Exploring nature in summer
Summers are the hottest period of the year in Europe, in our country and throughout the Northern Hemisphere. This is the period when the living world is most active, flowers bloom, grow and create fruit. The days are warm and long and perfect for staying outdoors. That is why summer is probably the best period of the year to explore nature. Hiking, mountain biking and walking outdoors could be significantly enriched if, apart for recreation, we use them to explore nature, biodiversity and landscapes.
Nature conservation and protection of the living world is a common obligation and everyone should be engaged in it. However, before starting with nature conservation activities, we have to learn about it. Only by getting to know nature, its secrets and processes, we as people can finally understand the value of living in a healthy, clean and protected environment. Environmental education should not be only about sustainable development and personal growth, but also about exploration of nature.
With these proposed activities you can spend your summer days learning about the living world.
Digital photo herbarium and insectarium
Herbarium is a collection of dried and pressed flowers. Usually a herbarium consists of whole plants, as well as their fruit, seeds or offshoots. Insectarium, on the other hand, is a collection of dried insects. Other dried invertebrates are also frequently collected in insectariums. Today we are facing a drastic decrease in the number of populations and species of living organisms, so we have to be very careful about how we treat nature. There is a fine, but quite visible line between the collection of living organisms or their parts for the purposes of scientific study and education and between collection that would lead to their destruction. Fortunately, modern technology enables us to collect living organisms in a digital form as photos. In this way we have no impact on them, we will preserve the memories of our encounters forever and our knowledge about nature will improve. Instead of catching insects and picking plants, we can store them in our digital scientific collections.
Birdwatching
Birdwatching is one of the most popular hobbies in the world. Birdwatching is a process of studying birds and their ecology through observing their lives through binoculars and listening to their songs and sounds. Birdwatching can be done throughout the year. It requires binoculars and lots of attention. Different types of birds are active in different periods of the day. Summer is ideal for birdwatching because they are always active and many migrating birds can be found in fields and forests in our country in the summer months.
