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Amazing Photography

A Mother Duck and Her Extraordinary Brood of 76 Ducklings Photographed in a Minnesota Lake

Minnesota-based wildlife photographer Brent Cizek was headed back to shore before a summer storm when he spotted the common merganser he would later nickname “Momma Merganser.” At first the mother duck was being followed by a brood of more than 50 fluffy ducklings, however when spotted the group again, the total had grown to 76.

“I happened to find this group of mergansers purely by luck, but I was absolutely amazed by what I saw,” Cizek tells Colossal. “At the time I didn’t know anything about the species, so I wasn’t sure if what I witnessed was a common occurrence or something out of the ordinary. All I knew was that I had never seen anything like that before.”

The scene is extraordinary indeed. Although the aquatic birds are known to lay their eggs in the nests of other ducks, a female duck can only incubate 20 at any given time explains Kenn Kaufman, field editor for Audubon. It is most likely that several dozen of the ducklings lost their mothers and were adopted into Momma Merganser’s own brood.

Cizek plans to continue following the extra large family, and posts his findings to on Instagram. To learn more about merganser habits, read the National Audubon Society’s piece on the surprising spectacle. (via Laughing Squid)

Amazing Science

Watch Amazonian Butterflies Take Sips of a Turtle’s Salty Tears

Entomologist and adventurer Phil Torres hosts a popular YouTube Channel, The Jungle Diaries, where he shares insights and observations from his travels to remote areas around the world. Recently, a trip to the Peruvian Amazon afforded footage of eight different butterfly species alighting on turtles to drink their tears. The phenomenon occurs because the sodium in the tears is a vital part of the butterflies’ diet that’s not readily available in the foods they consume. The search for sodium is actually quite common in the wild, and is also sourced from jaguar feces and river mud, as Torres notes.

You can follow along with more of Torres’s discovery-filled travels on Instagram and Twitter. Also check out photographer Mark Cowan’s amazing snapshot of a caiman sporting a crown of tear-drinking butterflies from 2016. (via Lustik)

 

Art Photography

Temporary Installations Create Winding Paths Through a Forest in the South of England

For her 2011 series Come With Me, UK-based artist Ellie Davies (previously) constructed pathways through the New Forest in the South of England where she grew up. The pathways, built from wool, powder, paint, and mounds of dirt, follow the natural curvature of the trees and create a weaving line through space. The installations are each created with an intuitive spontaneity, and incorporate the labor as a central concept to the work. Davies carefully cleans up all the materials after she documents each trail. The photographer recently had a solo exhibition titled Into the Woods with A. galerie in Brussels. You can see more of her forest-based installations and digital compositions on her website and Facebook. (via Ignant)

Photography

Winners and People’s Choice of the 2018 National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year

After sifting through nearing 13,000 submissions National Geographic has announced the winners, honorable mentions, and people’s choice of their 2018 Travel Photographer of the Year Contest (previously). This year’s grand prize was awarded to photographer Reiko Takahashi for her close-up image of a humpback whale calf she captured while snorkeling near Japan’s Kumejima Island. Other selected photographs include an aerial image of thousands of flamingos taking off from a lake in Tanzania, a dramatic shot of Northern Italy’s alien-like sand towers, and a dazzling immersive art installation that frames a running girl in a bright red dress. You can read the stories behind these images, and view more selections from the categories of Nature, People, and Cities, on National Geographic. (via Kottke)

Art Illustration

Fantastical Swirls of Strange Hybrid Creatures Fill Vorja Sánchez’s New Illustrations

Spanish illustrator Vorja Sánchez (previously) continues to plumb his imagination to create wildly original drawings and paintings. Constellations of real and invented wildlife, plants, and mysterious critters that seem to be a combination of the two, coexist in the artist’s colorful multi-media illustrations. Sánchez shares his work on Instagram and Facebook, where he also provides details on works for sale and updates on collaborative projects and murals.

Amazing Photography

Unique Weathering Pattern Creates Fascinating Geometric Ripples on a Chain Link Fence

Over the past few years, Twitter user @Ben_On_The_Moon has photographed his chain link fence due to a mysterious weathering pattern that has caused groups of concentric rings to appear on the upper side of the fence’s segments. His macro photographs emphasize the intriguing apparitions, which appear like miniature crop circles on the metal bars. Despite his research, he has not discovered the specific cause of the pattern. You can see more of @Ben_On_The_Moon’s documentation of the curious phenomena on Twitter. (via Kottke)

Art

Hand-Dyed Crocheted Thread Carefully Covers Eggs, Seeds, and Tree Trunks

Esther Traugot connects to the natural world by collecting and covering seed pods, eggs, severed tree trunks, and other natural objects in tightly-wrapped textile “skins.” She uses hand-dyed gold threads to crochet around these objects in order to temporarily mend what has previously been broken or abandoned. Through her work Traugot straddles the line of nurture and control, investigating her dual role as a member and observer of the natural landscape.

“The meticulous act of crocheting mimics the instinct to nurture and protect what is viable, what is becoming precious,” she explains in an artist statement. “As in gilding, these false ‘skins’ imbue the objects with an assumed desirability or value; the wrapping becomes an act of veneration. Although futile in its attempt at archiving and preservation, it suggests optimism.”

Traugot is interested in “contemporary naturalism,” or artwork that cares for the environment in our current global ecological state, and also views her work in conversation with Land and Environmental Art and Feminism. She received her BFA from the University of California Berkeley in 2005 and her MFA from Mills College in 2009. Traugot is represented by Chandra Cerrito Contemporary Gallery in Oakland, California, and currently lives and works in Sebastopol, CA. You can view more of her gold threaded objects on her website.