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Heronries
A heronry, sometimes called a heron rookery, is a breeding ground for herons. Notable heronries Although their breeding territories are often on more protected small islands in lakes or retention ponds, herons breed in heronries (or also called rookeries, especially since other birds join them like spoonbills, storks, and cormorants). Some of the notable heronries are: Asia * Kaggaladu, Kaggaladu Heronry is in Karnataka state of India. This heronry, in the Tumkur district of Karnataka, was first made known to the outside world in 1999 by members of the Tumkur-based NGO Wildlife Aware Nature Club. Europe * Cleeve Heronry (), in a woodland near the village of Cleeve, Somerset, Cleeve in North Somerset, UK. * Hilgay ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grey Heron
The grey heron (''Ardea cinerea'') is a long-legged wading bird of the heron family, Ardeidae, native throughout temperate Europe and Asia, and also parts of Africa. It is resident in much of its range, but some populations from the more northern parts migrate southwards in autumn. A bird of wetland areas, it can be seen around lakes, rivers, ponds, marshes and on the sea coast. It feeds mostly on aquatic creatures which it catches after standing stationary beside or in the water, or stalking its prey through the shallows. Standing up to tall, adults weigh from . They have a white head and neck with a broad black stripe that extends from the eye to the black crest. The body and wings are grey above and the underparts are greyish-white, with some black on the flanks. The long, sharply pointed beak is pinkish-yellow and the legs are brown. The birds breed colonially in spring in heronries, usually building their nests high in trees. A clutch of usually three to five bluish-gre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bird Colony
A bird colony is a large congregation of individuals of one or more species of bird that nest or roost in proximity at a particular location. Many kinds of birds are known to congregate in groups of varying size; a congregation of nesting birds is called a breeding colony. Colonial nesting birds include seabirds such as auks and albatrosses; wetland species such as herons; and a few passerines such as weaverbirds, certain blackbirds, and some swallows. A group of birds congregating for rest is called a communal roost. Evidence of colonial nesting has been found in non- neornithine birds (Enantiornithes), in sediments from the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) of Romania. Variations on colonial nesting in birds Approximately 13% of all bird species nest colonially. Nesting colonies are very common among seabirds on cliffs and islands. Nearly 95% of seabirds are colonial, leading to the usage, seabird colony, sometimes called a rookery. Many species of terns nest in colonies ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hilgay Heronry
Hilgay Heronry is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest south of Downham Market in Norfolk, England. This small wood has a nationally important breeding colony of grey herons, with around forty nests each year in larch and ash trees. Nearby drainage dykes on The Fens The Fens or Fenlands in eastern England are a naturally marshy region supporting a rich ecology and numerous species. Most of the fens were drained centuries ago, resulting in a flat, dry, low-lying agricultural region supported by a system o ... provide feeding grounds. The site is private land with no public access. References {{SSSIs Norfolk Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Norfolk ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rookery
A rookery is a colony of breeding rooks, and more broadly a colony of several types of breeding animals, generally gregarious birds. Coming from the nesting habits of rooks, the term is used for corvids and the breeding grounds of colony-forming seabirds, marine mammals (true seals or sea lions), and even some turtles. Rooks (northern-European and central-Asian members of the crow family) have multiple nests in prominent colonies at the tops of trees. Paleontological evidence points to the existence of rookery-like colonies in the pterosaur '' Pterodaustro''. The term '' rookery'' was also borrowed as a name for dense slum housing in nineteenth-century cities, especially in London. See also * Auca Mahuevo, for a titanosaurid sauropod dinosaur rookery *Bird colony A bird colony is a large congregation of individuals of one or more species of bird that nest or roost in proximity at a particular location. Many kinds of birds are known to congregate in groups of varyi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mangrove
A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows mainly in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. Mangroves grow in an equatorial climate, typically along coastlines and tidal rivers. They have particular adaptations to take in extra oxygen and remove salt, allowing them to tolerate conditions that kill most plants. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse due to convergent evolution in several plant families. They occur worldwide in the tropics and subtropics and even some temperate coastal areas, mainly between latitudes 30° N and 30° S, with the greatest mangrove area within 5° of the equator. Mangrove plant families first appeared during the Late Cretaceous to Paleocene epochs and became widely distributed in part due to the plate tectonics, movement of tectonic plates. The oldest known fossils of Nypa fruticans, mangrove palm date to 75 million years ago. Mangroves are salt-tolerant ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geography And Ecology Of The Everglades
