Hello Nature Lovers !

I would like to cordially invite you to another great week of the Amazing Nature Contest. There were already so many excellent entries regarding how amazing nature can be in the past episodes, thanks to all of you, but there is still so much more to see! ^^ To participate in the #amazingnature contest just create a post that shows how amazing nature is for you personally. This can be anything from a beautiful flower or animal to an astonishing sunset.

What is the Purpose of the Contest ?

I am a huge lover of nature and really enjoy to take pictures of all the lovely things that surround me every day, no matter if those are plants, animals or landscapes. I found Hive to be a brilliant place to find and watch nature pictures from all over the world. There is such a diversity of great content out there, thanks to all of you, from different perspectives and out of various motivations. I would like to collect all those beautiful snapshots and their amazing stories in a weekly compilation so that you can all benefit from the beauty that we are facing all the time, but so often are not able to appreciate in the modern and fast paced times we are living in.

This #amazingnature contest is at home in the DNA-Discord, a organization run by people for the people, with the aim to foster and densify nature-appreciation in the blockchain. DNA is also the home of the #featheredfriends hosted by amazing @melinda010100 🦢 and the @fungilovers hosted by @qwerrie 🍄.

Contest Rules :

• Please join the Community and POST your entry INTO the AMAZING NATURE COMMUNITY. This makes it a part of it and visible to all other members of the community. You can add the #amazingnature TAG after it if you like.
• CLEARLY MENTION that your post is an ENTRY for this contest.
• All pictures have to be your own. You can use the amazing nature banner if you like or create your own.
• STATE IN THE TEXT why those pictures are representing YOUR AMAZING NATURE. This is an ESSENTIAL part of this contest.
• Drop the LINK to your post IN THE COMMENTS. You can add a picture if you like. It is NECESSARY as I have to post a link in Discord on Friday, 5 days later for voting and also for my own compiling purposes.
• The entry window is open for ~ 5 DAYS. Watch out for the -CLOSED in the title.

If you miss the entry, please wait for the next round. As I have to work and also a family to manage, there are no fixed UTC times and the window can open in a wide range between 10 am - 10 pm and therefore also close accordingly ^^

• The AMAZING NATURE COMMUNITY is there FOR ALL POSTS ABOUT THE AMAZING NATURE AROUND YOU that are not necessarily a contest entry. We would highly appreciate it if you share your great nature content there with us! .. But the contest is also located in this community as an integrated part and special feature .. You can also still use the #amazingnature tag if you like.

Possible Topics :

As nature covers an incredible wide range there is really anything possible. Amazing Natures categories could be anything from the following topics:

• Botany
• Zoology
• Geology
• Landscapes
• Philosophy
• ... Surprise us ^^

Prizes to Win :

• 1st : 3 HIVE
• 2st : 2 HIVE
• 3st : 1 HIVE

I will always try my best to link and present all participants of Amazing Nature in the entries section of the announcement posts that will be published roughly one week later on Sunday (depending on my time schedule this may shift some time ^^). This way you will have a nice compilation of them all. As an special feature, the new title picture of the contest will be created from the entry of the contest winner. This time it is from @lighteye.

How are the Winners chosen ?

The voting for the winners will be done by the whole DNA community. Therefore we created a special contest channel in the DNA Discord (Amazing Nature Contest). Here I will post the announcement post including the winners (Announcements) EACH SUNDAY together with all your entries (Entries) EACH FRIDAY. Every member of DNA will be able to assign "voting emojies" under the entries for 24 HOURS and in the end those three with the most of them are the lucky winners. This I hope should lead to a more objective consideration than just involving myself as a judge. I will engage as a judge in case of a draw ^^

THIS WEEKS WINNERS

The winner of this weeks contest is @lighteye with his great photographic tour through the Rajko Cave. The story is actually divided in two parts, so if you are interested in looking it up please remember to look up both post about the cave ^^ Both posts are really stuffed with a lot of amazing pictures from this gigantic cave and all its beautiful locations within, including some great historical facts. In addition you will find many added information about what Stalactites or Stalagmites are, how they are created over the time and about what all these impressive sculptures that can be found there are actually made of. There is actually so much to see and read that I can not put everything in this descriptions here, hehe .. and if you are interested in caves then you are very lucky, as @lighteye is going to show some more of them ^^

@lighteye

The entry from @annephilbrick is abut the Pickerel frog. Also she lives quite close to the marshes, a wonderful habit for many amphibians and aquatic plants, this little frog here is quite a rare side so close to her cabin and there are usually only Toads and Bullfrogs to be found. Luckily she managed to get some great picture of the frog before he disappeared again. Pickerel frogs are sometimes confused with the northern leopard frog. Leopard frogs spots are round and random, while Pickerel frogs have parallel rows of square-ish spots. Another interesting fact is, that they are herbivorous in the tadpole stage and only become carnivorous as adults. Then their diet is based on worms, ants, beetles spiders and various other insects. Thank you for the nice pictures and information about the Pickerel frog ;)

@annephilbrick

This week @nelinoeva shows us a little compilation of fascinating insects as her entry. She offers us a really well hidden damselfly that landed on the blade of grass which was the same color as the grass. These interesting creatures can make themselves almost invisible. Some mimic the environment so well, others simply blend. She also spotted this amazing yellow colored mantis. They are usually colored in a really fresh green, but she explains us that they actually turn brownish at end of their life cycle, so maybe this is where this unusual color derives from. There is also a really nice picture of a butterfly that really managed to disguise as a leaf, and he is doing it really great. This is a really nice post about how creative nature is to make each individual critter to have its own way of camouflage or with color that warns you and says danger. Thank you for the post @nelinoeva ^^

