archive for the category "nature"

piz val gronda, a summit right at the swiss-austrian border, used to be a site of beautiful biological and geological diversity. it used to be home to several species very rare in austria, most notably, the rock partridge (alectoris graeca) and a species of hawksbeard (crepis rhaetica). it also features a unique landscape with geological rarities (at least in austria) such as gypsum sinkholes (dolines).

late last year, after more than 28 years of trying, the ski industry eventually won and was granted permission to build a ski lift up to the top of the mountain. that is, ignoring several nature conservation expert’s reports that warn against a pristine and unique ecosystem being damaged or lost forever. [more...]

two days of continuous rain re-filled all the little landscape depressions and ephemeral ponds with plenty of water around richmond. the first night without rain was ideal for frog-spotting.

brianne and i embarked on a little night safari around campus, and found so many frogs that we didn’t actually get very far.

picture time!

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last night, i deported the biggest harvestman (daddy longlegs, order opiliones) i’ve ever seen from our restroom, and helped it get back to nature.
the biologist in me couldn’t but take some pictures and measurements first. :)

the harvestman had a total diameter of 13 cm. it used the longest of its legs – which was significantly longer than the others – to feel its way forward when walking!

here’s some picture proof:

some living pictures after the break… [more...]

in april, we went on a short botanical spring-excursion to slovenia. led by bozo frajman, we experienced a short glimpse of the slovenian culture, cuisine and – of course – the flora.

main stops were made in:

• vaska skupnost lukovec, where, besides plants, we also found some interesting animals
• podpec at the edge of the karst plateau, with the extremely rare moehringia tommasinii, which is known only from 6 locations along the karst edge in slovenia, croatia and italy
• the lovely coast town of piran (slovenia owns 46.6 km of the adriatic coastline, that’s about 2 cm per citizen ;) )
• ljubljana, the friendly slovenian capital
• pot v pekel (the “road to hell”), one of the locations where the carniolian primrose (primula carniolica) is growing.

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bee orchids are – in my opinion – one of the truly curious outcomes of (co-)evolution. as noted before, the orchid species in the genus ophrys immitate female bees with their flowers and scent, attracting males that will try to mate with the flowers and unwillingly pollinate them. most of the species are optimized to just one (or few) bee species.

during last weekend’s trip to ardèche, france, we came across two species of bee orchid, and (naturally) the lytro lightfield camera was with me. :)

they do resemble bees when out of focus, don’t they?

ophrys apifera:

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the only thing that makes forest ants even more active and aggressive, is when the sun has really heated the hole anthill up.
these ants did not shy away from anything – not even a lytro lightfield camera. :)

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i’ve just uploaded some lightfield photos of last weekend’s botanical field trip to slovenia. we made stops at lukovec (primorska), podpec, piransk and the gorge of pekel.
in this album, you’ll mostly find pictures of flowers and small animals. :)

botanical highlights were several rare plants including the carniolian primrose (primula carniolica) and moehringia tomasini, of which only 6 small populations are known in the world. i’ll upload these photos later on.

three teaser-pics:

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