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Marty’s photo of the day #4512: Bonaire is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and in 1850 the Dutch West Indies Company built slave huts for slaves working in its four salt pans. My wife, Deb, is standing next to some of the slave huts that have been preserved. The slaves would use these […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4510: With all the colorful fish on the reef surrounding Bonaire, it’s easy to overlook the fish that would rather not be seen. I spotted one such fish—a sand diver—just a short distance out from shore. How tough are sand divers to spot? Below the main photo I’ve added a […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4505: Most people incorrectly assume that flamingos are born pink. What actually happens is that they start out white and turn pink from the beta-carotene in the algae, brine fly larvae, and brine shrimp they eat. (Photographed in Bonaire)
Marty’s photo of the day #4502: Bonaire has both brown-throated parakeets and yellow-shouldered Amazon parrots. The two species look alike, but there are subtle differences between them. The most noticeable difference is that the parakeet is slimmer than the parrot. Last month, I was lucky enough to photograph both of them. Today, I’m featuring the […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4484: Humans brought donkeys to Bonaire in the 1600s to perform manual labor. Later, machines replaced the donkeys, and they were abandoned by the humans. Bad humans! Good donkeys! As such, wild donkeys still roam the island. They have a tough life here, and being that Bonaire has a dry […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4817: Prairie dogs are a keystone species. If you don’t pay close attention, it’s easy to assume that every animal atop a mound in a prairie dog town is a prairie dog, but you’d be wrong. Using the same holes are burrowing owls and rabbits. Also, if you reach deep […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4695: Deb and I have occasionally talked about returning to Antarctica, but we recently learned that getting to Antarctica by crossing the Drake Passage (famous for the roughest seas in the world) has largely become a thing of the past. Instead, people fly down to Antarctica and then get on […]
Marty’s photos of the day #4567: This is a laughing kookaburra, photographed in Australia. Here’s what I wrote about these birds in my first book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents: Though not as stunning as the kingfishers or cockatoos, laughing kookaburras are handsome gray and white birds with a very famous call: […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4501: I shot this photograph many years ago in New Orleans. I know nothing about this person, but statistically a child would be safer with someone who looks like this than with Christian clergy—a lot safer. So if Republicans really care about children, why are they so bent out of […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4470: AI technology amazes me. Yesterday, I finished the first draft of my eighth book, “Barry and Beth,” and in that novel, my characters are trying to produce a short video to stop barbaric alligator hunting practices in Florida. For a script idea, they try AI. Well, I did that […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4452: from the Borneo chapter of Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents: One creature that did follow a schedule was an insect called a “six o’clock cicada.” I was familiar with a variety of cicadas but had no idea an individual species could accurately tell time. According to […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4274: This is Annie, a black flying fox that I photographed in northern Queensland. She is a rescue animal, who once was a pet. Because of that, she doesn’t know how to fly. She now participates in a breeding program, where she gives birth to one pup a year. Researchers […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4258: I know some followers of my posts cringe whenever I post snakes or other animals that don’t fit into the “warm and cuddly” category. But I’m a college speaker and author largely because I’m a wildlife advocate. All animals have value, and that includes snakes. Snakes, for instance, are […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4228: One thing I’ve learned about visiting tropical rainforests is that for the first few days my pores will actually ache from sweating so much. Then, miraculously, my body will adjust to all the heat and humidity, and I’m just fine for the rest of my visit. Of course, if […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4222: I have photographed animals all over the world, and when it comes to reptiles and amphibians in remote rainforests, identifications can be sketchy. Generally, I ID animals I don’t already know by typing the location and physical characteristics into Google and going through the photos that come up. The […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4221: For today’s photo Deb and I go hiking on a rainy night in Costa Rica and find what we are searching for! (Well, at least me.) You’re looking at a fer-de-lance, the deadliest snake in the Western Hemisphere. The fer-de-lance doesn’t have the most potent venom in the Western […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4211: Without intending to do so, it seems that this has turned into a week of posting photos of Deb and me all over the world. Well, since I have momentum. . . . This photo from December 2018 shows the two of us at L’Arena di Verona in Verona, […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4195: Hanging out for a few hours with members of the Yagua tribe along a tributary of the Amazon River was a big event for both visitors and residents. Deb and I brought the children harmonicas, T-shirts, and bubbles, and in return we got to walk through their village and […]
Marty’s photo of the day #3763: In Montana, when people need a bridge, they often go to the railroad yard and buy a used flatbed car. In fact, on the dirt road leading to Deb’s and my house, we cross both a river and a stream on bridges made with railroad cars. When we first […]
Marty’s photos of the day #3725-3729: While visiting Montana’s American Prairie Reserve earlier this month, my wife, Deb, and I found two inactive one-room schoolhouses. One was restored, with an unlocked door that allowed us inside, and the other we could only view from the outside. Deb grew up on a farm, on the outskirts […]
