rubin Stacy was accused of robbing a white woman at knife point. He was arrested and being transported to a Miami jail when police were run off the road by a mob. A group of 100 white men proceeded to hang Stacy from a tree near the scene of his alleged robbery. His body was riddled with some twenty bullets. The murder was subsequently used by the press in Nazi Germany to discredit US critiques of its own persecution of Jews, Communists, and Catholics.

When World War II began, Fort Lauderdale became a major US base, with a Naval Air Station to train pilots, radar operators, and fire control, operators. A Coast Guard base at Port Everglades was also established.

On July 4, 1961, African Americans started a series of protests, wade-ins, at beaches that were off-limits to them, to protest "the failure of the county to build a road to the Negro beach". On July 11, 1962, a verdict by Ted Cabot went against the city's policy of racial segregation of public beaches.

Today, Fort Lauderdale is a major yachting center, one of the nation's largest tourist destinations, and the center of a metropolitan division with 1.8 million people.

Credit for the data above is given to the following website:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Lauderdale,_Florida

City of Fort Lauderdale, Broward County, Florida, USA by Urban Florida Photographer

172 6

Fort Lauderdale is a city in the U.S. state of Florida, 25 miles (40 km) north of Miami. It is the county seat of Broward County. As of the 2019 census, the city has an estimated population of 182,437. Fort Lauderdale is a principal city of the Miami metropolitan area, which was home to an estimated 6,198,782 people in 2018.

The city is a popular tourist destination, with an average year-round temperature of 75.5 °F (24.2 °C) and 3,000 hours of sunshine per year. Greater Fort Lauderdale which takes in all of Broward County hosted 12 million visitors in 2012, including 2.8 million international visitors. The city and county in 2012 collected $43.9 million from the 5% hotel tax it charges, after hotels in the area recorded an occupancy rate for the year of 72.7 percent and an average daily rate of $114.48. The district has 561 hotels and motels comprising nearly 35,000 rooms. Forty six cruise ships sailed from Port Everglades in 2012. Greater Fort Lauderdale has over 4,000 restaurants, 63 golf courses, 12 shopping malls, 16 museums, 132 nightclubs, 278 parkland campsites, and 100 marinas housing 45,000 resident yachts.

Fort Lauderdale is named after a series of forts built by the United States during the Second Seminole War. The forts took their name from Major William Lauderdale (1782–1838), younger brother of Lieutenant Colonel James Lauderdale. William Lauderdale was the commander of the detachment of soldiers who built the first fort. However, development of the city did not begin until 50 years after the forts were abandoned at the end of the conflict. Three forts named "Fort Lauderdale" were constructed; the first was at the fork of the New River, the second at Tarpon Bend on the New River between the Colee Hammock and Rio Vista neighborhoods, and the third near the site of the Bahia Mar Marina.

The area in which the city of Fort Lauderdale would later be founded was inhabited for more than two thousand years by the Tequesta Indians. Contact with Spanish explorers in the 16th century proved disastrous for the Tequesta, as the Europeans unwittingly brought with them diseases, such as smallpox, to which the native populations possessed no resistance. For the Tequesta, disease, coupled with continuing conflict with their Calusa neighbors, contributed greatly to their decline over the next two centuries. By 1763, there were only a few Tequesta left in Florida, and most of them were evacuated to Cuba when the Spanish ceded Florida to the British in 1763, under the terms of the Treaty of Paris (1763), which ended the Seven Years' War. Although control of the area changed between Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Confederate States of America, it remained largely undeveloped until the 20th century.

The Fort Lauderdale area was known as the "New River Settlement" before the 20th century. In the 1830s there were approximately 70 settlers living along the New River. William Cooley, the local Justice of the Peace, was a farmer and wrecker, who traded with the Seminole Indians. On January 6, 1836, while Cooley was leading an attempt to salvage a wrecked ship, a band of Seminoles attacked his farm, killing his wife and children, and the children's tutor. The other farms in the settlement were not attacked, but all the white residents in the area abandoned the settlement, fleeing first to the Cape Florida Lighthouse on Key Biscayne, and then to Key West.

