飽食者 Cormorant the Predator, Lake Ontario, Ontario Place Toronto Jul 10 2009

活 Active Volcano- Volcan Masaya, Masaya Nicaragua 2005

Masaya is a large basaltic volcanic caldera located 20 km south of Managua, Nicaragua. It is Nicaragua's first and largest National Park, and one of 78 protected areas of Nicaragua. The volcanic complex is composed of a nested set of calderas and craters, the largest of which is Las Sierras shield volcano and caldera. Within this caldera lies Masaya Volcano sensu stricto, a shallow shield volcano composed of basaltic lavas and tephras. This hosts Masaya caldera, formed 2500 years ago by an 8-km³ basaltic ignimbrite eruption. Inside this caldera a new basaltic complex has grown from eruptions mainly on a semi-circular set of vents that include the Masaya and Nindiri cones. The latter host the pit craters of Masaya, Santiago, Nindiri and San Pedro. Observations in the walls of the pit craters indicate that there have been several episodes of cone and pit crater formation.
The floor of Masaya caldera is mainly covered by poorly vegetated lava, indicating resurfacing within the past 1000 or so years, but only two lava flows have erupted since the sixteenth century. The first, in 1670, was an overflow from the Nindiri crater, which at that time hosted a 1-km-wide lava lake. The other, in 1772, issued from a fissure on the flank of the Masaya cone. Since 1772, lava has appeared at the surface only in the Santiago pit crater (presently active and persistently degassing) and possibly within Nindiri crater in 1852. A lake occupies the far eastern end of the caldera.
Masaya continually emits large amounts of surfur dioxide gas (from the active Santiago crater) and volcanologists study this (amongst other signs) to better understand the behavior of the volcano and also evaluate the impact of acid rain and the potential for health problems.
Other eruptive events have occurred in the last 50 years. On November 22, 1999, the Masaya Volcano appears to have begun a new eruptive event. A hot spot appeared on satellite imagery, and there was a possible explosion. On April 23, 2001 the crater exploded and formed a new vent in the bottom of the crater. The explosion sent rocks with diameters up to 60 cm which travelled up to 500 m from the crater. Vehicles in the visitors area were damaged and one person was injured. On October 4, 2003 an eruption cloud was reported at Masaya. The plume rose to a height of ~4.6 km.

(descriptive source : Wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masaya_Volcano )

熱 Tropical Ants working really hard , City Park Managua Nicaragua 2005

On a rainy day on Sunday,
I just went down from my hotel for walk to downtown area with Casino complex.
And I found a small park full of high tropical trees and some benches.
There was a big shadow formed by the abundant leaves of the giant trees.

All of a sudden I found some small things are moving on the ground and I kneeled down to have a detail look. It was really suprising to see the moving small leaves in row. And soon I remembered the scenes I watched on Discovery or National Geographic channel.

Those were the ants carrying leaves. Green and yellow leaves were carried by the amazing creatures dilligently. They were so fast in moving that I couldn't have my camera focus on them well. Surely because I was watching them they were nervous and getting faster and faster in moving which made me troublesome to take good pictures. However I was so excited to see them moving that I had no chance of complaining.. ^,^

Discovery Channel 등에서 보던 장면이 내 발아래서 펼쳐졌다.
작은 나뭇잎들과 꽃잎들이 뒤뚱 뒤뚱 열지어
한 방향으로 움직이고 있었던 것이다.
무릎을 굽혀 살펴 보니 열대의 붉은 개미들이
부지런히 잎사귀들을 나르고 있었다.
무겁기도 하겠거니와 종이같은 세워진 잎사귀들을 나르것이
결코 쉽지 않을텐데 놓지지도 않고 어찌나 빠르게 지나가던지
아무리 셔터를 눌러대도 촛점이 제대로 맞지가 않았다..

베르베르는 '개미' 를 통해 말했다
외계인들이 지구에서 종을 선택한다면
인간보다는 개미를 택할것 같다고..
그는 지구를 사실상 점령하고 있는 동물은 인간이 아니라 개미라고 단언한다.
이들의 조직력, 조직을 위해 기꺼이 죽을 수 있는 희생 정신
철저한 역할 분담, 지극히 간단하고 즉각적인 의사 소통 체계,
생존을 위한 종족간의 연합,
지극히 많은 개체수...등등으로 하여
인간보다 훨씬 더 오랜 동안 지구 곳곳의 혹독한 기후에도 아랑곳 없이
계속해서 번성하고 있는 것이다.

獵 the Beautiful Hunter-Herron, Don River Toronto June 2008

野 Cormorants' Playground, Don River Toronto June 2008

Lucky Peter encountered a Woodpecker, Don River near DVP South Toronto Jun 25 2008

Honey Bee on the Violet, Don River Broadview Toronto 2008

Scientists really worry about vanishing bees. One of feasible assumptions is because of high frequency level of mobile phones on earth navigating capability of bees to get back home is to be disturbed. It's more than tragedy if there will be no bees on this planet.
No bees no plants, no food.

蜂 Honey Bee on top of Yellow Flowers, Do River Broadview Toronto 2008

道園 Their Paradise, Don River Broadview Toronto 2008