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Jan 11, 2022Porcupine

Psycho quiller? Nope, this is no homicidal rodent. Act friendly and keep a tail"s length of distance, and you should be safe from a spiny fate. (That thing about porcupines launching their quills at you like darts? Yeah, total myth.)Desktop Version

Mar 13, 2021All hail the king of shrubs

Often called the "king of shrubs," rhododendrons are prized by gardeners for their glossy green leaves and brightly colored flowers. Depending on the variety, the blooms can emerge anytime from late winter into summer. Either evergreen or deciduous, rhododendrons make up a large and diverse genus of woody plants in the heath family, with over 1,000 wild species and scores of cultivated options. Rhododendrons are native to temperate areas of Asia, North America, and Europe, as well as some tropical parts of Southeast Asia and northern Australia. Our image today captures "rhodies" in full bloom in March along a path at Semper Forest Park of Rügen, Germany.Desktop Version

Apr 2, 2021White dunes, blue lagoons

From the air, the mesmerizing tapestry of sandy dunes and lagoons you see here gives Lençóis Maranhenses National Park an otherworldly, desert-like appearance. Located in the sparsely populated northeast corner of Brazil, this park gets far too much annual rainfall—nearly 50 inches—to be considered a desert. In fact, heavy rain is part of what makes this place unique: Nearly 70% of its annual rainfall comes between January and May, filling the park"s nearly 40,000 lagoons to the brim with fresh rainwater. Why doesn"t the water sink into the sand? A layer of impermeable bedrock beneath the dunes prevents that from happening.Desktop Version

May 27, 2020Clouds over the River of Grass

It"s the beginning of the wet season in the Florida Everglades, where it"s typically hot and humid from May through November. Afternoon thunderstorms are common, bringing heavy rainfalls that subside quickly. The largest subtropical wilderness in the US, the Everglades is essentially a slow-moving river, 60 miles wide and over 100 miles long. The water flows during the wet season from Lake Okeechobee southward across a limestone shelf to the southern tip of the Florida Peninsula. The complex ecosystem here is not found anywhere else on the planet.Desktop Version

Feb 4, 2020Rock of ages

We"re here at Sigiriya, or Lion Rock, in Sri Lanka, for the South Asian nation"s Independence Day, celebrated annually on February 4. Sigiriya towers 600 feet off the ground, jutting dramatically out of the heart of this island country and serving as a formidable monument to the past. The king of Sri Lanka himself, King Kashyapa, who ruled from 473 to 495 CE, once made this the site of his new capital. He ordered that his palace be constructed atop the rock and about halfway up, he had a large gateway carved into the side of the outcropping in the shape of a lion (hence the name). His fortress was abandoned when he died, and the site later served as a monastery. These days it"s a tourist attraction and a UNESCO World Heritage site.Desktop Version

May 4, 2020It s Star Wars Day

Does this place look familiar? If you"re a "Star Wars" fan you might recognize it as the planet of Crait, featured in "The Last Jedi." In reality it"s Salar de Uyuni, the world"s largest salt flat, found in southwest Bolivia. This otherworldly landscape is near the crest of the Andes, about 12,000 feet above sea level. The salt flat was formed when prehistoric lakes dried up over centuries, leaving behind a salt crust several feet deep. After a rare rainfall, a thin layer of perfectly still water will transform the salt flat into a giant mirror 80 miles across.Desktop Version

Nov 28, 2018Christmas comes to New York City

The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree draws throngs of people to Midtown each year to celebrate the holidays. The tradition started in the 1930s, when construction workers at Rockefeller Center pooled their money to buy a tree. Officials at Rockefeller Center later formalized the event, especially today’s lighting ceremony, which will be attended by thousands of onlookers. Each year’s tree is selected by the head gardener at Rockefeller Center and topped with a huge star adorned with Swarovski crystals. This year, the tree introduces a new star designed by architect Daniel Libeskind—it weighs 900 pounds, is more than 9 feet in diameter, and features 70 spikes and three million crystals outfitted with LED lights to emit rays in all directions. In January, the tree is milled, and the lumber donated to Habitat for Humanity. We think Santa would approve.Desktop Version

Feb 14, 2021An oceanic valentine

Just off the coast of Sydney, in New South Wales, Australia, the surf crashes over this cluster of rocks, sending an oceanic Valentine"s Day card to a lucky bird—or photographer—flying overhead. We"ll take nature"s love letters wherever and whenever we can find them. But what makes February 14 the day we celebrate love? Some claim Valentine"s Day has its roots in an ancient Roman fertility festival called Lupercalia that included goat sacrifices and a lottery that paired off eligible men and women. Others argue that the holiday began with early Christians celebrating a martyr named Valentine. Chaucer romanticized the day with a poem about two birds mating for life. No matter its pagan or Christian origins, in the modern world, Valentine"s Day is celebrated most everywhere as a day devoted to love.Desktop Version