The first United States stockade named Fort Lauderdale was built in 1838, and subsequently was a site of fighting during the Second Seminole War. The fort was abandoned in 1842, after the end of the war, and the area remained virtually unpopulated until the 1890s. It was not until Frank Stranahan arrived in the area in 1893 to operate a ferry across the New River, and the Florida East Coast Railroad's completion of a route through the area in 1896, that any organized development began. The city was incorporated in 1911, and in 1915 was designated the county seat of newly formed Broward County.

Fort Lauderdale's first major development began in the 1920s, during the Florida land boom of the 1920s. The 1926 Miami Hurricane and the Great Depression of the 1930s caused a great deal of economic dislocation. In July 1935, an African-American man named Rubin Stacy was accused of robbing a white woman at knife point. He was arrested and being transported to a Miami jail when police were run off the road by a mob. A group of 100 white men proceeded to hang Stacy from a tree near the scene of his alleged robbery. His body was riddled with some twenty bullets. The murder was subsequently used by the press in Nazi Germany to discredit US critiques of its own persecution of Jews, Communists, and Catholics.

When World War II began, Fort Lauderdale became a major US base, with a Naval Air Station to train pilots, radar operators, and fire control, operators. A Coast Guard base at Port Everglades was also established.

On July 4, 1961, African Americans started a series of protests, wade-ins, at beaches that were off-limits to them, to protest "the failure of the county to build a road to the Negro beach". On July 11, 1962, a verdict by Ted Cabot went against the city's policy of racial segregation of public beaches.

Today, Fort Lauderdale is a major yachting center, one of the nation's largest tourist destinations, and the center of a metropolitan division with 1.8 million people.

Credit for the data above is given to the following website:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Lauderdale,_Florida

Southern Royal Albatross or Toroa (Diomedea epomophora) by Harold Moses

10 4

The southern royal albatross or toroa (Diomedea epomophora) is a large seabird from the albatross family. With an average wingspan of above 3 m (9.8 ft), it is one of the two largest species of albatross, together with the wandering albatross.

The southern royal albatross has a length of 112 to 123 cm (44–48 in)[ and a mean weight of 8.5 kg (19 lb). At Campbell Island, 11 males were found to have a mean mass of 10.3 kg (23 lb) and 7 females were found to have a mean mass of 7.7 kg (17 lb), thus may be heavier on average than most colonies of wandering albatross.

Males are about 2 to 3 kg (4.4 to 6.6 lb) heavier than females. Average wingspan has been reported from 2.9 to 3.28 m (9.5 to 10.8 ft), with an upper limit of about 3.50 m (11.5 ft). The wandering albatross can exceed this species in maximum size and averages slightly larger in linear dimensions if not bulk, but the two species are close enough in dimensions that size cannot be used to distinguish between them.

The juvenile has a white head, neck, upper mantle, rump, and underparts. There are black speckles on the mantle, and dark brown or black wings with white flecks on coverts. The tail is white except for the black tip as is the under-wing. Young birds soon lose the black on their tail and backs. White appears on the upperwing gradually, as speckles starting from the leading edge.

All ages have a pink bill with black on the cutting edge on the upper mandible, and the legs are flesh-coloured. Young birds with all-dark upperwings can be hard to differentiate from the northern royal albatross. There are clear but subtle differences from the wandering albatross, with the southern royal having a clean black and white appearance, lacking the peach neck spot often found on the wandering albatross.

Most wandering albatrosses have dark feathers in the tail and crown and the white in this species expands from the middle of the wing, in larger blotches. The bill is also slightly paler, as well as the dark cutting edge along the middle. The average lifespan is 58 years.

This image was taken in the South Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Argentina.

Canada, Jasper NP - Maligne Lake (1.670m) by die Fernreiselustige

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Average depth of 100 m deep, glacier water 4 °C

Jasper NP, the largest national park in the Canadian Rocky Mountains.

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Durchschnittliche Tiefe von 100 m, Gletscherwasser 4 °C

Jasper NP, der größte Nationalpark in den kanadischen Rocky Mountains.

Masked Trogon by Daniel Parent

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Average red-bellied trogon of subtropical forests. Male is iridescent green on breast, head, and back; female is brown. Namesake dark mask is usually obvious, especially on females. Masked (male) has large white tips on underside of tail feathers, otherwise dark with very fine white barring. On females, look for evenly barred undertail with large white tips combined with contrasting black face. Usually found singly or in pairs, perched quietly from the understory to the subcanopy.

This one was photographed in Ecuador on a photography tour led by Juan Carlos Vindas of Neotropic Photo Tours.

