Archaeology & People
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A male pileated woodpecker excavating part of a large log lying across a small stream. He appears to have drawn his head back to prepare for his next strike.
The excavations of Herculaneum
UNESCO World Heritage Site: Archaeological Areas of Pompei, Herculaneum and Torre Annunziata
Porta Urbica - While it's not much to look at today, this was once the gate to the city of Siracusa.
From Wikipedia:
The city gate was a gateway to the fortress of Ortigia , built by Dionysius the Great (430 BC – 367 BC). It was part of the city walls which, in addition to surrounding Ortigia, ran along the entire city up to the Eurialo castle . Today it can be identified with the excavation in via XX Settembre (a street in Ortigia).
What remains visible is the base of two quadrangular towers measuring over 8 meters on each side, which probably allowed access to a road that forked and connected the temple of Apollo and that of Athena .
The gate was discovered in 1977 and assumes a certain importance due to the fact that on the island it is the only remnant of the ancient Dionysian fortifications
I was photographing a pair of chickadees and was wondering why they were staying at a single tree for such a long amount of time. When the female flew into a cavity in this red alder, it all started to make sense. The female chickadee was considering this as a potential nesting site!
Chickadees are cavity nesters. They may excavate their own nests or use cavities previously excavated by woodpeckers. Nevertheless, it is habitual for them to remove wood shavings, even if the "cavity" is already complete (as in nest boxes). This female chickadee is doing just that.
I really hope this pair will settle down in this nesting. However, when I returned to the site later that evening, the chickadees were nowhere in sight. Perhaps they will return later after considering other nesting sites. Wherever they are, I hope they will raise a successful brood.
"Space Excavation"
Milky Way rising behind an excavator in a dirt field, middle of nowhere, South Dakota.
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Looking down on Dent Head viaduct, from directly above the Bleamoor Tunnel, our destination after a walk from Ribblehead. Not sure what the digger is doing beside the air vent for the tunnel though.
Kyme located in the Çıfıtkale locality north of Aliağa. was the largest of the Aeolian cities. It functioned as a powerful port and trading centre In the time of Alexander the Great and his generals and as a bishopric centre in the Christian Period. Excavations are still ongoing.
Had a nice walk around Holme Pierrepont Country Park here in Nottingham. Not much activity this time of the year and parts of it was flooded due to recent high rainfall. Aside from that, there are plenty of photographic opportunities.
Holme Pierrepont Country Park. Home of The National Water Sports Centre.
Nestled amongst 270 acres of the beautiful Holme Pierrepont Country Park, we welcome athletes of all levels and abilities from all over the world. It offers water and land based activities. The centre is made up of three pieces of water.
The centre was constructed during 1970 and 1971 on a former gravel works and required the excavation of one and a half million cubic yards of material. The centre opened in 1971. Until 2009 the centre was operated on behalf of Sport England however control was returned to Nottinghamshire County Council due to priority changes around the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Holme Pierrepont Whitewater Course is located between the weir on the canalised River Trent and the regatta lake.
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SEVENTY-SIX
“No one who, like me, conjures up the most evil of those half-tamed demons that inhabit the human beast, and seeks to wrestle with them, can expect to come through the struggle unscathed.”
Sigmund Freud
11 days to Halloween!
From December, 2008; four years before I joined Flickr.
This one is for Jason Hendricks, with thanks.
This Red-headed Woodpecker is busy excavating a nest site. Likely the male, since they do most of the excavation. Our beautiful world, pass it on.
Located in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius, Herculaneum (Italian: Ercolano) was an ancient Roman town destroyed by volcanic pyroclastic flows in 79 AD. Its ruins are located in the comune of Ercolano, Campania, Italy.
As a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it is famous as one of the few ancient cities that can now be seen in much of its original splendour, as well as for having been lost, along with Pompeii, Stabiae, Oplontis and Boscoreale, in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79 that buried it. Unlike Pompeii, the deep pyroclastic material which covered it preserved wooden and other organic-based objects such as roofs, beds, doors, food and even some 300 skeletons which were discovered in recent years along the seashore. It had been thought until then that the town had been evacuated by the inhabitants.
Herculaneum was a wealthier town than Pompeii, possessing an extraordinary density of fine houses with, for example, far more lavish use of coloured marble cladding.
After the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, the town of Herculaneum was buried under approximately 20 metres (50–60 feet) of ash. It lay hidden and largely intact until discoveries from wells and underground tunnels became gradually more widely known, and notably following the Prince d'Elbeuf's explorations in the early 18th century.[2] Excavations continued sporadically up to the present and today many streets and buildings are visible, although over 75% of the town remains buried. Today, the Italian towns of Ercolano and Portici lie on the approximate site of Herculaneum. Until 1969 the town of Ercolano was called Resina. It changed its name to Ercolano, the Italian modernization of the ancient name in honour of the old city.
The inhabitants worshipped above all Hercules, who was believed to be the founder of both the town and Mount Vesuvius.
The catastrophic eruption of Mt. Vesuvius occurred on the afternoon of 24 August AD 79. Because Vesuvius had been dormant for approximately 800 years, it was no longer even recognized as a volcano.
Recent multidisciplinary research on the lethal effects of the pyroclastic surges in the Vesuvius area showed that in the vicinity of Pompeii and Herculaneum, heat was the main cause of the death of people who had previously been thought to have died by ash suffocation. This study shows that exposure to the surges, measuring at least 250 °C (482 °F) even at a distance of 10 kilometres from the vent, was sufficient to cause the instant death of all residents, even if they were sheltered within buildings.
Located inside Palazzo Vitelleschi, the “Museo Archeologico Nazionale Tarquiniense” (National Archaeological Museum of Tarquinia) is spread over three floors and houses a vast collection of artefacts from the excavations, including some detached tombs and the magnificent “Cavalli Alati” (Winged horses).
Just a follow up video to a shot I posted a couple of weeks ago when the Chickadees had started wood pecking a cavity in this old Manitoba Maple. They are progressing well and constantly taking beak fulls of sawdust out. Amazing how fast they can enter the hole.........
a temporary mound at a construction site of a big wind turbine | Ein Erdhügel bei der Bausstelle für ein neues Windkraftrad zwischen Klein-Winternheim, Mainz-Hechtsheim und Mainz-Ebersheim
The Golden-fronted Woodpecker (aka Valesquez's Woodpecker) "Melanerpes aurifrons" is buffy brown overall with a black and white barring on the back.
The head pattern varies throughout the range but usually contains some combination of yellow and red. Most males along the Caribbean side of Mexico have more red in the crown and nape.
I found this male, a life list addition, excavating a nest hole in a palm tree snag. You can see palm fibers in its bill.
I only had a limited line of sight without too many distracting out of focus background elements. I was also hand-holding my camera so I very pleased to capture a few images of the bird in flight
Image captured on 5 March, 2026 in Cancun, Mexico