Image of the day

(c) V. Neblik, 2009

The Best of the Web- Today’s Links

The first of today's links is the blog of Vermont-based wildbird enthusiast Chris Petrak : "Tails of Birding"
http://tailsofbirding.blogspot.com/
which is an entertaining read.

As an arachnophobe it is rare that I have anything positive at all to say about spiders and I certainly never expected to be encouraging people to look at pictures of them, but here is a picture of a very small (4mm) and extremely colourful spider that is as close as an arachnid may ever get to "cute" or beautiful-

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2749828/Amazing-mating-display-of-the-Australian-peacock-spider.html

- the beast in question is an Australian Peacock Spider- one of a group of highly coloured spider species- you can find a little more information and several more photographs of it here-

http://www.phenomenica.com/2009/11/jumping-peacock-spider.html

Cheering-up bird 14- Gentoo Pengiun

Good morning and Happy Monday to you!

Today's cheering up bird is a Gentoo Pengiun- image here-

http://www.flickr.com/photos/karohemd/340074669/

Tiger Butterfly

The Plain Tiger Butterfly, Danaus chrysippus Image (c) V. Neblik, 2009. photographed near Caesaria, Israel.

Quote of the Week- Fred Hoyle- the way things are

"Things are the way they are because they were the way they were."
- Fred Hoyle, British Scientist (1915-2001)

Stunning Landscape- snow-capped mountains

Today I just want to post this link to this stunning image of snow-covered mountains in the Kamchatka Peninsula, in the Far East of Russia. The photographer is Natalie Fed.

http://community.livejournal.com/lj_photophile/102080.html

The Best of the web: Today’s links

It is not hard to find good wildlife images on the internet, but there are some really magnificent pictures of birds and flowers on this flikr photostream- http://www.flickr.com/photos/natural_wonders_photography/

There’s a lovely picture of the truly ridiculous-looking “Madagascan leaf-nosed snake” (Langaha madagascariensis) here-
http://www.flickr.com/photos/g-na/3212269140/
Generally, in the animal kingdom, it is the males who have the more outlandish ornaments – horns, headwires, peacock’s tails and so on- but in this case, the males have a comparatively discrete thin, pointed snouts, making them look like twigs, whilst the females have the more elaborate leaf-shaped noses for which the species is famous. These weird creatures live on tree-living animals, such as lizards, frogs and bird nestlings and grow to around a metre long.

This week’s educational link is to this article on snakes of Madagascar -
http://www.wildmadagascar.org/wildlife/snakes.html