Hortobágy National Park, Hungary (Hortobágyi-Nationalpark, Ungarn) (Hortobágyi Nemzeti Park, Magyarország) 10.2017.

We visited the Hortobágy National Park in late autumn and found a diverse invertebrate life in puddles. I took photos of these using an improvised aquarium. The local Hortobágy Wild Animal Park also offered an opportunity to see some members of the once-abundant megafauna of the Great Hungarian Plain. Along with other mammals, Przewalski's horses and Heck-cattle are kept here under semi-wild conditions. The Heck-cattle are part of an ongoing program to "breed back" domestic cattle to resemble their extinct ancestral form, the auroch. Location: Hortobágy. Date: 22.10.2017.

Venice, Italy (Venedig, Italien) (Velence, Olaszország) 09.2017.

Venice is obviously not a nature photo destination, but I did manage to spot some wildlife and naturalized plants while on a short trip in September. Location: Venice. Date: 06.09.2017.

Miskolc, Hungary (Miskolc, Ungarn) (Miskolc, Magyarország) 02.2017.

The city of Miskolc had some interesting surprises this February. Location: Miskolc. Date: 17-19.02.2017.

Nyírábrány, Hungary (Nyírábrány, Ungarn) (Nyírábrány, Magyarország) 01.2017.

Nyírábrány in the South Nyírség Region is renowned for its relict birch moors, alkaline fens and lowland hay meadows, especially at the Keszler-tag Birch Moor and the Káposztás-lapos Meadow, parts of the Natura 2000 network. I took a short trip here on the first day of the year. Location: Nyírábrány. Date: 01.01.2017.

Greater Boston, USA (Boston und Umgebung, USA) (Boston és környéke, USA) 05.2016.

I've spent the month of May 2016 in Cambridge, MA. Occasionally, I had my camera with me and took photos of the surprisingly diverse local wildlife in the Greater Boston area. Location: Greater Boston. Date: 01-31.05.2016.

Blue Hills Reservation, USA (Blue Hills Reservat, USA) (Blue Hills Rezervátum, USA) 05.2016.

I went on a cycling tour to visit the Blue Hills Reservation and the Ponkapoag Bog south of Boston. The whole area is a popular tourist destination but preserved a remarkable biodiversity in the Boston Metropolitan Area. Ferns were especially diverse. Location: Blue Hills Reservation. Date: 22.05.2016.

Cape Cod, USA (Cape Cod, USA) (Cape Cod, USA) 05.2016.

We visited the Cape Cod National Seashore in Massachusetts in May and found diverse plant, animal and fungal communities in the forests and marshes. Location: Provincetown and Wellfleet, Massachusetts. Date: 07-08.05.2016.

Debrecen, Hungary (Debrecen, Ungarn) (Debrecen, Magyarország) 04-05.2014.

I photographed mostly common plant species and some insects in the spring of 2014 in Debrecen. Location: Debrecen. Date: 04-05.2014.

Exotic species of Tenerife (Exotische Arten aus Teneriffa) (Tenerife egzotikus fajai) 03.2013.

Tenerife, the 'Island of Eternal Spring' has been inhabited since at least a thousand years and many exotic plant species have been brought here from all around the world. These are mostly found in the cities, where they regularly escape from the gardens, but many species also threaten the indigenous flora of the beautiful natural habitats of the island. Of course, there are many non-native animals as well.

Tenerife: Orotava Valley (Teneriffa: Orotava-Tal) (Tenerife: Orotava-völgy) 03.2013.

Tenerife is the largest of the 7 main Canary Islands, characterised by its main volcano, the Teide (3718 m). With my wife, we spent almost 2 weeks here and on the island of La Gomera in March. This time of the year is good to catch many of the islands endemic plants in flowering period. The plant and animal life on the Canary Islands are incredible, a very high proportion of the species are endemics and and even the types of plant communities are very special, found nowhere else on Earth but on other Macaronesian Islands. Tenerife, due the presence of the Teide, has an astonishing vertical zonation and many of its areas are protected. First, I show photos of the biggest valley, the Orotava Valley, which faces the Atlantic Ocean on the north of the island.

Corona Forestal and Las Lagunetas, Tenerife (Corona Forestal und Las Lagunetas, Teneriffa) (Corona Forestal és Las Lagunetas, Tenerife) 03.2013.

The vulcano of Teide undoubtedly dominates the landscape of Tenerife. The highest point of the island is surrounded by a forest belt that is lush and green on the northern side and arid on the southern. The area is a nature park called Parque natural de la Corona Forestal. An adjacent mountain range that stretches towards northeast is the Pedro Gil with protected forests such as the dense Las Lagunetas that is always covered by clouds. Location: Corona Forestal and Las Lagunetas. Date: 20.03.2013.