@nelinoeva

HONORABLE MENTIONS

@porters

@dannewton

@esomchi

@miguelmederico

@engrsayful

Amazing Nature Community :

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You all asked for one and here it is, the AMAZING NATURE COMMUNITY. It is dedicated to all you Nature Lovers out there, no matter if Zoology, Botany, Landscapes or Philosophy ^^ You will also find many entries to the contest in there. It has the #hive-127788 tag and you can find it here:

AMAZING NATURE COMMUNITY

This community is there FOR ALL POSTS ABOUT THE AMAZING NATURE AROUND YOU. Currently I have around 40 Nature Lovers on the autovote, which is set to 2 daily upvotes at the moment. I still reserve some voting power for manual curating on nature content when needed.

Previous Participants :

I thank all of you who participated and voted this week and hope that you enjoyed the Amazing Nature Contest. I am looking forward to more excellent content every week ^^. Of course this format is open for all kind of critics that can increase the quality of the contest and I am always happy about anyone who wants to join us on this little adventure.

@akinome @alexanderfluke @alicargofer @alinix @amandaj @annamarina @annephilbrick @apnigrich @artofwisdom @angelro @antoniarhuiz @atomcollector @bahttg @bambuka @belkisa758 @bigsambucca @blueroad @borjan @brittandjosie @bucipuci @careassaktart @carolinacardoza @chetanpadliya @chocolateskorpi @cocolefleur @crazyandy @daniela16 @dannewton @davidesimoncini @derekrichardson @doodle.danga @dkkarolien @dzoji @elitogold @elkezaksek @ellenripley @engrsayful @esomchi @fanyokami @farm-mom @fmbs25 @futven12 @godlovermel25 @haastrecht @gertu @gingbabida @glotokens @gohenry @hangin @iamraincrystal @insense @ireenchew @irionet @irvet @isabelpena @janettyanez @jesuslnrs @joanstewart @joebtc @johannpiber @julianhorack @justicexxx @justclickindiva @kalemandra @kamrunnahar @karbon @kheys @kohsamui99 @letalis-laetitia @lighteye @leslierevales @librepensadora @lisfabian @lorennys @maloustau @manojbhatt @manorvillemike @manuelramos @mariacaffrey @melinda010100 @mers @miguelmederico @mikitaly @mintymile @misschance @mllg @molometer @mondoshawan @monowar @myjob @mysteriousroad @naide71 @naty16 @nelinoeva @nilom @ninahaskin @oizaguirres @offgridlife @olivia08 @oredebby @paradigm42 @pavelsku @phortun @porters @pradeepdee6 @qwerrie @racarjoal @razeiv @redheadpei @rosanita @sarimanok @sayee @sallybeth23 @seadbeady @sreypov @starjewel @sunscape @s3rg3 @thebigsweed @theoctoberwind @thesobuz @travelsbyblue @trincowski @trudeehunter @truelovemom @viking-ventures @vincent21 @whatisnew @wongbraling @yessgutierrez @yskar @zhanavic69

If you want me to take you out of the list, or if you don't want your picture, in the case you are the winner, to be used as a new title picture, just let me know about it in the comments.

Dedicated to all Nature Lovers out there, no matter if Zoology, Botany, Landscapes or Philosophy ^^

DNA - Densifying Nature-Appreciation :

DNA is an organization, managed by @medro-martin, to foster and DENSIFY NATURE-APPRECIATION which aims to establish REPORTS OF BIODIVERSITY DATA that is contributed by all of us Hiveans and subsequently cataloged.

Therefore DNA searches for HIGH-QUALITY posts that aim to DESCRIBE and determine the BIODIVERSITY AROUND YOU with added EXPLANATIONS and INFORMATIONS. For these informative posts they offer a CURATION SERVICE using the @dna.org account. It is also a CURATION TRAIL. Just add the #dna TAG if you think that any of your posts is what they are looking for.

At the moment DNA is also the home of the #amazingnature for all your post about the amazing nature all around us and also the home of the #featheredfriends hosted by the lovely @melinda010100 🦢 for all you great posts about our feathered friends and the #fungifriday hosted by the amazing @qwerrie 🍄 for all your posts about fungi and mushrooms ^^ But we hope that more nature related communities will join, or maybe some Hiveans start their own little project there ;) .. Maybe even you?

FEATHERED FRIENDS COMMUNITY

FUNGI LOVERS COMMUNITY

If you are INTERESTED in DNA, please do not hesitate to ask about it, or directly JOIN US in the DNA DISCORD ;)

"By The People, For The People"

The Terminal & Discord :

There is another initiative here on Hive that I would like to bring close to you as I absolutely love them, The Terminal:

THE TERMINAL DISCORD

It is a great location for LEARNING ABOUT HIVE, Discord, and Hive-related communities, full of nice people that you may ask if you need ASSISTANCE, with nearly everything ^^ You will find documents to assist you, a place to learn and practice, and find out about the many opportunities to form CONNECTIONS with other Hiveans.

It host the REDFISH RALLY, a funny challenge for all those that are new here to the world of Hive. The Terminal also hosts the HEYHAVEYAMET project by @heyhaveyamet, which introduces all new Hiveans on a daily basis, so that you don't have to search for them ^^

THE TERMINAL COMMUNITY

So why not joining us in the THE TERMINAL DISCORD? You will not regret it ^^

"Your one-stop location for learning about destinations in the Hive blockchain and Discord"

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Best wishes,
Adalger