Before drainage, the Everglades, a region of tropical wetlands in southern Florida, were an interwoven mesh of marshes and prairies covering . The Everglades is both a vast watershed that has historically extended from Lake Okeechobee south to Florida Bay (around one-third of the southern Florida peninsula), and many interconnected ecosystems within a geographic boundary. It is such a unique meeting of water, land, and climate that the use of either singular or plural to refer to the Everglades is appropriate. When Marjory Stoneman Douglas wrote her definitive description of the region in 1947, she used the metaphor "River of Grass" to explain the blending of water and plant life. Although sawgrass and sloughs are the enduring geographical icons of the Everglades, other ecosystems are just as vital, and the borders marking them are subtle or nonexistent. Pinelands and tropical hardwood hammocks are located throughout the sloughs; the trees, rooted in soil inches above the pea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
European Larch
''Larix decidua'', the European larch, is a species of larch native to the mountains of central Europe, in the Alps and Carpathian Mountains, with small disjunct lowland populations in northern Poland. Its life span has been confirmed to be close to 1000 years, with ages of around 2000 years likely. Description ''Larix decidua'' is a medium-size to large deciduous coniferous tree reaching 25–45 m tall, with a trunk up to 1.5 m diameter (exceptionally, to 53.8 m tall and 11.20 m girth .56 m diameterref name=MTCH>). The crown is conic when young, becoming broad and often irregular with age; the main branches are level to upswept, with the side branches often pendulous. The shoots are dimorphic, with growth divided into long shoots (typically 10–50 cm long) and bearing several buds, and short shoots only 1–2 mm long with only a single bud. The leaves are needle-like, light green, 2–4 cm long which turn bright yellow before they fall in the autumn, leaving the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
European Ash
''Fraxinus excelsior'', known as the ash, or European ash or common ash to distinguish it from other types of Fraxinus, ash, is a flowering plant species in the olive family Oleaceae. It is native throughout mainland Europe east to the Caucasus and Alborz mountains, and west to Great Britain and Ireland, the latter determining its western boundary. The northernmost location is in the Trondheimsfjord region of Norway.Rushforth, K. (1999). ''Trees of Britain and Europe''. Collins . The species is widely cultivated and reportedly Naturalisation (biology), naturalised in New Zealand and in scattered locales in the United States and Canada. Description It is a large deciduous tree growing to (exceptionally to ) tall with a trunk up to (exceptionally to ) diameter, with a tall, narrow crown. The Bark (botany), bark is smooth and pale grey on young trees, becoming thick and vertically fissured on old trees. The shoots are stout, greenish-grey, with jet (gemstone), jet-black buds (wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Fens
The Fens or Fenlands in eastern England are a naturally marshy region supporting a rich ecology and numerous species. Most of the fens were drained centuries ago, resulting in a flat, dry, low-lying agricultural region supported by a system of drainage channels and man-made rivers (Ditch, dykes and drains) and automated pumping stations. There have been unintended consequences to this reclamation, as the land level has continued to sink and the dykes have been built higher to protect it from flooding. ''Fen'' is the local term for an individual area of marshland or former marshland. It also designates the type of marsh typical of the area, which has pH, neutral or alkaline water and relatively large quantities of dissolved minerals, but few other plant nutrition, plant nutrients. The Fens are a National Character Area, based on their landscape, biodiversity, geodiversity and economic activity. The Fens lie inland of the Wash, and are an area of nearly in the south east of L ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norfolk
Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and east, Cambridgeshire to the west, and Suffolk to the south. The largest settlement is the city of Norwich. The county has an area of and a population of 859,400. It is largely rural with few large towns: after Norwich (147,895), the largest settlements are King's Lynn (42,800) in the north-west, Great Yarmouth (38,693) in the east, and Thetford (24,340) in the south. For local government purposes Norfolk is a non-metropolitan county with seven districts. The centre of Norfolk is gently undulating lowland. To the east are the Broads, a network of rivers and lakes which extend into Suffolk and which are protected by the Broads Authority, which give them a similar status to a National parks of England and Wales, national park. To the west the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
North Somerset
North Somerset is a unitary authorities of England, unitary authority in the ceremonial county of Somerset, England. The council is based in Weston-super-Mare, the area's largest town. The district also contains the towns of Clevedon, Nailsea and Portishead, Somerset, Portishead, along with a number of villages and surrounding rural areas. Some southern parts of the district fall within the Mendip Hills, a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The district was formed in 1974 as the Woodspring district of the county of Avon (county), Avon. Avon was abolished in 1996, when the district was renamed North Somerset and its council took on county-level functions from the abolished county council. The district is on the coast, facing the Bristol Channel to the west. The neighbouring districts are Bristol, Bath and North East Somerset and Somerset (district), Somerset. History The district was created on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, covering four former ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
