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St Aidan's
St Aidan's is a 355 hectare (877 acres) nature park located between Leeds and Castleford in West Yorkshire, England. The land was formerly an opencast coal mining area that was flooded in 1988, after the riverbank collapsed. Repairs and remediation required their own Act of Parliament to allow the necessary works to go ahead. Mining ceased at St Aidan's in 2002. The nature park opened to the public in May 2013 under the care of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). However, the car park and visitor centre were subsequently closed in July 2013 due to unresolved land issues. With the successful transfer of St Aidan's to Leeds City Council, a 99-year lease was signed from the council to the RSPB in March 2017. The site is now open and functioning as an RSPB nature park. It is open every day excluding Christmas Day with the visitor centre open from 9.30 am to 5 pm February – October and 9.30 am to 4 pm November – January. RSPB St Aidan's Nature Park ...
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Nature Park
A nature park, or sometimes natural park, is a designation for a protected natural area by means of long-term land planning, sustainable resource management and limitation of agricultural and real estate developments. These valuable landscapes are preserved in their present ecological state and promoted for ecotourism purposes. In most countries nature parks are subject to legally regulated protection, which is part of their conservation laws. In terms of level of protection, a category "Nature Park" is not the same as a "National Park", which is defined by the IUCN and its World Commission on Protected Areas as a category II type of protected area. A "Nature Park" designation, depending on local specifics, falls between category III and category VI according to IUCN categorization, in most cases closer to category VI. However some nature parks have later been turned into national parks. International nature parks The first international nature park in Europe, the ...
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Mickletown
Mickletown is a district within the village of Methley, south of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The Leeds Country Way The Leeds Country Way is a circular long-distance footpath of 62 miles (99 km) around Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is never more than 7 miles (11 km) from City Square, Leeds, but is mainly rural with extensive views in ... and the Trans Pennine Trail both pass Mickletown. Location grid External links * Mickletown was in this parish Places in Leeds Rothwell, West Yorkshire {{WestYorkshire-geo-stub ...
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Northern Lapwing
The northern lapwing (''Vanellus vanellus''), also known as the peewit or pewit, tuit or tew-it, green plover, or (in Ireland and Britain) pyewipe or just lapwing, is a bird in the lapwing subfamily. It is common through temperate Eurosiberia. Behaviour It is highly migratory over most of its extensive range, wintering further south as far as North Africa, northern India, Nepal, Bhutan and parts of China. It migrates mainly by day, often in large flocks. Lowland breeders in westernmost areas of Europe are resident. It occasionally is a vagrant to North America, especially after storms, as in the Canadian sightings after storms in December 1927 and in January 1966. It is a wader that breeds on cultivated land and other short vegetation habitats. 3–4 eggs are laid in a ground scrape. The nest and young are defended noisily and aggressively against all intruders, up to and including horses and cattle. In winter, it forms huge flocks on open land, particularly arable land ...
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Black-headed Gull
The black-headed gull (''Chroicocephalus ridibundus'') is a small gull that breeds in much of the Palearctic including Europe and also in coastal eastern Canada. Most of the population is migratory and winters further south, but some birds reside in the milder westernmost areas of Europe. Small numbers also occur in northeastern North America, where it was formerly known as the common black-headed gull. As is the case with many gulls, it was previously placed in the genus ''Larus''. The genus name '' Chroicocephalus'' is from Ancient Greek ''khroizo'', "to colour", and ''kephale'', "head". The specific ''ridibundus'' is Latin for "laughing", from ''ridere'' "to laugh". The black-headed gull displays a variety of compelling behaviours and adaptations. Some of these include removing eggshells from one's nest after hatching, begging co-ordination between siblings, differences between sexes, conspecific brood parasitism, and extra-pair paternity. They are an overwintering spec ...
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Black-necked Grebe
The black-necked grebe or eared grebe (''Podiceps nigricollis'') is a member of the grebe family of water birds. It was described in 1831 by Christian Ludwig Brehm. There are currently three accepted subspecies, including the nominate subspecies. Its breeding plumage features a distinctive ochre-coloured plumage which extends behind its eye and over its ear coverts. The rest of the upper parts, including the head, neck, and breast, are coloured black to blackish brown. The flanks are tawny rufous to maroon-chestnut, and the abdomen is white. When in its non-breeding plumage, this bird has greyish-black upper parts, including the top of the head and a vertical stripe on the back of the neck. The flanks are also greyish-black. The rest of the body is a white or whitish colour. The juvenile has more brown in its darker areas. The subspecies ''californicus'' can be distinguished from the nominate by the former's usually longer bill. The other subspecies, ''P. n. gurneyi'', can be dif ...
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Eurasian Skylark
The Eurasian skylark (''Alauda arvensis'') is a passerine bird in the lark family, Alaudidae. It is a widespread species found across Europe and the Palearctic with introduced populations in New Zealand, Australia and on the Hawaiian Islands. It is a bird of open farmland and heath, known for the song of the male, which is delivered in hovering flight from heights of . The sexes are alike. It is streaked greyish-brown above and on the breast and has a buff-white belly. The female Eurasian skylark builds an open nest in a shallow depression on open ground well away from trees, bushes and hedges. She lays three to five eggs which she incubates for around 11 days. The chicks are fed by both parents but leave the nest after eight to ten days, well before they can fly. They scatter and hide in the vegetation but continue to be fed by the parents until they can fly at 18 to 20 days of age. Nests are subject to high predation rates by larger birds and small mammals. The parents can ha ...
