Blithfield Reservoir
Blithfield Reservoir is a large raw water reservoir in Staffordshire, England, owned by South Staffordshire Water. Some 800 acres (324 hectares) of reservoir was formed on land sold by Baron Bagot to the South Staffordshire Water Works (SSWW) in the 1940s. Blithfield Reservoir was opened by Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother on Tuesday 27 October 1953. The Reservoir is located just north-east of the town of Rugeley and just south of Abbots Bromley The reservoir is a haven for wildlife, particularly birds, a fact that was recognised in 1988 when the reservoir and most of its surrounding woodland was designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest, (SSSI). Parts of the shoreline and surrounding woodland are only available to birdwatchers under a permit scheme, operated by the West Midland Bird Club, but much of the open water is visible from the road causeway which crosses the reservoir (grid reference SK055235), and there is access to the dam end of the reservoir. There is als ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Blithbury
Blithbury is a small village in Lichfield District, Staffordshire, England. Part of the civil parish of Mavesyn Ridware, it lies near the River Blithe, about north of Handsacre, 3 miles north-east of Rugeley, and 3 miles south of Abbots Bromley. The public house bears the name ''The Bull and Spectacles''. In the 19th century it had the more common name of ''Bulls Head''. In the first half of the 12th century religious houses for monks and nuns were founded at Blithbury. Within a few decades only the nuns are mentioned. The order was associated with the nuns of Black Ladies Priory, Brewood, and was eventually absorbed by them, so that there is no mention of the nuns of Blithbury after the early 14th century. According to Douglas Adams' 1983 humorous dictionary "The Meaning of Liff ''The Meaning of Liff'' (UK Edition: , US Edition: ) is a humorous dictionary of toponymy and etymology, written by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd, published in the United Kingdom in 1983 and ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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West Midland Bird Club
The West Midland Bird Club is the UK's largest regional ornithological society. It has been serving birdwatchers and ornithologists in the four English counties of Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and (since its separation from the aforesaid counties in 1974) the Metropolitan West Midlands, with lectures, field trips, research, a bulletin and an annual report, since 1929. It is a registered charity in England and Wales, number 213311. There are branches in Birmingham, Kidderminster, Stafford, Solihull and Tamworth. It manages the Belvide Reservoir nature reserve in Staffordshire, the Harborne Reserve in Birmingham, and the Ladywalk Reserve in North Warwickshire, as well as running an access-permit scheme for Blithfield Reservoir and Gailey Reservoir in Staffordshire. The Club sponsors bird feeding stations at Cannock Chase (Staffordshire) and Draycote Water (Warwickshire). Bill Oddie has been the Club's president since 1999. History The Club was founded as th ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sites Of Special Scientific Interest In Staffordshire
Site most often refers to: * Archaeological site * Campsite, a place used for overnight stay in an outdoor area * Construction site * Location, a point or an area on the Earth's surface or elsewhere * Website, a set of related web pages, typically with a common domain name It may also refer to: * Site, a National Register of Historic Places property type * SITE (originally known as ''Sculpture in the Environment''), an American architecture and design firm * Site (mathematics), a category C together with a Grothendieck topology on C * ''The Site'', a 1990s TV series that aired on MSNBC * SITE Intelligence Group, a for-profit organization tracking jihadist and white supremacist organizations * SITE Institute, a terrorism-tracking organization, precursor to the SITE Intelligence Group * Sindh Industrial and Trading Estate, a company in Sindh, Pakistan * SITE Centers, American commercial real estate company * SITE Town, a densely populated town in Karachi, Pakistan * S.I.T.E Indust ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Drinking Water Reservoirs In England
Drinking is the act of ingesting water or other liquids into the body through the mouth, proboscis, or elsewhere. Humans drink by swallowing, completed by peristalsis in the esophagus. The physiological processes of drinking vary widely among other animals. Most animals drink water to maintain bodily hydration, although many can survive on the water gained from their food. Water is required for many physiological processes. Both inadequate and (less commonly) excessive water intake are associated with health problems. Methods of drinking In humans When a liquid enters a human mouth, the swallowing process is completed by peristalsis which delivers the liquid through the esophagus to the stomach; much of the activity is abetted by gravity. The liquid may be poured from the hands or drinkware may be used as vessels. Drinking can also be performed by acts of inhalation, typically when imbibing hot liquids or drinking from a spoon. Infants employ a method of suction wherein ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Nature Reserves In Staffordshire
Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are part of nature, human activity is often understood as a separate category from other natural phenomena. The word ''nature'' is borrowed from the Old French ''nature'' and is derived from the Latin word ''natura'', or "essential qualities, innate disposition", and in ancient times, literally meant "birth". In ancient philosophy, ''natura'' is mostly used as the Latin translation of the Greek word ''physis'' (φύσις), which originally related to the intrinsic characteristics of plants, animals, and other features of the world to develop of their own accord. The concept of nature as a whole, the physical universe, is one of several expansions of the original notion; it began with certain core applications of the word φύσις by pre-So ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Blithfield Reservoir
