A stunned Common Kingfisher rests after it lost consciousness after hitting a window of a house in the countryside near Warsaw. A few seconds later the bird flew away.
A Rothschild giraffe sticks its head through the door of the Giraffe Manor to be fed in Langata, some 5 kilometers outside of capital Nairobi, Kenya. The Giraffe Manor is a small hotel and a former residence of American conservationists Jock and Betty Leslie-Melville who found the Giraffe Center in 1979 in a bid to protect Rothschild giraffe, one of the most endangered giraffe subspecies.
The most-studied tornado in history enters a late, roping stage over Southeastern Wyoming on June 5, 2009. Scientists' research concludes on June 15, 2010.
John Carlson of Lutsen, Minn., said he was "surprised by the intense activity of the aurora" on Aug. 29, 2008. He took this beautiful but eerie photograph.
It's almost as if these two separate events of nature were fuming at each other. The northern lights are seen above the ash plume of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano on the evening of April 22, 2010.
Solar storms like the outbursts of early August have sparked incredible light shows in the night sky. This NASA image, released June 21, 2010, shows the aurora australis as seen from the International Space Station on May 29, 2010. The space station was located over the Southern Indian Ocean at an altitude of 220 miles, with astronauts most likely looking toward Antarctica (not visible) and the South Pole. Several stars appear as bright pinpoints against the blackness of space toward the top right of the image.
