Michael Olivant, a Times reader, saw a chance to contribute when a Dalmatian pelican landed on his wife’s head at Lake Kerkini in northern Greece in the first decade of February 2025. (Photo by Michael Olivant/The Times)

Belarusian villagers celebrate the Christmas carol rite (Kalyady) in the village of Danilevichy, some 320 km south of Minsk on January 7, 2020. Kalyady is an ancient pagan holiday originally celebrated on winter solstice. Dressed-up people walk from house to house singing, dancing, eating and drinking with their neighbours. (Photo by Sergei Gapon/AFP Photo)

Icelandic horses play on a stud farm in Wehrheim Frankfurt, Germany, as the sun rises on Thursday, May 21, 2020. (Photo by Michael Probst/AP Photo)

A woman looks on December 10, 2020 at a metal monolith that has popped up on a riverbank of the Vistula in the Polish capital Warsaw, the latest in a string of similar objects that have recently appeared in Europe and the US. Similar-looking objects were found in the United States, Romania and Britain. (Photo by Wojtek Radwanski/AFP Photo)

People train parrots during a parrot-training show held by Kuwaiti bird lovers in Jahra Governorate, Kuwait, December 7, 2020. (Photo by Xinhua News Agency/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

People carry an empty coffin past a street food vendor into the shop that is buying it to repair and sell in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Friday, September 13, 2024. (Photo by Odelyn Joseph/AP Photo)

Crews prepare hot air balloons for the Kentucky Derby Festival Great Balloonfest Rush Hour Race at Bowman Field on Friday, April 26, 2024. (Photo by Michael Clevenger/Courier Journal)

Pakistani Rangers take part in the beating retreat ceremony at the India-Pakistan Wagah border post, about 35 km from Amritsar on March 9, 2022. (Photo by Narinder Nanu/AFP Photo)