Mormon Rocks_IMG_6977_8_9_tonemapped_FG by Eric Gail

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Trying to take an average photo and make it more interesting. So, I took a 3 exposure bracket and then blended them visually taking the best exposure for each area and then processed the image in Photomatix.

When I was shooting the train in my stream called CajonLocomotion I was walking back towards my car when I realized that this is the same shot that a terrific photographer that i follow named Dave Toussaint had taken during the winter. It was all covered in snow and looked like something you would see on a Christmas card.

Let me know what you think? If you have any questions about a photo just post it or send me a Flickr mail and I will respond as quickly as possible.

City of Fort Lauderdale, Broward County, Florida, USA (Building under construction is: RD Las Olas / Height: 499 Ft / Expected Completion: 2023) by Urban Florida Photographer

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Fort Lauderdale is a city in the U.S. state of Florida, 28 miles (45 km) north of Miami. It is the county seat of Broward County. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 165,521. It is a principal city of the Miami metropolitan area, which was home to an estimated 6,012,331 people at the 2015 census.

The city is a popular tourist destination, with an average year-round temperature of 75.5 °F (24.2 °C) and 3,000 hours of sunshine per year. Greater Fort Lauderdale which takes in all of Broward County hosted 12 million visitors in 2012, including 2.8 million international visitors. The city and county in 2012 collected $43.9 million from the 5% hotel tax it charges, after hotels in the area recorded an occupancy rate for the year of 72.7 percent and an average daily rate of $114.48. The district has 561 hotels and motels comprising nearly 35,000 rooms. Forty-six cruise ships sailed from Port Everglades in 2012. Greater Fort Lauderdale has over 4,000 restaurants, 63 golf courses, 12 shopping malls, 16 museums, 132 nightclubs, 278 parkland campsites, and 100 marinas housing 45,000 resident yachts.

Fort Lauderdale is named after a series of forts built by the United States during the Second Seminole War. The forts took their name from Major William Lauderdale (1782–1838), younger brother of Lieutenant Colonel James Lauderdale. William Lauderdale was the commander of the detachment of soldiers who built the first fort. However, development of the city did not begin until 50 years after the forts were abandoned at the end of the conflict. Three forts named "Fort Lauderdale" were constructed; the first was at the fork of the New River, the second at Tarpon Bend on the New River between the Colee Hammock and Rio Vista neighborhoods, and the third near the site of the Bahia Mar Marina.

The area in which the city of Fort Lauderdale would later be founded was inhabited for more than two thousand years by the Tequesta Indians. Contact with Spanish explorers in the 16th century proved disastrous for the Tequesta, as the Europeans unwittingly brought with them diseases, such as smallpox, to which the native populations possessed no resistance. For the Tequesta, disease, coupled with continuing conflict with their Calusa neighbors, contributed greatly to their decline over the next two centuries. By 1763, there were only a few Tequesta left in Florida, and most of them were evacuated to Cuba when the Spanish ceded Florida to the British in 1763, under the terms of the Treaty of Paris (1763), which ended the Seven Years' War. Although control of the area changed between Spain, United Kingdom, the United States, and the Confederate States of America, it remained largely undeveloped until the 20th century.

The Fort Lauderdale area was known as the "New River Settlement" before the 20th century. In the 1830s there were approximately 70 settlers living along the New River. William Cooley, the local Justice of the Peace, was a farmer and wrecker, who traded with the Seminole Indians. On January 6, 1836, while Cooley was leading an attempt to salvage a wrecked ship, a band of Seminoles attacked his farm, killing his wife and children, and the children's tutor. The other farms in the settlement were not attacked, but all the white residents in the area abandoned the settlement, fleeing first to the Cape Florida Lighthouse on Key Biscayne, and then to Key West.

The first United States stockade named Fort Lauderdale was built in 1838, and subsequently was a site of fighting during the Second Seminole War. The fort was abandoned in 1842, after the end of the war, and the area remained virtually unpopulated until the 1890s. It was not until Frank Stranahan arrived in the area in 1893 to operate a ferry across the New River, and the Florida East Coast Railroad's completion of a route through the area in 1896, that any organized development began. The city was incorporated in 1911, and in 1915 was designated the county seat of newly formed Broward County.