Apr 3, 2018The village of Castelluccio above the Piano Grande, Umbria, Italy

Welcome to wildflower season on the magnificent Piano Grande (Great Plain) in Central Italy. For some geographic perspective, we’re in the calf region of Italy’s boot, nestled in the Apennine Mountains. Perched on the hillside is the little village of Castelluccio, where you can purchase the crop that made this region famous: lentils. The tiny, thin-skinned lentils cultivated here are considered delicacies.Desktop Version

Mar 3, 2018Celebrating World Wildlife Day

We like to think this lone cougar is off to meet its friends in a celebration of World Wildlife Day, recognized each year on March 3. The 2018 theme of the UN-sponsored event is protecting big cats, including lions, tigers, cheetahs, and cougars just like this one. Cougars have a wide range in the Americas, spanning from Canada to Argentina. Photographer Sebastian Kennerknecht captured this image in the Andes of northwest Argentina using a camera trap, a remotely activated camera equipped with a sensor that can photograph animals without a human present.Desktop Version

Nov 29, 2020New Zealand s loneliest mountain

According to the legends of New Zealand"s Indigenous Māori people, the lonely Mount Taranaki wasn"t always lonely. Taranaki, the story goes, once lived among other mountains in the North Island"s center. But Taranaki feuded with the powerful volcano Tongariro over the love of the pretty peak Pīhanga. In their epic battle, the now flat-topped Tongariro lost his head but emerged victorious. The vanquished Taranaki wandered west, cutting trenches as he trudged to the shore and filling them with lovesick tears to create the region"s rivers.Desktop Version

Oct 4, 2021Hey neighbor, it s World Space Week!

Space is a big, lonely place, so it"s nice to know we have neighbors. The pictured Andromeda galaxy is our Milky Way"s closest neighbor—right next door at 2.5 million light-years away. Our cordial relationship with Andromeda goes back about 10 billion years to when both galaxies were still forming. But trouble is brewing: Andromeda is on a collision course with the Milky Way, due for impact in 4 billion years. This neighborhood"s about to get rough…Desktop Version

Feb 18, 2021A river runs through it

In just a few months it"ll be warm enough to perch for a while on this smooth river rock, dangle your feet into the water, and take in this gorgeous Swiss scenery. We"re here in the Valle Verzasca, a valley in Ticino, Switzerland, close to the Italian border. There in the near distance is the tiny hamlet of Lavertezzo, where most everyone speaks Italian. Tourists normally flock to this area in warm summer months to swim and snorkel in the Verzasca River"s famous turquoise waters and to jump off the 17th-century double-arched bridge known as the Ponte dei Salti (Bridge of Jumps). The very, very brave bungee jump off the nearby Contra Dam, made famous in the 1995 James Bond film "GoldenEye."Desktop Version

Feb 9, 2019A tale of almonds and bees

Every February in California, the almond trees bloom, sparking a massive migration of commercial beekeepers to the Golden State. With box hives stacked high onto semi-truck trailers, they transport their honeybee colonies to almond orchards in the Sacramento and San Joaquin areas of California’s Central Valley, renting the little workers out to farmers. In recent decades, this practice has grown to become the largest managed pollination effort in the world, sometimes called the ‘Super Bowl of beekeeping.’Desktop Version

Jan 17, 2019A wassailing we go

Somewhere under that dense fog, the people of Somerset county in southwest England may be marching from house to house, singing songs and dancing, and asking for a drink or snack in return. If that sounds like Christmas caroling, you’re right. But it’s the English tradition of wassailing—a practice that usually takes place on Twelfth Night, which marks the coming of the Epiphany and takes place on January 5th or 6th. So why do the people living in this farmland moor wassail on January 17? Because in Somerset, the locals observe the pre-Gregorian calendar Twelfth Night, which falls on January 17. They may even stage an ‘apple wassail’ with a trip to a local cider orchard, to sing and make noise for a good harvest in the new year.Desktop Version

Dec 8, 2018How lovely are your branches

While we are certainly fans of pretty lights and ornaments during the holidays, nothing could be lovelier than these evergreens in their natural setting, with just a dusting of snow. This wintry scene is from Two Jack Lake in the eastern part of Banff National Park, in Alberta, Canada. Banff, Canada’s oldest national park, is surrounded by other provincial and national parks, and together they make up a vast area of spectacular wilderness. Wintertime in this neck of the woods means plenty of skiing, snowshoeing, and if you’re lucky, glimpsing the northern lights.Desktop Version

