In this Friday, February 6, 2015 photo, sandhill cranes begin to stir after resting for the night at a roosting location along their winter migration route in Cecilia, Ky. According to counts made by biologists with the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Resources, about 12,000 of the birds have stopped in Cecilia this week during their winter northward migration on their way to their nesting grounds in the Great Lakes region. (Photo by David Stephenson/AP Photo)

An American white pelican takes flight on the island of Petatan in the municipality of Cojumatlan de Regules, Michoacan state, Mexico on February 23, 2024. The island becomes home to the pelicans during the winter, when they travel from the north of the United States and the south of Canada to the warmer waters of Lake Chapala in Mexico. The birds are a tourist attraction and people gather on the island's boardwalk to feed them and watch them fly. (Photo by Enrique Castro/AFP Photo)

Every year, in the Rostov region of Russia, a group of 40 young and not so young rural workers compete in the Bison Track Show, or more affectionately known as: Russian Flying Tractor Racing. In front of crowds numbering up to 30,000 people, a series of smoke spilling, monstrous farming machines tear round an 8km mud track, plowing through lakes and dirt mounds, their turbos screaming and tyres scrabbling to find grip.

Boats moored in the middle of Dal lake are silhouetted against the setting sun on January 15, 2018 in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian administered Kashmir, India. Kashmir, the Muslim majority state, known as the “Paradise on Earth” has for centuries captured the imagination of many writers, poets and film makers and is integral to the tourist trade. Kashmir has been a contested land between nuclear neighbors India and Pakistan since 1947, the year both the countries attained freedom from the British rule. (Photo by Yawar Nazir/Getty Images)

Young women wearing facemasks and traditional costumes of Song dynasty and Tang dynasty are seated on a bench in a park next to the East Lake in Wuhan, in China’s central Hubei province on May 17, 2020. The Guardian picture desk has chosen on December 17, 2020, the AFP photojournalist Hector Retamal as “Agency Photographer of the Year 2020” for his coverage of the novel coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic in Wuhan, China. (Photo by Hector Retamal/AFP Photo)

Believers bathe in the icy water during a traditional Epiphany at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Ostankino near TV Tower in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, January 18, 2023. Across Russia, the devout and the daring are observing the Orthodox Christian feast day of Epiphany by immersing themselves in frigid water through holes cut through the ice of lakes and rivers. Epiphany celebrates the revelation of Jesus Christ as the incarnation of God through his baptism in the River Jordan. (Photo by Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Photo)

A long exposure image shows star trails from the abandoned submerged orthodox church of St. Nicholas without roof, submerged in the Mavrovo Lake, near Mavrovi Anovi, North Macedonia, 17 March 2019. Constructed in 1850 and submerged in 1952 due to the construction of the hydro system Mavrovo, the church St. Nicholas continues to attract the attention of almost every visitor as it peaks from the water. (Photo by Georgi Licovski/EPA/EFE)

The deserts of Argentina take on a starring role in this photographer’s breathtaking Milky Way shots. Amateur snapper Gonzalo Javier Santile, 46, spent the last two years capturing these rare shots of the galaxy as it arced over deserts in Salta Cafayate, Cordoba Valle de Punilla, Provincia de Buenos Aires and the Rio Negro province. In his pictures, the Milky Way can be admired as it towers over canyons, cacti, bushes, and even small brooks and lakes. (Photo by Gonzalo Javier Santile/Caters News Agency)