A king eider sea duck tackles a prickly dinner of sea urchin on a lake in Batsfjord, Norway in the last decade of August 2024. The drake’s breeding plumage consists of a distinctive powder-blue head and neck, orange frontal lobe and a red bill. (Photo by Mia Surakka/Solent News)

Hundreds of flamingos take flight in the Rift Valley in East Africa early September 2024. The birds gather in the region’s saline lakes to eat the blue-green algae that grows in abundance. The red-orange pigment in the algae is what gives them their distinctive pink plumage. They also use the site to breed. (Photo by Alexandre and Chloe Bes/Naturagency/Solent News)

A skater observes pancakes snow on the frozen Lake des Rousses in Les Rousses, central-eastern France, on January 1, 2025. This phenomenon forms when slushy ice in water clumps into round, pancake-like shapes due to waves or currents. (Photo by Fabrice Coffrini/AFP Photo)

A boat transports Pirarucu fish to a processing ship, in the San Raimundo settlement lake, in Carauari, Brazil, Tuesday, September 6, 2022, published November 3. The giant fish not so long ago nearly vanished. The illegal and unsustainable fishing left river and Indigenous communities struggling to catch their staple food. (Photo by Jorge Saenz/AP Photo)

A picture made available in 01 July 2016 shows a 16-meter-long and 6.5-meter-high model of a Spinosaurus installed by employees of the dinosaur park in Muenchenhagen in the region of Hannover, Germany, 28 June 2016. The model is considered the only replica of this dinosaur species worldwide. The outdoor museum at Lake Steinhude shows more than 230 true-to-scale replica of dinosaurs. (Photo by Holger Hollemann/EPA)

Two brothers have built a human catapult to fly into a lake. Johannes Schrieber, 26, and his brother Daniel, 28, from Frankfurt, Germany built the wooden contraption, which can fire people five metres into the sky and 12 metres away. The brothers raised more than £700 through crowdfunding to buy the materials, with every penny well spent as nobody has died yet! (Photo by Caters News)

Historical reenactor Troy Kotz poses with a mug of wassail in the parlor of the Guyon-Lake-Tysen House during the annual Candlelight Tour of Historic Richmond Town, Saturday, December 13, 2014, in the Staten Island borough of New York. The annual event lets visitors experience an authentic Victorian Christmas. This image was made using the TinType by Hipstamatic iPhone app. (Photo by Chad Rachman/New York Post)

These snaps capture true winter wonderlands – as Mother Nature's icy grip takes hold of America's National Parks. From snow-capped mountains in Yosemite to an icy still Glacier Bay, the incredible images show their beauty is year round. In other breath-taking shots crisp frost lines the paths through Great Smokey Mountains and Crater Lake has had more than a dusting of snow. Here: Apostle Island National Lakeshore Park in Wisconsin. (Photo by U.S. Department of the Interior/Cater News)