Echoes in the Mist

Dark Kite-swallowtail Butterfly, Belize

We had been birding the Belizean tropical jungle for days, when a new phenomenon greeted us one dawn morning: clouds of butterflies congregating around the ground.

Up until then, we had been seeing that same species, the Dark Kite-swallowtail butterfly, flying around all week. One or two, here and there, on flowers–like usual.

But this day they were in clumps of 40 and 50, always on the earth.

Dark Kite-swallowtail Butterflies, Belize

Rainforest

There were hundreds, and as we headed down the road to our destination–to watch toucans feeding–we watched them flutter all around, quite magical.

They were all on the road and the dirt, and as our truck trundled by I was nervous for their safety. They could easily be run over.

I asked the guide, “Why are all the butterflies around this morning? And in such big groups?” It was 6 a.m., no one…

Munduruku indigenous tribe members trek through their protected lands that illegal miners had destroyed in search of gold.

From Amazon rainforests to the Arctic Circle, indigenous peoples are under siege

From Amazon rainforests to the Arctic Circle, indigenous peoples are leveraging ancestral knowhow to protect habitats that have sustained them for hundreds and even thousands of years, according to a landmark UN assessment of biodiversity released Monday.

But these “guardians of nature” are under siege, warns the first major UN scientific report to fully consider indigenous knowledge and management practices.

Whether it is logging, agribusiness and cattle ranching in the tropics, or climate change warming the poles twice as fast as the global average, an unrelenting economic juggernaut fuelled by coal, oil and gas is ravaging the natural world, the grim report found.

A million of Earth’s estimated eight million species are at risk of extinction, and an area of…

behold
the enormity
of tiny things

a glimpse of your grounds
grazing animals bell sounds
lost deep affection found

The Common Wood-Nymph Butterfly is a gorgeous creature.

Brown Skipper

Spotted Skipper

Monarch

This 2 May 2019 video shows great crested grebes feeding their youngsters.

The meals include feathers which make for a protective layer in the young birds’ stomachs.

Thea Bezemer in the Netherlands made this video.

Tel Aviv, Israel

VIJAY SHAH

Israel has launched a series of air strikes on locations associated with the Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip area, after militants said to belong to the two outfits launched a series of rocket attacks across the heavily-fortified border this weekend, several news outlets have reported.

According to the New York Times, militants in Gaza fired a total of 250 rockets across the Israeli-Palestinian Territories border, killing a 60-year-old Israeli citizen, Moshe Agadi, when his house in the southern city of Ashkelon. Some rockets were intercepted by the Israeli army and others fell on open ground, the New York Times said. Several Israeli news media however gave a figure of 400 rockets fired into their country’s territory. Planes bombed Gaza City over Friday and this morning, with plumes of smoke spotted across the skyline, AFP (Agence France Presse) reports.

BBC…

In Unteruhldingen, Germany, on Lake Constance, wooden posts in the water still serve as reminders of the houses that once stood there.

During the Neolithic Period (4,000 BC), the first farmers settled by the lakes around the Alps. They often built their villages directly in or by the water and protected themselves from the wet grounds and floods by building their homes on wooden stilts. These pile dwellings are an early form of settlement offering the people protection against enemies and predators. And the close proximity to water was also vital for survival by the direct access to the lucrative fishing grounds.

The pictures here were all taken some days ago at the Pile Dwellings Museum of Unteruhldingen, Lake Constance. This site comprises an open-air museum with 23 reconstructed houses from the Stone and Bronze Age (4,000 until 850 BC). After archeological excavations in the lake the first houses were…

Tenerife, the main island of the Canarian archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, is a place full of contrasts, that it’s almost impossible to find an adjective that describes them all.  Created by volcanic forces long time ago the centre of the island is dominated by an impressive huge caldera and the highest mountain of Spain. Besides there are canyons, trails, abrupt coastlines, spectacular cliffs, sand dunes, semideserts, tropical plants, pine or laurel forests which areperfect for hiking and wandering in the diverse biospheres and climate zones. The following pictures taken by my loved Beatrice during our various visits show more the multiple rocky aspects of Tenerife.

Cactees in the semi-desert

Layers of lava stream

View on Mt. Teide (3718 m) seen from Mt. Guajara (2715 m)

Abandoned cottage in the countryside

At the edge of the volcanic caldera

Cliffs at Costa del Silencio during low tide

View on the…