Category Archives: PLANET EARTH OUR HOME

BIRD OF THE WEEK — RED-BREASTED MERGANSER — PLANET EARTH BIRD WORLD group

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All PLANET EARTH groups supports:

Sierra Club* United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) * American Bird Conservancy

PLANET EARTH BIRD WORLD has over 1,500 members and over 112,000 photos and videos.

BIRD OF THE WORK

RED-BREASTED MERGANSER

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Mergus serrator
POPULATION: 370,000
TREND: Stable
HABITAT: Breeds on wooded lakes and tundra ponds; winters mainly on salt water.

The handsome Red-breasted Merganser is a welcome sight along coastlines during the winter. This sea-going duck is notable for its long, red, serrated bill, which gives it the species name serrator.

One of the Red-breasted Merganser’s notable features is a shaggy-looking double crest, which reminds some of a bad case of “bed head.” The colorful male sports a metallic-green head, white neck band and wing patches, a red bill and eyes, and a reddish, black-speckled breast, for which the bird is named. The female is mostly gray with an orange-brown head.

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DansPhotoArtHawkeye2011DiegojacklittlebiddleS C photos
Red Avadavat - with the pearl necklace ((flower stem with seeds embedded) for the chicks.

House finch in the grass

Crested Tit (Lophophanes cristatus)

Ruff in the mud Dundalk Docks

Black oystercatcher couple chasing off seagulls that were getting too close to their nest on Bandon Beach, Southern Oregon

SIERRA CLUB — IS FLORIDA THE ANSWER TO CALIFORNIA’S FIRE PROBLEM? — PLANET EARTH OUR HOME group

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PLANET EARTH OUR HOME is our flagship group with over 12,000 members and over 814,000 photos and videos.

Contest #1 — Your Favorite Sunrise/Sunset

Contest #2 — Yellow Flowers

Contest #3 — Interior Architecture

Every year in early spring, Lane Green sets half of his property—100 acres of longleaf pine forest in the Red Hills region of the Florida Panhandle—on fire. Green, 73, has been burning this land since the time he learned to walk. His father would jury-rig a torch using a wire hanger and piece of cloth and tell him to drag it through the brush along the road—just as Green’s father had been taught before him, his granddad before him, and his great-granddad before him. When Green was young, his favorite time to burn was at night, when the air was cool, and the fire, creeping and crackling, looked as if the stars had been scattered across the ground.

Scientists and land managers almost universally agree that prescribed fire is the single best tool available to help mitigate wildfire risk. Landowners in the American Southeast use more prescribed fire than in any other part of the country. But across much of the American West—which has captured an outsize proportion of the public imagination around wildfire—scientists say land management agencies aren’t using fire nearly enough.

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John Horstman (itchydogimages, SINOBUG)alpenglowtravelersDiegojack–MARCO POLO–tucker.tterence
PB173377 -1M180TV

Tollymore.

Memories of those who have left us

Feelings of loneliness (Gefühle der Einsamkeit)

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GREENPEACE — Oreo maker linked to destruction of orangutan habitat for palm oil in Indonesia — PLANET EARTH FLOWERS group

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PLANET EARTH FLOWERS has over 2,000 members and over 82,000 photos.

Contest — Pink or Red Flowers

Oreo maker linked to destruction of orangutan habitat for palm oil in Indonesia.

Palm oil suppliers to snack food giant Mondelez have destroyed almost 25,000 hectares of orangutan habitat in Indonesia in just two years, new mapping analysis by Greenpeace International has revealed.

Tell Oreo to Drop Dirty Palm Oil Campaign Event in London. © John Cobb

Mondelez is one of the world’s largest buyers of palm oil, which it uses in many of its best-known products, including Cadbury chocolate bars, Oreo cookies and Ritz crackers.

Tell Oreo to stop buying palm oil from rainforest destroyers. Tell them to drop Wilmar.

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3Point141Rafael Gomez – http://micamara.esAndreas PierTHE Holy Hand Grenade!minus1349
Himalayan Blue Poppy

Blue scylla close-up on a spring glade

Lily of the Nile

Lechenaultia biloba

CANUDOS BIOlOGICAL STATION, BRAZIL — ENDANGERED BIRDS — LEAR’S MACAW — PLANET EARTH IN SILHOUETTES group

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PLANET EARTH IN SILHOUETTES has over 1,500 members and over 23,000 photos.

Protecting all birds across the Western Hemisphere, but 25 are a special focus for us. These birds range from the rare Marvelous Spatuletail of Peru to the wide-ranging Bobolink, a familiar but rapidly declining species.

The Canudos Biological Station, located in Brazil’s Bahia Department, is a pioneering initiative managed by Biodiversitas Foundation that protects one of the planet’s most endangered and admired birds, the Lear’s Macaw (EN). Thanks to focused conservation efforts, the species’ numbers have increased from a few dozen in the late 1980s to approximately 1,700 today. The 3,274-acre reserve is striking: Its sandstone canyons are weathered into odd forms, cloaked in Caatinga habitat with giant cacti and unique flora, including the Licuri Palm, an important food for the macaw.

 

Canudos Biological Station is one of our top birding destinations. Photo by Ciro Ginez Albano

 In addition to the Lear’s Macaw, you are likely to see other northeastern Brazil endemics, including the Broad-tipped Hermit (LC), Red-shouldered Spinetail (LC), and Cactus Parakeet (LC). Also, watch for the Black-bellied Antwren (LC), Barred Antshrike (LC), Red-legged Seriema (LC), and Blue-winged Macaw (NT), among others. In the evenings, a guide-led night walk might reveal the Rufous Nightjar (LC) and several owl species.

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orb1806BLANCA GOMEZalexinatempaJim MullhauptChrisGoldNY
Huntington Beach Pier

winter time

December 26th Sunset

Untitled

Live Oak Sunrise

GREENPEACE — GREENPEACE AND MOSQUITO FLEET — REFLECTIONS ON WATER — PLANET EARTH LANDSCAPES group

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PLANET EARTH LANDSCAPES has over 7,000 members and over 268,000 photos and videos. has over 7,200 photos and videos. 

Contest — Open Spaces (No Urban Landscapes)

BREAKING: Greenpeace and Mosquito Fleet activists are LIVE in Seattle Harbor blocking a Kinder Morgan barge from entering into the oil company’s facility to protest its threats to Indigenous rights, our water and our climate.

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tango-stumbleonl4tsRNRobertMicheline Canal

Cathedral Rock and reflecting pond, January 2012

The Gardens at Wightwick Manor.

You shall not thirst

My Dreamed Sunset VIII.

Ice Melting On Lake Surfaces in Winter *A Beautiful Nature*