Fort Lauderdale's first major development began in the 1920s, during the Florida land boom of the 1920s. The 1926 Miami Hurricane and the Great Depression of the 1930s caused a great deal of economic dislocation. In July 1935, an African-American man named Rubin Stacy was accused of robbing a white woman at knife point. He was arrested and being transported to a Miami jail when police were run off the road by a mob. A group of 100 white men proceeded to hang Stacy from a tree near the scene of his alleged robbery. His body was riddled with some twenty bullets. The murder was subsequently used by the press in Nazi Germany to discredit US critiques of its own persecution of Jews, Communists, and Catholics.

When World War II began, Fort Lauderdale became a major US base, with a Naval Air Station to train pilots, radar operators, and fire control operators. A Coast Guard base at Port Everglades was also established.

On July 4, 1961, African Americans started a series of protests, wade-ins, at beaches that were off-limits to them, to protest "the failure of the county to build a road to the Negro beach". On July 11, 1962, a verdict by Ted Cabot went against the city's policy of racial segregation of public beaches.

Today, Fort Lauderdale is a major yachting center, one of the nation's largest tourist destinations, and the center of a metropolitan division with 1.8 million people.

Credit for the data above is given to the following website:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Lauderdale,_Florida

City of Hollywood, Broward County, Florida, USA by Urban Florida Photographer

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Hollywood is a city in southern Broward County, Florida, United States, located between Fort Lauderdale and Miami. The average temperature is between 68 and 83 °F (20 and 28 °C). As of July 1, 2019, Hollywood had a population of 154,817.

Founded in 1925, the city grew rapidly in the 1950s and 1960s and is now the 12th-largest city in Florida. Hollywood is a principal city of the Miami metropolitan area, which was home to an estimated 6,012,331 people at the 2015 census.

Joseph Young arrived in South Florida in 1920 to create his own "Dream City in Florida". His vision included the beaches of the Atlantic Ocean stretching westward with man-made lakes, infrastructure, roads, and the Intracoastal Waterway. He wanted to include large parks, schools, churches, and golf courses; these were all industries and activities that were very important to Young's life. After Young spent millions of dollars on the construction of the city, he was elected as the first mayor in 1925.

This new town quickly became home to northerners known as "snowbirds", who fled the north during the winter and then escaped the south during the summer to avoid the harsh weather. By 1960, Hollywood had more than 2,400 hotel units and 12,170 single-family homes. Young bought up thousands of acres of land around 1920 and named his new town "Hollywood by the Sea" to distinguish it from his other real-estate venture, "Hollywood in the Hills", in New York.

During the early days of development here, 1,500 trucks and tractors were engaged in clearing land and grading streets; two yacht basins, designed by General George Washington Goethals, chief engineer in the construction of the Panama Canal, were dredged and connected with the Intracostal Waterway. A large power plant was installed, and when the city lights went on for the first time, ships at sea reported that Miami was on fire, and their radio alarms and the red glow in the sky brought people to the rescue from miles around.

Prospective purchasers of land were enticed by free hotel accommodation and entertainment, and "were driven about the city-to-be on trails blazed through palmetto thickets; so desolate and forlorn were some stretches that many women became hysterical, it is said, and a few fainted.

Young had a vision of having lakes, golf courses, a luxury beach hotel (Hollywood Beach Hotel, now Hollywood Beach Resort), country clubs, and the main street, Hollywood Boulevard.

Credit for the data above is given to the following website:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood,_Florida

On a hot autumn afternoon, large Australian Sea Lion exits the pool at aquatic show. A male sea lion weighs on average about 300 kg (660 lb) and is about 2.4 m (8 ft) long by Viv.....

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Sea lions are pinnipeds characterized by external ear flaps, long foreflippers, the ability to walk on all fours, short, thick hair, and a big chest and belly. Together with the fur seals, they comprise the family Otariidae, eared seals, which contains six extant and one extinct species (the Japanese sea lion) in five genera. Their range extends from the subarctic to tropical waters of the global ocean in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, with the notable exception of the northern Atlantic Ocean. They have an average lifespan of 20–30 years. A male California sea lion weighs on average about 300 kg (660 lb) and is about 2.4 m (8 ft) long, while the female sea lion weighs 100 kg (220 lb) and is 1.8 m (6 ft) long. The largest sea lion is Steller's sea lion, which can weigh 1,000 kg (2,200 lb) and grow to a length of 3.0 m (10 ft). Sea lions consume large quantities of food at a time and are known to eat about 5–8% of their body weight (about 6.8–15.9 kg (15–35 lb)) at a single feeding. Sea lions can move around 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph) in water and at their fastest they can reach a speed of about 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph). Three species, the Australian sea lion, the Galápagos sea lion and the New Zealand sea lion, are listed as endangered. 61535

