An egret in the second decade of April 2025 cools off in the Florida heat by gular fluttering, rapidly vibrating its throat muscles with an open beak. The mechanism helps to dissipate heat through evaporation. (Photo by Ronen Tivony/ZUMA Press Wire/Alamy Live News)

Penitentes, or nieves penitentes (Spanish for “penitent-shaped snows”), are a snow formation found at high altitudes. They take the form of tall thin blades of hardened snow or ice, closely spaced with the blades oriented towards the general direction of the sun.

A young girl gives a banana to a tamed baboon on the outskirts of Beira, Mozambique, Sunday, March, 31, 2019. Cholera cases among cyclone survivors in Mozambique have jumped to 271, authorities said. So far no cholera deaths have been confirmed. (Photo by Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi/AP Photo)

“Eye of a toad”. Animal Portraits, Łukasz Bożycki, Poland. Early spring sees a pond near Łukasz’s home city of Warsaw, Poland, full of mating frogs and a few toads. On this March day, Łukasz shared the pond with them for an evening, sitting in the icy water in his chest-high waders, keeping as still as possible, despite the numbing cold, so that the amphibians could get used to him. “I wanted to find a fresh way of portraying the amphibians”, he says, “at water level”. Using a telephoto lens, he focused on one lone toad and waited for the sun to dip almost below the horizon before pressing the shutter, using flash to bring out the details in the shadow. His prize was “the glorious pool of sunset colour” and fiery glow of the toad’s eye. Nikon D80 + 70-300mm f4.5-5.6 lens + extension tube; 1/125 sec at f9 (-2.3 e/v); ISO 100; built-in flash. (Photo by Łukasz Bożycki)

U.S. Air Force wounded warrior, Capt. Sarah Evans, jumps rope in a gym in San Antonio, Texas. Evans was diagnosed with cancer while deployed to Afghanistan and was medically evacuated back to the United States where her leg was amputated. (Photo by Master Sgt. Jeffrey Allen/U.S. Air Force)

A group of young men use a selfie stick to take a picture of themselves in shallow waters known as the first cataract of the River Nile outside Khartoum, Sudan, May 22, 2015. In Sudan, which faces insurgences in the western region of Darfur and along its border with breakaway South Sudan, as well as double-digit inflation and high unemployment, life goes on for young people in the capital Khartoum. (Photo by Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/Reuters)

A sign that reads “No more massacres LGBT” is seen to remember the victims of the Pulse nightclub mass shooting in Orlando, near the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, Mexico, June 14, 2016. (Photo by Edgard Garrido/Reuters)

A participant takes part at performance of Mexican dance academy to protest against authorities due not allow freedom of labor union during the celebration of International Dance Day at Palace of Fine Arts (Palacio de Bellas Artes) on April 29, 2021 in Mexico City, Mexico. (Photo by Eyepix/NurPhoto/Rex Features/Shutterstock)