Polar Bears

Polar bears Bill, right, and Lara react, at their first meeting, at the Zoom Erlebniswelt zoo, in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, Friday, April 17, 2009. Polar bear Bill came from the zoo in Bruenn, Czech Republic, as a new partner for female polar bear Lara.(AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

Moxie & Sukari

In this photo provided by the Wildlife Conservation Society and taken on May 1, 2009 shows , Moxie, a young lion cub and her mother, Sukari, at the Bronx Zoo in New York. Born in November 2008, Moxie was the first lion born at the Bronx Zoo in 31 years.(AP Photo/WCS, Julie Larsen Maher)

Asian Small Claw Otters

SeaWorld animal trainers in Orlando have their hands full with four baby Asian small-clawed otters, seen March 30, 2009.(Photo and caption submitted by Jason Collier/SeaWorld Orlando)

Hubble Deep Field

Several hundred never before seen galaxies are visible in this "deepest-ever" view of the universe, called the Hubble Deep Field (HDF), made with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope in this image released by NASA May 4, 2009. Besides the classical spiral and elliptical shaped galaxies, there is a bewildering variety of other galaxy shapes and colors that are important clues to understanding the evolution of the universe. Some of the galaxies may have formed less that one billion years after the Big Bang. REUTERS/Robert Williams and the Hubble Deep Field Team (STScI) and NASA/Handout (UNITED STATES SCI TECH) FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS

Bald_Eagle_Cam

An eagle seen in a frame grab from a webcam situated on B.C.'s Hornby Island.THE CANADIAN PRESS/ HO/ Infotec Business Systems
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Mercury

This NASA handout image released in October 2008 shows the planet Mercury. The US space probe MESSENGER's second fly-by of the planet Mercury in October 2008 revealed the solar system's smallest planet to be far more active than previously thought, four studies said Thursday.(AFP/NASA/File)

Asian Leopard

Great Grey Owl

A great grey owl, Strix nebulosa, looks on from its enclosure at Skansen zoo in Stockholm April 21, 2009. REUTERS/Leif R Jansson/Scanpix (SWEDEN ANIMALS) SWEDEN OUT. NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES IN SWEDEN

Lion and Tiger

Laith the lion (L) and Dima the tigress rest in their cage at Ghamadan Zoo near Amman April 23, 2009.REUTERS/Ali Jarekji (JORDAN ANIMALS ODDLY)
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A Nose for Butterflies

Close encounter : Newly hatched butterflies land on a woman during a press launch of the "Butterfly Jungle" at the Natural History Museum in London.(AFP/Leon Neal)

Earth Day Flowers

Cut Spring flowers, daffodils and tulips, brighten the inside of a home in Orange Twp., Ohio on Wednesday, April 22, 2009. Today is Earth Day.(AP Photo/Amy Sancetta)

Raccoon

A raccoon peers out from a hole in a tree in a ravine in Moreland Hills, Ohio on Wednesday, April 29, 2009.(AP Photo/Amy Sancetta)

Photos by Ben King

http://benstravelblog.blogspot.com/

Links from Ravi

Ravi's New Website
myrambles.net/ravi/pix/HTML/Galapagos.html

Local people:
Steve Gosser:
http://home.comcast.net/~sgosser/index.htm
Kim Steininger:
http://birdsbykim.com/
and her blog:
http://birdsbykim.com/blog/

And I have great admirations for these people:
http://www.ethanmeleg.com/galleries.htm
http://www.rodplanck.com/gallery.htm
http://www.dlcphotography.net/2008/2008.htm

Other random sites:
http://www.photoportfolios.net/featuredportfolio.html

Albino Moose

Not one, but two ! Truly amazing ! These animals were photographed just north of the Wisconsin border on a highway near Marenisco , MI . Once in awhile there is an opportunity to take in a piece of nature that you may never see. In these days of unrest and turmoil it is great to see that Mother Nature can still produce some wondrous beauty.

The odds of seeing an albino moose are astronomical and to see this in the upper peninsula of Michigan , near Wisconsin , is even greater than astronomical. To see two of them together is nearly impossible..

