From the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

One of my favorite horse portraits. From Wallcoo.net

From the Cornell Ornithology Lab’s photo contest – a beautiful shot of a female Northern Flicker, taken by Gary Mueller.

Brown bear cub in snow, from Gary Lackie’s photostream on Flickr. Doesn’t look like the Alaskan cold bothers this little fellow a bit, does it?

Yes, another swan. Thanks to Alex Saberi on NatGeo’s Visions of Earth.

This one comes from a 1987 edition of National Geographic courtesy of Jim Brandenburg.

“The freezer may look bare but an arctic wolf knows a tasty fish might be within reach in the shallows off Canada’s Ellesmere Island. Barren and severe, the region is nearly devoid of human activity, so the animals show little fear of people.”

What I believe is a golden-crowned kinglet in a black willow tree.

Kinglets are extremely small songbirds similar to warblers, with sprightly, inquisitive personalities (like this one!) They prefer the habitat of coniferous forests. The photo is mine (public domain).

Light-mantled albatrosses are a threatened species of the circumpolar Southern hemisphere. Albatross pair bonds last for decades and individuals are known to live as much as forty years.

From National Geographic’s Weekly Wrapper.

National Geographic.

As their name implies, lovebirds are a monogamous species. The photo is from a GreenAnswers.com post featuring a look at several natural pairs who mate for life.

GreenAnswers.com: What are some animals that mate for life?

A gorgeous jaguar from Flickr.

For the second year in a row, an early winter has slammed into the British Isles (and much of Northern Europe) with a vengeance. It’s an infrastructure nightmare, to be sure, but results in some breathtaking photography.

BBC News has a continuous stream of viewer-submitted photos from all over England, Scotland, and Wales showing the snowy frigid weather at its best (and worst).

I love browsing these slideshows; whether it’s the picturesque image of an old town square blanketed in white, or a great natural shot of the UK’s gorgeous countryside, there’s something about a dusting of snow that adds a sparkling magic to a scene.

Here are a few top gallery picks from the past couple of weeks:

In pictures: Latest snow pictures (Scotland)

In Pictures: Winter Snow 2010 (Yorkshire)

In Pictures: Let it Snow (Scotland)

In pictures: Snow on Snow (Scotland)