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Marty’s photo of the day #2616: It’s “Animals A thru Z Month.” Each day in August, I will post an animal I’ve photographed—somewhere in the world—in alphabetical order. E is for Elephant. Did you know that elephants can’t climb? I was in Zimbabwe, standing atop a high riverbank, when a herd of elephants passed below […]
Marty’s photo of the day #2586: I’m pulling a paragraph from my first book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents, to give you information on this Spanish castle: Twenty minutes into our drive, we rounded a corner and came upon a classic crusader-era castle. Perched alone on a hill, it had a circular […]
Marty’s photo of the day #2539: This excerpt from my first book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents, explains today’s picture: I was looking forward to a nap until Ashley, the camp manager, mentioned over lunch that she had recently seen both a Mozambique spitting cobra and a spotted bush snake on […]
Marty’s photo of the day #2538: Because I often see spruce grouse hunting for insects on our dirt road, I assumed insects were their primary diet. While the birds do eat insects in the summer, overall they mostly eat pine needles! Since I took this photo in the summer, I can still think of it […]
Marty’s photo of the day #2535: Here’s what I wrote about laughing kookaburras 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: Oo-oo-oo-aw-aw-aw-oo-oo-oo-aw-aw-aw. When motion picture soundtracks were in their […]
Marty’s photo of the day #2398: The rhinoceros beetle is considered by some to be the world’s strongest animal. Tests have shown it can carry an enormous load in proportion to its weight. How much the beetle can actually carry is subject to debate. Although the prevailing opinion is 850 times its weight, a study […]
Marty’s photo of the day #2364: I took this photo inside Deception Island, off the coast of Antarctica. Yes, “inside” is the correct word. Deception Island is actually an active volcano, and you are looking at ocean water in the caldera of that volcano. The only way out, to open ocean, is straight ahead. The […]
Marty’s photo of the day #2326: This photo from Puerto Rico demonstrates the effect of the island’s interior mountains. Most of Puerto Rico has a tropical climate, with rainforests, but the Guánica State Forest, on the southwestern side of the island, is dry, as the mountains block much of the rain. Here the cacti grow […]
Marty’s photo of the day #2325: Today’s photo is of a Puerto Rican boa constricting a bat. When I was in Puerto Rico, working on my second book, Endangered Edens, Deb and I hiked out to a cave to watch this amazing feat of nature. Puerto Rican boas hung by their tails and plucked the […]
Marty’s photo of the day #2228: Here’ an excerpt from my fist book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents: Woof! “Everyone, sit!” whispered Brian. “A pack of Cape hunting dogs is directly in front of us!” The dogs were an animal I had hoped, but never expected, to see. Cape hunting dogs are […]
Marty’s photo of the day #2114. This is the Castle of the Sad Countess in Arenas de San Pedro, Spain. While working on my first book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet, I pieced together, through various sources (all in Spanish), a story of an amazing woman who resisted the Crown’s repossession of her castle after her […]
