Minuscules. My trip to Ukrainian Steppe, Day 1 part 2

Greetings from Ukraine, my friends!

As you may know, Ukraine is a country with a rich and diverse nature. It consists of 5 climatic zones, and it is not only Carpathians and Black Sea, but also an amazing steppe. Especially for those who grew up near mountains (like me) or in the area of rivers and forests (like my husband).

Today I'm continuing my story about my recent trip to explore Ukrainian Steppe. This is a link to the first part:
Lost on the map. My trip to Ukrainian Steppe, Day 1 part 1

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Canyon and Cossacks's history

The place we have been looking for is a deep (about 50 m), narrow canyon with steep rocky shores. These boulders form a big rapid, that was famous in old times. The Canyon has a name "Gard", and it is closely connected to the history of the Cossacks. It was a place of the oldest and largest Cossacks settlement, that lasted almost three centuries.

Rapids served as a natural barrier to protect the settlement from Tatars and other enemies. The length of rapids here is nearby 0,5 km (that is what Southern Bug river is famous for). Besides, river was rich with fish, and nearby steppes with game.

The legend says, that in the steep vertical rock there was a cave served as a prison. The entrance to it was between a water and a top of the rock. A prisoner got there suspended on a rope or chain, and could not get out by himself.

The island became a famous sacred center with a church well known among Cossacks from all Ukraine.

Plant life

Nowadays, this place is a part of the Buzk's Gard National Nature Park that covers an area that belongs to 5 administrative regions of Ukraine. Rich vegetation abound in this steppe from early spring to late fall. There are about 800 species of them here, and 25 of them are on Red List.

Another luck waited for us just at the start. It wad the first time when I saw bloomed feather grass.

Some moss or ... whatever, but very cute.

You are familiar already with Houseleek.

Pasqueflower wakes up right after melting of snow. It's furry flowers aren't aftraid of spring freeze. It was a peak of its blooming period on my last visit. This time it was over.

But... my husband has a very keen eye, and he saw that there are few. Moreover, those strange disheveled "flowers" are what pasqueflower become after blooming. Amazingly, how nature transforms for just 1 or 2 weeks.

Wildlife

On my previous visit which was in the 1st halp of April, lizards had mating season. And this time we saw many tiny lizards, and I suppose they were newborns. Here is one of them, pretending asleep:

Another one was posing while I took picture from different angles:

Lizards came out to warm up on the stones on a sunny day. They are very ancient representatives of the terrestrial fauna, since they existed in the times of dinosaurs. Who knows, they might be the same age as these stones, LOL

One of the most amazing and unique features of the lizard is, of course, its ability to reject its tail in emergency situations. The thrown tail continues to move, and while the enemy distracts the lizard run away.

But this ability costs her very much, as she accumulate nutrients in the tail, so sometime lizard comes back for her tail ... to eat it.

This is most likely another one:

The rest of the day I was busy with sitting, relaxing and listening. My husband went to search for Tarantula. We met one on last visit. This spider lives in hole in the ground. Here is a photo of it (thank God, I had tele lens...):

This time all Tarantulas were gone, and he came back to me. It turned out, that both of us heard a strange sound, that repeated in a likely equal period of time. It was similar to gnash of rusty metal, short and always repeats twice. And it remains a secret what it was. Until next day...

When we got enough of relax, viewing, listening and taking photos, we started to walk back to the car. And at the end met these small but very voiced birds.

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Time to go back to our mini hotel. It was an amazing and eventful day, and I am thankful to you for getting along again with me.

Next day we went deep down to the steppe to another unique place to see American Bison!

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And this is all for now. I will continue in the next post. All the photographs were taken on my trip using camera Pentak K-5.

I keep say THANK YOU for your time, your comments and even upvotes. It is always so nice to see you in my blog!

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