Fogbow

Photographer Captures the Fairytale-Like Horses Who Roam Iceland’s Epic Landscape

Photographer Drew Doggett is known for traveling the world, capturing extraordinary landscapes, people, and cultures. One of his most enchanting series to date, titled In the Realm of Legends, captures the one-of-a-kind beauty of Icelandic horses, who majestically roam the surrounding territory. Though many opt to capture the stunning landscapes that Iceland has to offer, Doggett takes it one step further by also embracing its unique equestrian population to create a union of myth and fantasy that's almost too good to be true.

During his time in Iceland, Doggett stayed on a farm with hundreds of horses. He was initially drawn to the enchanted landscape by tales of folklore. Such takes included the famous, eight-legged Icelandic horse named Sleipnir who is believed to be the spirit animal of the mythological god, Odin. The stunning equine series highlights the relationship between the majestic breed of semi-wild horses—who are believed by some to be the “real-world” descendants of Sleipnir—and the extreme environment that they live in.

Each image visualizes the horses’ powerful but calm natures amidst a wild landscape in constant chaotic motion. “The waterfalls are incredibly loud and almost violently beautiful, yet the horses were calm, standing mere feet from the millions of gallons of rushing water,” Doggett recalls. “Other times, we’d be shooting in thigh-deep snow in windy conditions, as the horses stood completely still.”

You can see more images from the series, plus more from Dogget’s portfolio on his website https://drewdoggett.com/ and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/drewdoggettphotography/.

AndyinPA wrote: ↑Thu Apr 27, 2023 10:58 am Love those horses!

I had hoped to ride one of them on the trip that had to be canceled in 2021. On another trip there, I bought my grandkids little carved wooden miniatures. They didn't believe there were horses like that.

(Will be back next year.)

Tiredretiredlawyer wrote: ↑Thu Apr 27, 2023 10:07 am Shout out to Fogbow's Valkyrie, Kriselda Gray!

https://mymodernmet.com/icelandic-horse ... w-doggett/

Tiredretiredlawyer wrote: ↑Sat Apr 29, 2023 6:04 pm The Icelandic horses have a gait that Quarterhorses and Thoroughbreds do not. It is called the tolt. It looks beautiful and you can ride it forever because it is smooth as glass.

RTH10260 wrote: ↑Mon May 08, 2023 4:18 pm This home owner does not feed the bears. He does leave a snack for Simone the mother bear. The snack hangs high over the balustrade and Simone needs "to work" to get the goodies. The kids are never fed, though they may pick up some nuts if Simone spills the tray. I understand that this home is on the edge of a subdivision next to the forest where wildlife generally comes out to feed.

Suspected Russia-trained spy whale reappears off Sweden’s coast
Beluga whale was first spotted in Norway wearing a harness marked ‘Equipment St Petersburg’ in 2019

AFP in Stockholm
Mon 29 May 2023 19.02 BST

A beluga whale that turned up in Norway wearing a harness in 2019, prompting speculation it was a spy trained by the Russian navy, has reappeared off Sweden’s coast.

First discovered in Norway’s far northern region of Finnmark, the whale spent more than three years slowly moving down the top half of the Norwegian coastline, before suddenly speeding up in recent months to cover the second half and move on to Sweden.

On Sunday, he was observed in Hunnebostrand, off Sweden’s south-western coast.




https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/ ... dens-coast

RTH10260 wrote: ↑Tue Jun 06, 2023 3:25 pm how long until it orders pizza?

Parrots Are Taking Over the World
Smart, adaptable and loud, parrots are thriving in cities far outside their native ranges

By Ryan F. Mandelbaum on July 1, 2023
Scientific American July 2023 Issue

Monk parakeets nest atop the entryway to Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, N.Y. Credit: Ali Cherkis
At Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery the living get as much attention as the dead. Groundskeepers maintain the 478-acre historic landmark as an arboretum and habitat for more than 200 breeding and migratory bird species. But many visiting wildlife lovers aren't interested in those native birds. They're at the entryway, their binoculars trained on the spire atop its Gothic Revival arches. They've come to see the parrots.

The urban cemetery hosts dozens of long-tailed, dove-size parrots, lime green with gray accents on their foreheads and chests, called Monk Parakeets. (Parrots and parakeets are part of the same family.) These birds maintain barrel-size stick nests not just at this cemetery but across the city. They live in nearby Connecticut, too. Monk Parakeets and other species of parrots are in Chicago, Miami, Tampa, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin. Red-masked Parakeets live on Telegraph Hill in San Francisco. Rosy-faced Lovebirds decorate the palm trees of Phoenix. Parrots are present in all of Mexico's 10 largest cities, as well as Barcelona, Amsterdam, Brussels, Rome and Athens. They're in Tel Aviv. And Singapore. All around the world, parrots are taking over with a resounding SQUAWK!!!

Today at least 60 of the world's 380 or so parrot species have a breeding population in a country outside their natural geographical range. Each successful transplant has its own story: some are benign, others a threat to the local wildlife; some are abundant in their home ranges, whereas others rely on cities as a refuge from extinction. All are by-products of the pet trade and animal trafficking around the world. Because they're parrots, they're smart, adaptable, creative and loud. “They're animals that are really social, and they live in cognitively complex social environments,” says Grace Smith-Vidaurre, a postdoctoral fellow at the Rockefeller University and the University of Cincinnati, who studies the birds. “They're like humans in a lot of ways.”



https://www.scientificamerican.com/arti ... the-world/

Home invasions and roadblocks: New Zealand on alert as ‘seal silly season’ begins
Public notice issued to watch out for the flippered creatures as they start to leave their breeding colonies and venture out into New Zealand

Tess McClure in Auckland
Fri 16 Jun 2023 21.00 BST

Sunbathing on roads, breaking through catflaps, visiting film sets, invading homes and taking in the heat of backyard spa bath covers – New Zealand’s “seal silly season” has officially begun and the country is bracing for an influx of adolescent marine mammals exploring the country’s highways, patios and golf courses.

A seal sits on a wooden floor next to carpeted stairs
Seal breaks into New Zealand home, traumatises cat and hangs out on couch
Read more
This week, the government issued a formal public notice that “seal season” had begun – and New Zealanders could expect to encounter higher numbers of the flippered young creatures out and about, exploring human-dominated spaces. From May until December, adult males and freshly weaned pups from New Zealand’s growing fur seal population will leave their breeding colonies and head out into the wider world – many for the first time. They’re young, inexperienced and prone to adolescent misbehaviour and mishaps, hitting the wider world en masse like a cohort of fresh-minted spring breakers.

“I call it seal silly season,” says Prof Louise Chilvers, an ecologist specialising in marine wildlife at Massey University. “It’s like having a teenager being kicked out of the home – they don’t quite know what to do, don’t quite know where to feed, don’t quite know what to do with themselves. They’ve got all this freedom, so they go do a bit of exploring,” she says. “Especially in the middle of winter, it’s cold, and there’s lots of nice warm places – like right in the middle of a tar seal road where it’s held all its heat from the day.”




https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/ ... son-begins