Wakodahatchee wetlands, Delray Beach, Florida, US. Equipped with sinewy necks and spear-like bills, great blue herons can lunge with fearsome speed to strike their aquatic prey. Adults will also employ rapid stabbing motions as one aspect of their complex courtship displays; they’re seemingly dangerous moves, but fitting to the intensity of mating season. (Photo by Melissa Rowell/Audubon Photography Awards)
Players in action during the Swamp Soccer Championships 2019 in Hyrynsalmi, Finland, 19 July 2019. The World Championship in swamp football is played annually on Vuorisuo bog in Hyrynsalmi. (Photo by Tomi Hanninen/EPA/EFE)
The “Assignments” exhibition is an annual chance to see the top images by UK photojournalists, as chosen by the British Press Photographers’ Association. Here: Wales’s Cory McKenna dominates Micol DiSegni during their fight at Cage Warriors 97 in Cardiff, 29 September 2018. (Photo by Chris Fairweather/Huw Evans Agency)
The Prince Albert Cairn, built in 1862 by Queen Victoria, is surrounded by snow and ice, near Balmoral, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, Friday November 22, 2024. (Photo by Jane Barlow/PA Wire via AP Photo)
People take part in the Burning of the Clavie fire festival in Burghead, Moray, UK on Saturday, January 11, 2025. Burghead welcomes in the New Year twice each year, on both January 11th and the more traditional January 1st. (Photo by Jane Barlow/PA Images via Getty Images)
“Thunderstruck”. Summer stom. A super cell formed off the coast of New Zealand, intensified and swept across Christchurch and North Canterbury, February 23, 2014. Photo location: Christchurch, New Zealand. (Photo and caption by David Hardy/National Geographic Photo Contest)