Blithfield Reservoir is a large raw water reservoir in Staffordshire, England, owned by South Staffordshire Water. Some 800 acres (324 hectares) of reservoir was formed on land sold by Baron Bagot to the South Staffordshire Water Works (SSWW) in the 1940s. Blithfield Reservoir was opened by Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother on Tuesday 27 October 1953. The Reservoir is located just north-east of the town of Rugeley and just south of Abbots Bromley The reservoir is a haven for wildlife, particularly birds, a fact that was recognised in 1988 when the reservoir and most of its surrounding woodland was designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest, (SSSI). Parts of the shoreline and surrounding woodland are only available to birdwatchers under a permit scheme, operated by the West Midland Bird Club, but much of the open water is visible from the road causeway which crosses the reservoir (grid reference SK055235), and there is access to the dam end of the reservoir. There is als ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Squacco Heron
The squacco heron (''Ardeola ralloides'') is a small heron, long, of which the body is , with wingspan. It is of Old World origins, breeding in southern Europe and the Greater Middle East. Behaviour The squacco heron is a migrant, wintering in Africa. It is rare north of its breeding range. The species has been recorded in Fernando de Noronha islands, and more rarely in mainland South America, as a vagrant. This is a stocky species with a short neck, short thick bill and buff-brown back. In summer, adults have long neck feathers. Its appearance is transformed in flight, when it looks very white due to the colour of the wings. The squacco heron's breeding habitat is marshy wetlands in warm countries. The birds nest in small colonies, often with other wading birds, usually on platforms of sticks in trees or shrubs. Three to four eggs are laid. They feed on fish, frogs and insects. Squacco heron (Ardeola ralloides) in flight.jpg, Flying in Cyprus Squacco heron (Ardeola ralloide ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Blue-winged Teal
The blue-winged teal (''Spatula discors'') is a species of bird in the duck, goose, and swan family Anatidae. One of the smaller members of the dabbling duck group, it occurs in North America, where it breeds from southern Alaska to Nova Scotia, and south to northern Texas. It winters along the Pacific and Atlantic coasts and south into the Caribbean islands and Central America. Taxonomy The first formal description of the blue-winged teal was by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1766 in the twelfth edition of his '' Systema Naturae''. He coined the binomial name ''Anas discors''. A molecular phylogentic study comparing mitochondrial DNA sequences published in 2009 found that the genus ''Anas'', as then defined, was non-monophyletic. The genus was subsequently split into four monophyletic genera with ten species including the blue-winged teal moved into the resurrected genus ''Spatula''. This genus had been originally proposed by the German zoologist Friedrich Boie ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Bonaparte's Gull
Bonaparte's gull (''Chroicocephalus philadelphia'') is a member of the gull family Laridae found mainly in northern North America. At in length, it is one of the smallest species of gull. Its plumage is mainly white with grey upperparts. During breeding season, Bonaparte's gull gains a slate-grey hood. The sexes are similar in appearance. Taxonomy and etymology When George Ord first described Bonaparte's gull in 1815, he gave it the scientific name ''Sterna philadelphia'', assigning it to the genus now used for medium-sized terns. Most later taxonomists assigned it to the genus ''Larus'', a longtime catch-all for most of the gull species. However, in 1858, George Newbold Lawrence moved the species to the genus ''Chroicocephalus'', and some taxonomists followed suit. Recent molecular DNA studies have shown that this species fits neatly into a clade with other "masked gulls", and that it and the slender-billed gull are each other's closest relatives and are basal to the rest of ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Arctic Warbler
The Arctic warbler (''Phylloscopus borealis'') is a widespread leaf warbler in birch or mixed birch forest near water throughout its breeding range in Fennoscandia and the northern Palearctic. It has established a foothold in North America, breeding in Alaska. This warbler is strongly migratory; the entire population winters in southeast Asia. It therefore has one of the longest migrations of any Old World insectivorous bird. It traditionally included populations that breed in Kamchatka, the Kuril Islands and Japan, but genetic and vocal evidence strongly suggested these should be treated as separate species, and are all now considered distinct with the Kamchatka leaf warbler in Kamchatka, Hokkaido and the Kuril Islands, and the Japanese leaf warbler in Japan (except Hokkaido).Alström, P., Ssaitoh, T., Williams, D., Nishiumi, I., Shigeta, Y., Ueda, K., Irestedt, M., Björklund, M., and Olson, U. (2011). ''The Arctic Warbler Phylloscopus borealis– three anciently separ ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Bird
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweight skeleton. Birds live worldwide and range in size from the bee hummingbird to the ostrich. There are about ten thousand living species, more than half of which are passerine, or "perching" birds. Birds have whose development varies according to species; the only known groups without wings are the extinct moa and elephant birds. Wings, which are modified forelimbs, gave birds the ability to fly, although further evolution has led to the loss of flight in some birds, including ratites, penguins, and diverse endemic island species. The digestive and respiratory systems of birds are also uniquely adapted for flight. Some bird species of aquatic environments, particularly seabirds and some waterbirds, have further evolved for swimming. B ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Bird Migration
Bird migration is the regular seasonal movement, often north and south along a flyway, between breeding and wintering grounds. Many species of bird migrate. Migration carries high costs in predation and mortality, including from hunting by humans, and is driven primarily by the availability of food. It occurs mainly in the northern hemisphere, where birds are funneled onto specific routes by natural barriers such as the Mediterranean Sea or the Caribbean Sea. Migration of species such as storks, turtle doves, and swallows was recorded as many as 3,000 years ago by Ancient Greek authors, including Homer and Aristotle, and in the Book of Job. More recently, Johannes Leche began recording dates of arrivals of spring migrants in Finland in 1749, and modern scientific studies have used techniques including bird ringing and satellite tracking to trace migrants. Threats to migratory birds have grown with habitat destruction, especially of stopover and wintering sites, as wel ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |