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 contests 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 Hive account@melinda010100 🦢 and the Hive account@fungifriday hosted by Hive account@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 therfore 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 Hive account@joanstewart.

How are the Winners choosen ?

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 Hive account@joanstewart with her True Leaf Katydid (Zabalius aridus). In her entry you will not only find some amazing pictures and lots of information, but also a very good video about this amazing insect. The Zabalius aridus is from the genus of bush crickets of katydids in the subfamily Pseudophyllinae and is distributed in afrotropical regions. They are generally heavily built, tree-dwelling herbivorous katydids and capable of flight. They use their wings to make noise to attract a mate, much like crickets and have a lifespan about one year or less. After mating the katydid female injects her eggs into plant stem or into the ground, where they remain through winter months before they start hatching in Spring. The baby katydids are called nymphs, losing layers molting several times during growth. The Adults do have wings, but only use them for flying when they are threatened. They rather prefer to walk from tree to tree, climbing up to branches disappearing like a leaf into foliage above. They are so amazingly well camouflaged as leaves as nearly no other insect out there and one of these little wonders that you can only find out there in nature with a blessed eye. Thank you for revealing this one to us ^^

Hive account@joanstewart

This entry here by Hive account@fmbs25 is about the Black Soldier Fly (Hermetia Illucens). She found this fly in here garden one day, initially assumming that it may be a black wasp, but this one her shows no sting as a wasp would have. Fortunately for us, she took some pictures then for us and looked up some really great information to accompany those pictures. The Black Soldier Fly can get up to 2 cm and is the ideal candidate for making compost, because the consumption of waste of this fly is really amazing as they consume all kinds of food waste, even prevent the larvae and eggs of the common fly, which on the contrary generate diseases. Their larvae serve as food for chickens and cultivated fish, which represents a benefit to the economy of some poultry and fish farmers. The females in their adult stage can reach up to amazing 500 eggs, which represents a good amount if we are using it to accelerate the decomposition processes of the compost. This fly-in its adult state lasts between 5 to 8 days, a period in which it has to take advantage to mate and to put its eggs, feeds on the nectar of the flowers. This fly for sure is an amazing one that brings many benefits and is a great example of how amazing nature can be. Thank you for this excellent entry !

Hive account@fmbs25

Here we have the entry from Hive account@carolinacardoza, a Hivean from Venezuela and a faithful lover of nature, one of those who have taught her children since childhood to take care of it, protect it and preserve it. She is original from a farm in in the State of Táchira, Venezuela which still grows tomatoes, sugar cane, beans, corn, cambures, oranges and much more. Today she shows us this little rabbit. This beautiful little guy spends most of his time out there doing his thing in her mother's garden ^^ Thank you for entering the contest and welcome in our little circle of nature lovers !

Hive account@carolinacardoza

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Hive account@qwerrie

Hive account@dzoji

Hive account@bucipuci

Hive account@nelinoeva

Hive account@futven12

Hive account@thebigsweed

Hive account@annephilbrick

Hive account@mllg

Hive account@charjaim

FEATURING

This weeks feature is about Hive account@ewkaw, a polish Hivean from Portugal and the owner of a grey diva feline and a small balcony full of plants and tons of cacti ^^ If you enjoy photography about cats, flowers, cacti, fungi and related topics you wont be disappointed by this Hivean as they are absolutely beautiful and always accompanied by some great texts, usually full of useful information ^^ Hive account@ewkaw is also a moderator and great contributor in the FUNGI LOVERS COMMUNITY

Hive account@ewkaw

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 39 Nature Lovers on the autovote, which is set to 20% for 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.

Hive account@akinome Hive account@alexanderfluke Hive account@alinix Hive account@annamarina Hive account@annephilbrick Hive account@apnigrich Hive account@artofwisdom Hive account@angelro Hive account@antoniarhuiz Hive account@atomcollector Hive account@bahttg Hive account@belkisa758 Hive account@bigsambucca Hive account@brittandjosie Hive account@bucipuci Hive account@careassaktart Hive account@carolinacardoza Hive account@cocolefleur Hive account@davidesimoncini Hive account@derekrichardson Hive account@dkkarolien Hive account@dzoji Hive account@elkezaksek Hive account@ellenripley Hive account@engrsayful Hive account@farm-mom Hive account@fmbs25 Hive account@futven12 Hive account@haastrecht Hive account@gingbabida Hive account@hangin Hive account@iamraincrystal Hive account@insense Hive account@ireenchew Hive account@irvet Hive account@isabelpena Hive account@jesuslnrs Hive account@joanstewart Hive account@joebtc Hive account@johannpiber Hive account@julianhorack Hive account@justclickindiva Hive account@kalemandra Hive account@kamrunnahar Hive account@karbon Hive account@kheys Hive account@letalis-laetitia Hive account@lighteye Hive account@leslierevales Hive account@lisfabian Hive account@manojbhatt Hive account@manuelramos Hive account@mariacaffrey Hive account@melinda010100 Hive account@mers Hive account@mintymile Hive account@misschance Hive account@mllg Hive account@molometer Hive account@mondoshawan Hive account@myjob Hive account@mysteriousroad Hive account@nelinoeva Hive account@nilom Hive account@ninahaskin Hive account@oizaguirres Hive account@offgridlife Hive account@paradigm42 Hive account@phortun Hive account@porters Hive account@qwerrie Hive account@redheadpei Hive account@sarimanok Hive account@sayee Hive account@sallybeth23 Hive account@seadbeady Hive account@sunscape Hive account@s3rg3 Hive account@thebigsweed Hive account@theoctoberwind Hive account@thesobuz Hive account@travelsbyblue Hive account@trincowski Hive account@viking-ventures Hive account@vincent21 Hive account@whatisnew Hive account@wongbraling Hive account@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 Hive account@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 Hive account@dna.steem 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 Hive account@melinda010100 🦢 for all you great posts about our feathered friends and the #fungifriday hosted by the amazing Hive account@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 STEEM, 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 also host the REDFISH RALLY, a funny challenge for all those that are new here to the world of Steem. The Terminal also hosts the HEYHAVEYAMET project by Hive account@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