Bing Wallpapers Archive
What do you get when a railway, a lifeboat station and a seaside day out meet at the water's edge? Mumbles Pier. Stretching 255 metres into Swansea Bay, this Victorian landmark opened on 10 May 1898 and has been part of the Welsh coast ever since.
© Helen Hotson/Shutterstock
Surrounded by a patchwork of red, orange and gold, Glade Creek Grist Mill stands above the rocky waters of Glade Creek in West Virginia's Babcock State Park, United States. Although it looks like a relic from the pioneer era, the mill is actually a carefully crafted tribute to Appalachia's milling heritage.
© dszc/Getty Images
Today's image has a little airborne drama: double-crested cormorants are cruising above the waves of Monterey Bay, California, United States. Widespread across North America, these adaptable seabirds may migrate or remain year-round, depending on the population. Along California's coast, bays, wetlands and estuaries provide important habitat for birds travelling the Pacific Flyway.
© Hiroya Minakuchi/Minden Pictures
Just off the coast of Corsica, France, the Sanguinaires Islands rise from the Mediterranean as a small archipelago of four rugged, rocky islands. Viewed from a historic watchtower, they sit at the entrance to the Gulf of Ajaccio. Steep cliffs, centuries-old landmarks and sweeping sea views have drawn visitors to the area for generations. Though the farthest island lies only about 1.9 kilometres from shore, the archipelago feels surprisingly remote, surrounded by open water and shaped by wind, waves and salt spray.
© Francesco Riccardo Iacomino/Getty Images
Something has clearly crossed a line. Off the coast of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean, this octopus has adopted a defensive posture that says: whatever is approaching should reconsider its life choices.
© Gabriel Barathieu/Minden Pictures
What if a mountain range could show you its geological history in stripes? At Zhangye National Geopark in China, the rocks do exactly that. Designated as a UNESCO Global Geopark in 2020, Zhangye is in Gansu, a region linked to the ancient Silk Road. Here, ridges roll across the landscape in bands of red, orange, yellow, brown and other earthy tones. Known as the Danxia landform, this striking landscape was shaped by layers of sedimentary rock deposited over geological time. Tectonic forces later lifted and folded these layers, while weathering and erosion carved them into ridges, cliffs, gullies and peaks.
© Weiquan Lin/Getty Images
What can a 70-centimetre-tall bird teach us about life? Quite a lot. The Adélie penguin offers a lesson plan packed with resourcefulness, resilience and a little mischief. Found along the Antarctic coast, the species was named after Adèle, the wife of French explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville, during the expedition that encountered the penguins in 1840.
© Otto Plantema/Minden Pictures
Castles usually come with towers, walls and at least one dramatic story. Château de Castelnaud in France has plenty of all three, plus medieval weapons. Rising around 150 metres above the Dordogne Valley, this 13th-century fortress commands views towards Château de Beynac and Périgord Noir. Its story is anything but quiet. During the Hundred Years' War, Castelnaud changed allegiance several times before French forces captured it after a three-week siege in 1442. Centuries later, the neglected fortress was used as a stone quarry before restoration began in 1965.
© garethkirklandphotogrphy/Getty Images
The season of big meals, bigger bellies and stocking up for winter is here. In Alaska, brown bears at Lake Clark National Park and Preserve make the most of the food still available in October. They feed on fish, sedges, berries, roots, clams and other foods to build up fat reserves. Some can weigh more than 450 kilograms before entering their dens for hibernation. That stored fat helps them survive the winter, when they do not eat or drink.
© Danny Green/Nature Picture Library
Rivers have long played an important role in life across the world, supporting communities, wildlife and industry. Featured in today's image, the Chattooga River runs for about 92 kilometres across Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina in the United States. Flowing through the Appalachian Mountains, it winds between steep, forested slopes, rocky gorges and cascading rapids before reaching Lake Tugaloo. The river remains one of the Southeast's few major free-flowing rivers and is known for its scenery, whitewater recreation and wildlife.
© mtilghma/Getty Images
In 1890, Yosemite became America's third national park. More than a century later, it still feels like a place that operates on geological time rather than human schedules. From Olmsted Point, the overlook in today's image, that timescale is impossible to miss. The smooth granite underfoot was sculpted by glaciers, while scattered boulders known as glacial erratics were carried here by ice and abandoned when it melted.
© Robb Hirsch/Tandem Stills + Motion
Balanced on a slender stalk in Norfolk, England, the male bearded reedling in today's image stands out with a pale blue-grey head, a bright orange bill and the black facial markings that give the species its name. Despite its striking appearance, this small bird spends much of its life hidden among the dense wetland vegetation of marshes, lakeshores and reed beds.
© Andrew Sproule/Shutterstock