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Western Marsh Harrier
The western marsh harrier (''Circus aeruginosus'') is a large harrier, a bird of prey from temperate and subtropical western Eurasia and adjacent Africa. It is also known as the Eurasian marsh harrier. Formerly, a number of relatives were included in ''C. aeruginosus'', which was then known as "marsh harrier". The related taxa are now generally considered to be separate species: the eastern marsh harrier (''C. spilonotus''), the Papuan harrier (''C. spilothorax'') of eastern Asia and the Wallacea, the swamp harrier (''C. approximans'') of Australasia and the Madagascar marsh harrier (''C. maillardi'') of the western Indian Ocean islands. The western marsh harrier is often divided into two subspecies, the widely migratory ''C. a. aeruginosus'' which is found across most of its range, and ''C. a. harterti'' which is resident all-year in north-west Africa. Taxonomy The western marsh harrier was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth ed ...
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Little Owl
The little owl (''Athene noctua''), also known as the owl of Athena or owl of Minerva, is a bird that inhabits much of the temperate and warmer parts of Europe, the Palearctic east to Korea, and North Africa. It was introduced into Britain at the end of the 19th century and into the South Island of New Zealand in the early 20th century. This owl is a member of the typical or true owl family Strigidae, which contains most species of owl, the other grouping being the barn owls, Tytonidae. It is a small, cryptically coloured, mainly nocturnal species and is found in a range of habitats including farmland, woodland fringes, steppes and semi-deserts. It feeds on insects, earthworms, other invertebrates and small vertebrates. Males hold territories which they defend against intruders. This owl is a cavity nester and a clutch of about four eggs is laid in spring. The female does the incubation and the male brings food to the nest, first for the female and later for the newly hatch ...
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Eurasian Bittern
The Eurasian bittern or great bittern (''Botaurus stellaris'') is a wading bird in the bittern subfamily (Botaurinae) of the heron family Ardeidae. There are two subspecies, the northern race (''B. s. stellaris'') breeding in parts of Europe and across the Palearctic, as well as on the northern coast of Africa, while the southern race (''B. s. capensis'') is endemic to parts of southern Africa. It is a secretive bird, seldom seen in the open as it prefers to skulk in reed beds and thick vegetation near water bodies. Its presence is apparent in the spring, when the booming call of the male during the breeding season can be heard. It feeds on fish, small mammals, fledgling birds, amphibians, crustaceans and insects. The nest is usually built among reeds at the edge of bodies of water. The female incubates the clutch of eggs and feeds the young chicks, which leave the nest when about two weeks old. She continues to care for them until they are fully fledged some six weeks later. ...
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M1 Motorway
The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the country was the Preston By-pass, which later became part of the M6. The motorway is long and was constructed in four phases. Most of the motorway was opened between 1959 and 1968. The southern end was extended in 1977 and the northern end was extended in 1999. History There had been plans before the Second World War for a motorway network in the United Kingdom. Lord Montagu formed a company to build a 'motorway like road' from London to Birmingham in 1923, but it was a further 26 years before the Special Roads Act 1949 was passed, which allowed for the construction of roads limited to specific vehicle classifications, and in the 1950s, the country's first motorways were given the government go-ahead. The first section of motorway was the Preston Bypass in Lancashire, now pa ...
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M62 Motorway
The M62 is a west–east trans-Pennine motorway in Northern England, connecting Liverpool and Hull via Manchester, Bradford, Leeds and Wakefield; of the route is shared with the M60 orbital motorway around Manchester. The road is part of the unsigned Euroroutes E20 ( Shannon to Saint Petersburg) and E22 (Holyhead to Ishim). The motorway, which was first proposed in the 1930s, and conceived as two separate routes, was opened in stages between 1971 and 1976, with construction beginning at Pole Moor near Huddersfield and finishing at that time in Tarbock on the outskirts of Liverpool. The motorway absorbed the northern end of the Stretford- Eccles bypass, which was built between 1957 and 1960. Adjusted for inflation to 2007, its construction cost approximately £765 million. The motorway has an average daily traffic flow of 144,000 vehicles in West Yorkshire, and has several sections prone to gridlock, in particular, between Leeds and Huddersfield and the M60 sectio ...
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A1(M) Motorway
A1(M) is the designation given to a series of four separate motorway sections in England. Each section is an upgrade to a section of the A1, a major north–south road which connects London, the capital of England, with Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. The first section, the Doncaster Bypass, opened in 1961 and is one of the oldest sections of motorway in Britain. Construction of a new section of A1(M) between Leeming and Barton was completed on 29 March 2018, a year later than the anticipated opening in 2017 due to extensive archaeological excavations. Its completion linked the Barton to Washington section with the Darrington to Leeming Bar section, forming the longest A1(M) section overall and reducing the number of sections from five to four. In 2015 a proposal was made by three local government organizations to renumber as M1 the section of A1(M) between Micklefield and Washington, making this section a northern extension of the M1. Overview From London to S ...
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