PERCHING on top of a gate, this young barn swallow waits patiently for his mum to return with dinner. The adult barn swallow arrives and hovers in mid-air, with an insect hanging from its beak. The six-legged treat is then delivered directly into the young bird’s open mouth, with the mother bird still hovering above. Wildlife photographer Menno Schaefer, of Zaandam, Netherlands, captured the moment during a trip to an open field in Spaarnwoude, a village north of Amsterdam.
HUDDLING under a leaf, a pair of adorable Javan scops owls take shelter from the rain .
An adorable little squirrel wakes from a nap and pops out his tongue for the camera .
WITH HIS PAW covering his mouth, this cheeky cub looks amused by something .
A former soldier who bravely took on penny-pinching NHS bosses in his fight against terminal cancer has died, aged 37 .
Standing on the edge of a never-ending black hole, this is one leap you wouldn't want to make .
FROM ICE bubbles to boiling lava, these photographs highlight the stunning shapes and patterns found in nature .
An Italian photographer travelled to Chile where he visited several star-gazing sites, home to some of the world's most advanced telescopes, located in the spectacular setting of the Atacama desert .
A family who were refused the location of their missing cat under the Data Protection Act have been reunited with their moggie after the keepers handed him back .
A Cheryl Fernandez-Versini lookalike has slammed skinny-shamers, after seeing her celebrity doppelganger abused for her tiny frame .
A mischievous fox cub demonstrates his playful side by biting his sibling’s tail .
A lazy tree frog, tired of hopping along a branch, chooses the slowest form of transport when it jumps on top of an unsuspecting snail .
Oday she is a picture of health - a happy, smiling child, enjoying life to the full .