The grey francolin by KHUSHBOO & RAHUL SHARMA

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It is a medium-sized francolin with males averaging 11.6–13.4 in (29–34 cm) and females averaging 10.2–11.9 in (26–30 cm). The males weigh 9–12 oz (260–340 g) whereas the weight of the females is 7–11 oz (200–310 g). The francolin is barred throughout and the face is pale with a thin black border to the pale throat. The only similar species is the painted francolin, which has a rufous vent. The male can have up to two spurs on the legs while females usually lack them. Subspecies mecranensis is palest and found in arid north-western India, Eastern Pakistan and Southern Iran. Subspecies interpositus is darker and intermediate found in northern India. The nominate race in the southern peninsula of India has populations with a darker rufous throat, supercilium and is richer brown. They are weak fliers and fly short distances, escaping into undergrowth after a few spurts of flight. In flight it shows a chestnut tail and dark primaries. The race in Sri Lanka is sometimes given the name ceylonensis or considered as belonging to the nominate.

B57I2429-Eyed-hawk-moth-caterpillar,-Smerinthus-ocellata by Duncan Cooke

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Eyed Hawk-moth, Smerinthus ocellata.

Wingspan; 70 – 80mm, females being on average larger than males.

Flight period; May – July ( in one generation ).

Caterpillar food plants; Willows, Apple (Malus domestica), wild and ornamental Crab Apple (Malus sylvestris), less common on poplars and Aspen (Populus tremula).

Habitat; Gardens, orchards, woodland, suburban localities and places where willows grow.

UK Status; Common. Well distributed throughout England and Wales as far north as Cumbria, local on Isle of Man, widely distributed but occasional in Channel Isles.

They overwinter as shiny black/brown pupae, below or near the larval food plant. The caterpillars can be seen from June to September and resemble the Poplar Hawk-moth caterpillar.

Fairly well distributed throughout England and Wales, this species has a sombre, camouflaged appearance at rest, but if provoked, flashes the hindwings, which are decorated with intense blue and black 'eyes' on a pinkish background. The ‘eye’ markings and thick black line extending down the thorax behind the head make it an easily identified Hawk-moth.

Not Your Average Street by Drew Goff-

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On a typical day, Where I'm standing is full of cars and if I was standing where I was, I'd be run over.

However this day is not your average day, and 6167 is not your average vehicle.

6167 was moved from its home near Guelph Central Station to John Galt Park, to make way for expansions at the station.

6167 was built in 1940 for the Canadian National Railway. It travlled over 1 million miles in its lifetime and after being retired was brought back to run excursion trains for the Canadian National. It was in excursion service from 1960 to 1964, when it was retired for good. In 1967 it was donated to the city of Guelph, where it has remained on display ever since.

Foggy Window by niggyl :)

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Not your average astro pic this one.

Strathgordon is as far from anywhere you can get by road here on the island. It has a Bortle Class 1 dark sky rating.

So with all the astro gear in the car ready to roll, it rained and if it wasn't raining it was clag.

I set up because it looked like there may be one or two windows open up in the thick overcast but it transpired to be a hoax. This is the only pic I managed to get before the rain started to fall again. In reality it's a test shot, nothing more. Thin haze still hides the perfect stars from view.

The partial gap in the cloud permitted this view of the Southern Cross (Acrux) which sits clearly at the top along with the faint shape of the Coalsack Nebula beside it. The 'Pointers' (Hadar and Rigil Kent) below to the right. The MW Core is off the image to the lower right. If you don't look too hard, it's possible to make out the shape of "The Emu" - first nations peoples' interpretation of this part of the MW Galaxy. The head of the bird is the Coalsack with the neck and body formed by the dust lanes and sundry nebulae heading back to the core.

There is a faint white star just inside the frame and just to the right of top dead centre - the South Celestial Pole is just below it somewhere. Count yourselves lucky for Polaris all you peeps in the Northern Hemisphere!