Jan 4, 2022Borrego Badlands

If you"re looking to take in a beautiful sunset over some exotic terrain, you could do worse than the Borrego Badlands, a 20-mile stretch of desert in southeastern California"s Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. This arid landscape is not the kind of dune-filled terrain that you might visualize when you think of a desert. Instead, it"s a series of rolling hills, canyons, gullies, and arroyos, speckled with sparse but hardy vegetation. It makes for a surreal and beautiful view.Desktop Version

Jun 24, 2020Midsummer in Sweden

This mirrorlike lake—pictured not at dawn nor dusk, but under the tireless midnight sun that marks Scandinavian summers—lies just outside Örebro, a midsized city in south-central Sweden. To Swedes, late June is synonymous with Midsummer, a solstice festival with roots in ancient, pagan Europe that was later combined with the June 24 Christian feast of John the Baptist.Desktop Version

Jun 27, 2020Looking for peace on the precipice

The Sanctuary of Madonna della Corona sits on an outcropping almost 2,500 feet high overlooking the Adige River Valley in northern Italy, near the city of Verona. Since the Middle Ages, this spot has been a destination for religious pilgrimages. The faithful are drawn no doubt by the views and, perhaps, the dangerous path to get there—enlightenment shouldn"t come easy.Desktop Version

Apr 1, 2018Happy Easter from the ‘peeps’ at Bing

These lavender marshmallow chicks—and their siblings of other colors—are destined to arrive in Easter baskets around the country today. Lots and lots of Easter baskets. On average, the Just Born factory in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania produces 5.5 million PEEPS® every day, or more than 3,800 per minute. And all those PEEPS® have lots of company. According to the National Confectioners Association, Easter is a top-selling candy holiday in the US, second only to Halloween. This year there’s a twist on the holiday: Easter Sunday falls on the same day as April Fool’s Day. Whatever you have planned–we hope your day is a sweet one.Desktop Version

Apr 8, 2018It’s Draw a Bird Day

Both male and female resplendent quetzals have the bright body feathers, though the color on males is generally even brighter. During mating season, the males—like this one, photographed in Costa Rica—grow double tail feathers that usually measure longer than the bird’s body. In fact, some tail feathers can form a train up to three feet long. If you want to celebrate Draw a Bird Day today, maybe the resplendent quetzal will inspire you. Time to break out the crayons?Desktop Version

Jun 25, 2020Hoisting a flag for seafarers

Here above the chilly seas off Iceland, we"re peering down at a tall ship called the Gorch Fock—a training vessel of the German navy. Built in 1958, it replaced the original 1933 Gorch Fock, which was seized by the Soviets in the wake of World War II (but is now back home in Stralsund, Germany, as a museum ship). Because traditionally rigged tall ships are valued as tools for learning general sailing skills, the "58 Gorch Fock is still in official service—but for much of the 21st century, it"s been in and out of dry dock for repairs and safety improvements.Desktop Version

Jun 29, 2020Goats don t grow on trees

You"re not seeing things—these goats in Essaouira, Morocco, have climbed high up into an argan tree. And it"s not a one-time event. The goats enjoy the small yellow fruit these trees produce, and when the low-hanging fruit is gone they"re willing and able to make the climb. Goats aren"t the only ones benefitting from these trees. The nuts from argan trees are used to produce argan oil, which is edible and also used for some rather pricey cosmetics, making it a valuable export.Desktop Version

Dec 27, 2018A wonderland in winter

There’s no shortage of activities in New York’s Central Park, even when winter covers the park in snow. Here in the uh, central part of Central Park is the Bethesda Terrace, and in the center of that, the Bethesda Fountain. A fresh coat of snow highlights details on the fountain’s Angel of the Waters sculpture—the only statue that was part of the park’s original design. Beyond the terrace is the Ramble and Lake—a great stretch of park to have a snowball fight in if you ask us. Do you have a favorite park for winter activities?Desktop Version

Apr 12, 2023Earth seen from the International Space Station

On April 12, 1961, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin astounded the world by becoming the first person to travel to outer space. In less than two hours, Gagarin completed a full orbit of the Earth in the Vostok 3KA spacecraft. Less than a month later, Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard became the first American in space. The spectacle of looking back at Earth from space has not lost its charm, as you can see in today"s picture taken from the International Space Station. Also known as the "World Space Party," Yuri"s Night is a global celebration of astronomy and a reflection on how space exploration can unite people in a divided world.Desktop Version

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