Mountains are very impressive, majestic, vast and beautiful. Most people enjoy this landscape, enjoy the sights, enjoy the clouds playing around the summits. Understandable. It is stunning. Marvelous.
The next time, when you go to the mountains, you may want to pay more attention to the little marbles of nature, though. They are as stunning!
When you go hiking in the mountains, it is not only to get to the summits, the passes and the lakes, it is not only to make your way from A to B, it is not only about seeing all these impressive mammals and birds of prey. It is also those tiny little things, small plants, butterflies, insects and flowers on whom one can marvel and enjoy nature. There are also such marbles, as water coming directly out of the rock, plants hanging on to life in most severe conditions, animals finding food, where no human could survive without taking a life. One word: Nature!
In 2020, our field sampling protocol has been reduced as the samples from 2016 – 2019 have not yet been fully processed and it would not make sense to bring in yet more samples. That meant, we also needed only a reduced amount of equipment. So, this year I burdened myself with more camera equipment to take photos of the little marbles of nature. What a delight! So many tiny little details you may miss while heading up the mountains. You do not need to wander off the trail, these marbles are left and right of it. I am no botanist, so I will not bother you with scientific names, I just wanted to share these beautiful pictures with you.
First the flowers and plants
The flying tadpole and delta-planing metamorphs
And then the insects and spiders.