Something different anyway :-)

Nikon Z6, Nikkor 20/1.8, 20 secs at f/1.8, ISO 3200

2021/06/13, 22:49:25

City of Hollywood, Broward County, Florida, USA by Urban Florida Photographer

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Hollywood is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States, located between Fort Lauderdale and Miami. The average temperature is between 68 and 83 °F (20 and 28 °C). As of July 1, 2019, Hollywood had a population of 154,817. Founded in 1925, the city grew rapidly in the 1950s and 1960s, and is now the twelfth-largest city in Florida. Hollywood is a principal city of the Miami metropolitan area, which was home to an estimated 6,012,331 people at the 2015 census.

Joseph Young arrived in South Florida in 1920 to create his own "Dream City in Florida." His vision included the beaches of the Atlantic Ocean stretching westward with man made lakes, infrastructure, roads and the Intracoastal waterway. He wanted to include large parks, schools, churches, and golf courses; these were all industries and activities which were very important to Young's life. After Young spent millions of dollars on the construction of the city, he was elected as the first mayor in 1925.

This new town quickly became home to northerners known as snowbirds. These snowbirds flee the north during the winter and then escape the south during the summer to avoid the harsh climates. By 1960, Hollywood contained more than 2,400 hotel units along with the construction of 12,170 single family homes. Young bought up thousands of acres of land around 1920, and named his new town "Hollywood by the Sea" to distinguish it from his other real estate venture, "Hollywood in the Hills", in New York.

The Florida guide, published by the Federal Writers' Project, describes the early development of Hollywood, an early example of a planned community that proliferated in Florida during the real estate boom of the 1920s:

During the early days of development here, 1,500 trucks and tractors were engaged in clearing land and grading streets; two yacht basins, designed by General George Washington Goethals, chief engineer in the construction of the Panama Canal, were dredged and connected with the Intracostal Waterway. A Large power plant was installed, and when the city lights went on for the first time, ships at sea reported that Miami was on fire, and their radio alarms and the red glow in the sky brought people to the rescue from miles around.

— Federal Writers'Project, "Part III: The Florida Loop", Florida: A Guide to the Southernmost State (1947)

Prospective purchasers of land were enticed by free hotel accommodation and entertainment, and "were driven about the city-to-be on trails blazed through palmetto thickets; so desolate and forlorn were some stretches that many women became hysterical, it is said, and a few fainted. Young had a vision of having lakes, golf courses, a luxury beach hotel (Hollywood Beach Hotel, now Hollywood Beach Resort), country clubs, and a main street, Hollywood Boulevard. After the 1926 Miami hurricane, Hollywood was severely damaged; local newspapers reported that Hollywood was second only to Miami in losses from the storm. Following Young's death in 1934, the city encountered other destructive hurricanes and the stock market crashed with personal financial misfortunes.

Following the damage inflicted by Hurricane Irma in 2017, an initiative called Rebuild Florida was created by the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO) to provide aid to citizens affected by the natural disaster. The initial focus of Rebuild Florida was its Housing Repair Program, which offered assistance in rebuilding families' homes that were impacted by Hurricane Irma. The program priorities low-income vulnerable residents, such as the disabled, the elderly and those families with children under five.

Credit for the data above is given to the following website:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood,_Florida

Somebody's Watching Me..... by A Guy Named Nyal

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I'm just an average man with an average life

I work from nine to five, hey, hell, I pay the price

All I want is to be left alone in my average home

But why do I always feel like I'm in The Twilight Zone?

If it wasn't me watching then it was probably the Eye In The Sky!

We were waiting to disembark from our cruise and I was bored. There's nothing to do but sit around and wait for your group number to be called so I decided to go walkabout and came across this scene. These guys were out on the deck giving it a good scrubbing.

When you take a cruise holiday your every need is catered to and you've got nothing to worry about.

Sometimes it's easy to forget that there are a LOT of of people both in the front and back of the house that make things happen for your dream vacation to be the best it can be. Folks that aren't on holiday, they're working at their jobs to provide for their families back home.

If you should ever go on a cruise I hope that you won't forget these folks and will let them know that you appreciate the hard work they put in to make things easy for you. They bust their butts so that you don't have to.

I shot this through a window in an outer door, that's why it's not super sharp and clear.

City of Fort Lauderdale, Broward County, Florida, USA by Urban Florida Photographer

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