Mars Mission Simulation

This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image shows Mars in 2005. Six volunteers from Europe and Russia will on Tuesday allow themselves to be locked up in a capsule in Moscow for over three months to simulate the conditions for an eventual manned mission to Mars.(AFP/NASA-HO/File)

Soufriere Hills Volcano

Superheated ash and lava is visible inside the cone of the Soufriere Hills volcano as seen from Olveston, Montserrat in this Jan. 4, 2007 file photo.(AP Photo/Wayne Fenton)

Whitetail Buck

A male whitetail deer in Knox, Pa., stands behind a doe in this Nov. 30, 1999 file photo.(AP Photo)

Black Rhino Calf

'Susan K.' a five-day-old female black rhino calf, rests at the San Francisco Zoo in this July 21, 1998 file photo.(AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

Orca Whale

An Orca whale surfs for a moment in the wake of another in Haro Strait, off the coast of San Juan Island, Wash., in this Aug. 5, 1997 file photo.(AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

Mount Redoubt

Men float down the Kenai River with Mount Redoubt volcano on the horizon, near the mouth of the river at Kenai, Alaska, in this July 30, 2002 photo.(AP Photo/Al Grillo)

Galapagos Volcano

In this photo released by Galapagos National Park, La Cumbre volcano erupts in Fernandina Island, in the Galapagos islands, Ecuador, Saturday, April 11, 2009. The Galapagos National Park says La Cumbre volcano began spewing lava, gas and smoke on uninhabited Fernandina Island on Saturday after four years of inactivity.(AP Photo/Galapagos National Park)

Spring Blooms

Spring blooms : Flowers bloom on a hill overlooking the in the southern German town of Hohenfels.(AFP/DDP/Joerg Koch)

White Rhinoceros

White Rhinoceros calf 'Naruna', right, explores the open-air enclosure of the Serengeti Park in Hodenhagen, northern Germany, Wednesday, April 8, 2009. The square-lipped rhinoceros that was born in Nov. 2008 is the zoo's 40th rhinoceros offspring born since its foundation in 1974.(AP Photo/Axel Heimken)

Botanica Magnifica by Jonathan Singer

Exceptional flower photographs by Jonathan Singer.

Additional Info at:

http://www.botanicamagnifica.com/

&

http://lightmylife.blogsome.com/2009/02/01/jonathan-singer-botanica-magnifica/

San Miguel Island Sea Lions

Sea Lions sun themselves on San Miguel Island, Calif., on Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2009. For centuries, the Pacific Ocean has lapped at sheer cliff sides cradling fragile archaeological sites on a chain of eight islands off the Southern California coast.(AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Cartwheel Galaxy

This false-color composite image provided by NASA Thursday April 2, 2009 shows the Cartwheel galaxy as seen by the Galaxy Evolution Explorer's Far Ultraviolet detector (blue); the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera-2 in B-band visible light (green); the Spitzer Space Telescope's Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) at 8 microns (red); and the Chandra X-ray Observatory's Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer-S array instrument (purple). Approximately 100 million years ago, a smaller galaxy plunged through the heart of Cartwheel galaxy, creating ripples of brief star formation. In this image, the first ripple appears as an ultraviolet-bright blue outer ring. The blue outer ring is so powerful in the GALEX observations that it indicates the Cartwheel is one of the most powerful UV-emitting galaxies in the nearby universe. Although astronomers have not identified exactly which galaxy collided with the Cartwheel, two of three candidate galaxies can be seen in this image to the bottom left of the ring, one as a neon blob and the other as a green spiral.(AP Photo/NASA)

Baby Malayan Tapir

A one-month-old Malayan Tapir named Victoria is seen on Thursday, April 2, 2009 in Singapore at the Singapore Zoo in Singapore. The Malayan Tapir is a native to Southeast Asia and to date, there are eight Malayan Tapirs at the zoo.(AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)

Columbus Zoo Baby Elephant

Phoebe and her unnamed baby male elephant pose for a photo Thursday, April 2, 2009, in Columbus Ohio, and can be seen on public display at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium starting Friday.(AP Photo/Columbus Dispatch, Tom Dodge)

American Pica

This undated photo released by the U.S. Geological Survey, shows a mountain-dwelling American pika. The American pika, a short-legged, softball-sized fur ball that often huddles in high mountain slopes, isn't built for long-distance travel. So as the West's climate warms, the tiny pika has little choice but to scurry a little farther up slope to beat the heat.(AP Photo/US Geological Survey, File)

Goldfish

One-way street : Goldfish swim in an aquarium at a market in north of Tehran.(AFP/Behrouz Mehri)