june 8-10 was the weekend of this year’s biodiversity day (geo tag der artenvielfalt) in the ötztal (ötz valley), austria.
our accommodation was the university center obergurgl (universitätszentrum obergurgl) [G], close to the valley’s end. driving through sölden on my way up brought back some precious childhood memories – when i was young, the extended family went there for hiking holidays, several times…
at the event, there were lots of familiar faces that i don’t get to see very often – batman toni with his wife vera and son matthaeus, alice, bernadette, barbara, erich, andi & tom from blattform, insect-expert timo, …
day one (the day before biodiversity day) included a geological excursion, and the bat & insect nights at lake piburg (piburger see) [G]. we even caught a brown long-eared bat (plecotus auritus), which hadn’t been documented for the region before!
update: the official biodiversity day (with all the daytime surveys) took place on saturday, june 9th.
i spent the day with barbara, erich, andi and tom, botanizing our way (their way, really ;-)) through the vegetation. there even was a sensational discovery: tom found the black spleenwort (asplenium adiantum-nigrum) – the first verification of this species for all of north tirol.
[view photos: the day before biodiversity day]
[view photos: biodiversity day 2007]