Badland of Güímar, Tenerife (Malpaís de Güímar, Teneriffa) (Malpaís de Güímar, Tenerife) 03.2013.

The Badland (Malpaís) of Güímar is a special nature reserve on the coast of Tenerife, near the town of Güímar. It is known from its incredible landscape with vulcanic cones, basaltic lava flows and a vegetation extremely adapted for dry and hot conditions - a one-of-a-kind place indeed. Location: Reserva natural especial del Malpaís de Güímar. Date: 19.03.2013.

Vienna, Austria (Wien, Österreich) (Bécs, Ausztria) 05.2012.

This May I was in Vienna and I took my camera with me whenever it was possible to take photos of the plants and animals in the numerous parks of this beautiful city. I tried to concentrate on little-known apsects of common plants. Location: Vienna. Date: 05.2012.

Vienna, Austria (Wien, Österreich) (Bécs, Ausztria) 04.2012

 

Some photos I´ve taken during this April in Vienna. I tried to present well known and often overlooked plants and animals also.

Vienna, Austria (Wien, Österreich) (Bécs, Ausztria) 03.2012.

I am spending the beginning of the year in Vienna, and in this first post from there I am writing about some early spring plants and animals observed and photographed inside the city. Most of them are well known, yet some are mostly unnoticed despite being almost ubiquitous.

Grense Jakobselv, Finnmark, Norway (Grense Jakobselv, Finnmark, Norwegen) (Grense Jakobselv, Finnmark, Norvégia) 07.2011.

On one day on our field trip in Finnmark, we traveled some 60 kms eastwards from Kirkenes to the border area of Norway and Russia. The border is along the small Jakobselva river, and one of the main villages here is Grense Jakobselv (basically just some houses). The avarage population density in Sør-Varanger is 3/sq km, but that of the border area and the adjacent easternmost part of Sør-Varanger is definetly lower! During this trip, we stopped at Jarfjordfjellet, collected some spiders at the Jakobselv river and at the shores of the Barents sea, and than traveled to the uninhabited tundra zone of the border area.

Jakobselv tundra, Finnmark, Norway (Jakobselv Tundra, Finnmark, Norway) (Jakobselv Tundra, Finnmark, Norvégia) 07.2011.

The Southern part of the border region is an uninhabited tundra, a part of the Kola Peninsula Tundra Ecoregion. It differs a lot from all the other areas that we visited: there are no trees, just dwarf and middle-sized shrubs, and although there is much water everywhere, it is not like the bogs. There are few mosses and peat, the ground is quite solid and water accumulates in pits. There are plenty of lichens and Black Crowberries on the ground and on the rocks. Lichens that cover the ground are so firm that walking here is like walking on pieces of plastic. It even makes a certain sound. Also, there were many smaller and bigger stones everywhere. As we usually do in more temperate areas, we lifted stones to search for spiders. Unlike in Central Europe, there were few spiders and arthropods under these: we had to turn up dozens to find a single specimen. Location: South of Grense Jakobselv. Date: 27.07.2011.

Gardermoen, Norway (Gardermoen, Norwegen) (Gardermoen, Norvégia) 07.2011.

As we traveled to Finnmark via Oslo in July, 2011, I spent a day by the Airport of Oslo in Gardermoen. I went out to take some photos, as the weather was nice. But than a heavy shower came and I returned to the bread-and-breakfast hotel, so there are only a few photos to show. Regardless of the short time I spent there, I found the Southern-Norwegian boreal pine forest to be a really interesting habitat, that differed quite a lot from the forests of Finnmark. Location: Gardermoen. Date: 24.07.2011.

Adriatic Sea, Croatia (Adriatisches Meer, Kroatien) (Adria, Horvátország) 05.2011.

On the Čiovo island I spent only about an hour with photographing animals and plants on the seashore, but yet I managed to find many interesting species. The Adriatic is a popular destination for scuba divers, but even without special equipment one may make a short walk on the shore for exploring sea life - even without getting wet. The low tide is most suitable for this, when many animals are trapped in small pools remaining on the surface of rocks. The Mediterranean Sea, which the Adria is a part of, covers only 0.7% of the worldwide marine surface area and yet it holds 9% of its biodiversity according to present knowledge. This is even more surprising considered that the so-called Messinian salinity crisis ended only about 5.3 million years ago and this enormous biodiversity was formed only after this event. The Mediterranean Sea Marine Ecoregion is also part of WWF's Global 200, just as the Mediterranean Basin. Location: Čiovo Island. Date: 22-26.05.2011.

Zemplén mountains, Hungary (Tokajer Gebirge, Ungarn) (Zempléni-hegység, Magyarország) 08.2010.

In August 2010 I traveled to the Zemplén Mountains, again near the Regéc castle to make a cycling trip and I made some photos also. Location: Zemplén Mountains. Date: 28.08.2010.