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 #amazingnature 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 Steemit 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 times we are living in.

This #amazingnature contest is at home in DNA, 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 @melinda010100 🦢.

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Contest Rules :

• Use #amazingnature as FIRST TAG and CLEARLY MENTION that your post is an ENTRY for this contest.
• As an ALTERNATIVE you can use the #hive-127788 TAG prior to #amazingnature as the first one. It is the tag of the DNA / AMAZING NATURE community.
• All pictures have to be your own. You can use the amazing nature banner if you like or create your own. Do not forget to mention the source !
• Clearly 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, approximately 5 days later for voting and also for my own compiling purposes.
• The entry window is open for ~ 5 DAYS. Watch out for my FINAL CLOSING COMMENT!

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

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 ^^

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Prizes to Win :

• 1st Place : 3 SBI
• 2nd Place : 2 SBI
• 3rd Place : 1 SBI

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 @isabelpena.

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 (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 only engage in case of a draw ^^

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THIS WEEKS WINNERS

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Here we have an amazing entry by @isabelpena, a nature lover and steemian from Venezuela. This week she offers us some first hand experience on duck breeding. She tells us about a duck lady that managed to lay 12 eggs and explaines how it takes up to 4 days for her to leave the nest for only short periods of 5 minutes or less since ther eggs could cool out, or how it takes them about one month before they start venturing the farm where they go in search of food, to swim or learn everything they have to survive. But the story just starts here, as suddenly all ducks disappeared !! Thats where she started to build a small lagoon and a house for mama duck to lay her eggs more privately and much safer. But again the ducks disappeared. It is such a great post to read, like a criminal case, and I dont want to spoiler you further in case you are eager to read it yourself. But be warned as it is a sad one. "It is sad but that is how amazing nature is. The animals are beautiful and give us a lot of joy but we have to take care of them and love them" .. Thank you very much for this excellent entry to the amazing nature contest ;)

@isabelpena

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The entry of @joanstewart this week is about Africas snails and slugs. For this purpose she presents us the Giant African Snail (Achatinidae) and the Greenhouse Slug (Milax gagates). Her post is full of explanations about the shell, about how they float along on their slime (mucas), their behavior and differences. If you are interested in more just look up her entry. Thank you for this informative post Joan ^^ and for this nice african proverb ;)

"Despise not a snail for its slow and struggling movement; it has a destination and with time it shall arrive." ~ African Proverb

@joanstewart

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Here we have a post of @offgridlife. It is his very first entry to the contest ever. He is a Steemian from Ontario, Canada, and a photographer and travelor, that offers some great landscape photography, often very snowy, that he pictures while on a walk with his cute dog Lola. His entry shows some spectacular ice crystals from all along the banks of the Rideau River. These amazing ice crystals are the result of temperatures dropping below the freezing point in combination with extremely high humidity. Temperature and humidity in all combinations are responsible for so many breathtaking nature phenomenons that we were already so lucky to see in this contest. Thank you very much @offgridlife for entering the contest with those magical ice constructions ^^

@offgridlife

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HONORABLE MENTIONS

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@barbara-orenya

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@annephilbrick

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@leslierevales

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@bucipuci

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@thesobuz

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@misschance

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FEATURING

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Todays feature is @ratel, a photohunter and steemian from Siberia. His signature blog is "Wildlife: Birdwatching" with over 600 entries already. Here we can see some pictures of various birds, always with their proper name displayed. It is a great catalogue of the siberian bird diversity and and a perfect blog for everyone who is interested in ornithology ;) You will also find some videos amongst the entries and this cute siberian chipmonk ^^

@ratel

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DNA - Densifying Nature-Appreciation:

DNA is a non-profit organization to foster and DENSIFY NATURE-APPRECIATION in the blockchain. One of our big and ambitious goals is to establish REPORTS OF BIODIVERSITY DATA that is contributed by all of us Steemians and subsequently cataloged by us ;)

Therefore we want to ENCOURAGE you to create HIGH-QUALITY nature content, so not just simple pictures, but rather educational touched posts with added EXPLANATIONS and INFORMATIONS.

For these informative posts we are offering a CURATION SERVICE using the @dna.steem account. It is also a CURATION TRAIL and we would be highly thankful if you think about following or delegating to it.

If you want to publish such a DNA post we would be happy if you could use and populate the #dna TAG for whenever you write one of these EDUCATIONAL POSTS THAT aim to DESCRIBE and determine the BIODIVERSITY AROUND YOU with great details and information.

Of course there is still the #amazingnature TAG for all your post about the amazing nature we are all living in ^^ DNA is also the home of the #featheredfriends hosted by the lovely @melinda010100 🦢 ^^

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

"By The People, For The People"

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Steem Terminal Discord:

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

https://discord.gg/XZGPGpz

It is a great location for LEARNING ABOUT STEEM, Discord, and Steem-related communities, full of nice people that you may ask if you need ASSISTANCE, with nearly everything ^^ It also host the REDFISH RALLY, a funny challenge for all those new here. 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 Steemians. So why not joining us? You will not regret it ^^

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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.

Previous Participants :

@akinome @alinix @annamarina @annephilbrick @apnigrich @artofwisdom @angelro @atomcollector @bahttg @bigsambucca @brittandjosie @bucipuci @careassaktart @cocolefleur @davidesimoncini @dkkarolien @elkezaksek @ellenripley @engrsayful @haastrecht @hangin @iamraincrystal @ireenchew @irvet @isabelpena @joanstewart @joebtc @johannpiber @justclickindiva @kamrunnahar @karbon @kheys @lighteye @leslierevales @manojbhatt @mariacaffrey @melinda010100 @mintymile @misschance @molometer @myjob @mysteriousroad @nelinoeva @nilom @ninahaskin @offgridlife @paradigm42 @phortun @qwerrie @redheadpei @sarimanok @sayee @sallybeth23 @seadbeady @s3rg3 @theoctoberwind @thesobuz @travelsbyblue @trincowski @viking-ventures @wongbraling

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.

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Best wishes,
Adalger