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Earthflight
''Earthflight'' is a British nature documentary that shows a flight from the view of the wings of birds across six continents, showing some of the world's greatest natural spectacles from a bird's-eye view. The BBC series was created by John Downer and narrated by David Tennant and consisted of six 60-minute episodes. The first episode aired on BBC One on 29 December 2011. A two-hour subset of ''Earthflight'' was aired in October 2012 by the Discovery Channel in the US as ''Winged Planet''. The entire series with rerecorded narrative aired on PBS, beginning in September 2013, under the title ''Earthflight, A Nature Special Presentation''. As explained in the sixth episode, some of the birds were imprinted on a human and filmed from an ultralight plane; others were filmed with a helicopter drone. Some other footage resulted from tiny cameras being strapped to the backs of birds. __TOC__ Episodes Merchandise In the UK, a two-disc DVD was released on 26 March 2012, whil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nature Documentary
A nature documentary or wildlife documentary is a genre of documentary film or series about animals, plants, or other non-human living creatures, usually concentrating on video taken in their natural habitat but also often including footage of trained and captive animals. Sometimes they are about wildlife or ecosystems in relationship to human beings. Such programmes are most frequently made for television, particularly for public broadcasting channels, but some are also made for the cinema medium. The proliferation of this genre occurred almost simultaneously alongside the production of similar television series. History In cinema Robert J. Flaherty's 1922 film ''Nanook of the North'' is typically cited as the first feature-length documentary. Decades later, Walt Disney Productions pioneered the serial theatrical release of nature-documentaries with its production of the True-Life Adventures series, a collection of fourteen full length and short subject nature films from 1948 to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nature Documentary
A nature documentary or wildlife documentary is a genre of documentary film or series about animals, plants, or other non-human living creatures, usually concentrating on video taken in their natural habitat but also often including footage of trained and captive animals. Sometimes they are about wildlife or ecosystems in relationship to human beings. Such programmes are most frequently made for television, particularly for public broadcasting channels, but some are also made for the cinema medium. The proliferation of this genre occurred almost simultaneously alongside the production of similar television series. History In cinema Robert J. Flaherty's 1922 film ''Nanook of the North'' is typically cited as the first feature-length documentary. Decades later, Walt Disney Productions pioneered the serial theatrical release of nature-documentaries with its production of the True-Life Adventures series, a collection of fourteen full length and short subject nature films from 1948 to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Downer (filmmaker)
John Downer (born 1952) is a British film producer of nature documentaries for television and cinema. He is best known for his contributions to the nature documentary series ''BBC Wildlife Specials''. Education and career John Downer was born in 1952 in London.Jenifer Warren: John Downer: Natural Highs'. ''Los Angeles Times'', December 8, 1991. He studied zoology at Swansea University.BBC Earth: John Downer's Biography', retrieved in October 2020 He started his professional life in 1981 at the BBC Natural History Unit, later creating his own production company ''John Downer Productions'' headquartered in Bristol.Interview with EARTHFLIGHT Filmmaker John Downer PBS Nature, August 12, 2013. Downer pioneered a number of techniques for wildlife filmmaking, i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Snow Goose
The snow goose (''Anser caerulescens'') is a species of goose native to North America. Both white and dark morphs exist, the latter often known as blue goose. Its name derives from the typically white plumage. The species was previously placed in the genus ''Chen'', but is now typically included in the "gray goose" genus ''Anser''. Snow geese breed north of the timberline in Greenland, Canada, Alaska, and the northeastern tip of Siberia, and spend winters in warm parts of North America from southwestern British Columbia through parts of the United States to Mexico. Snow goose populations increased dramatically in the 20th century. Taxonomy In 1750 the English naturalist George Edwards included an illustration and a description of the snow goose in the third volume of his ''A Natural History of Uncommon Birds''. He used the English name "The blue-winged goose". Edwards based his hand-coloured etching on a preserved specimen that had been brought to London from the Hudson Bay a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ephydridae
Ephydridae (shore fly, sometimes brine fly) is a family of insects in the order Diptera. Shore flies are tiny flies that can be found near seashores or at smaller inland waters, such as ponds. About 2,000 species have been described worldwide, including Ochthera. The petroleum fly, ''Helaeomyia petrolei'', is the only known insect whose larvae live in naturally occurring crude petroleum. Another notable species is '' Ephydra hians'' which lives in vast number at Mono Lake. Description For terms, see Morphology of Diptera. The flies are minute to small (0.9 to 7.0 mm), with black or gray colorations. Wings are sometimes patterned. Costa with two interruptions are present in first section, near the humeral cross-vein and again near the end of vein 1. The second basal cell is not separated from the discal cell. Arista are bare or with hairs on the upper side (plumose on the upper side). The mouth opening is very large in some species. The ratio of vertical diameter of eye ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mono Lake
Mono Lake ( ) is a saline soda lake in Mono County, California, formed at least 760,000 years ago as a terminal lake in an endorheic basin. The lack of an outlet causes high levels of salts to accumulate in the lake which make its water alkaline. The desert lake has an unusually productive ecosystem based on brine shrimp, which thrive in its waters, and provides critical habitat for two million annual migratory birds that feed on the shrimp and alkali flies ('' Ephydra hians''). Historically, the native Kutzadika'a people ate the alkali flies' pupae, which live in the shallow waters around the edge of the lake. When the city of Los Angeles diverted water from the freshwater streams flowing into the lake, it lowered the lake level, which imperiled the migratory birds. The Mono Lake Committee formed in response and won a legal battle that forced Los Angeles to partially replenish the lake level. Geology Mono Lake occupies part of the Mono Basin, an endorheic basin that has ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
California Gull
The California gull (''Larus californicus'') is a medium-sized gull, smaller on average than the herring gull but larger on average than the ring-billed gull, though it may overlap in size greatly with both. Description Adults are similar in appearance to the herring gull, but have a smaller yellow bill with a black ring, yellow legs, brown eyes and a more rounded head. The body is mainly white with grey back and upper wings. They have black primaries with white tips. Immature birds are also similar in appearance to immature herring gulls, with browner plumage than immature ring-billed gulls. Length can range from , the wingspan and body mass can vary from .''CRC Handbook of Avian Body Masses'' by John B. Dunning Jr. (Editor). CRC Press (1992), . Distribution and habitat Their breeding habitat is lakes and marshes in interior western North America from the Northwest Territories, Canada south to eastern California and Colorado. They nest in colonies, sometimes with other bird ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Horseshoe Crab
Horseshoe crabs are marine and brackish water arthropods of the family Limulidae and the only living members of the order Xiphosura. Despite their name, they are not true crabs or crustaceans: they are chelicerates, most closely related to arachnids, such as spiders and scorpions. Horseshoe crabs live primarily in and around shallow coastal waters on soft, sandy or muddy bottoms. They are generally found in the intertidal zone at spring high tides. They are eaten in some parts of Asia, and used as fishing bait, in fertilizer and in science (especially ''Limulus'' amebocyte lysate). In recent years, population declines have occurred as a consequence of coastal habitat destruction and overharvesting. Tetrodotoxin may be present in one horseshoe crab species, '' Carcinoscorpius rotundicauda''. Fossil records for horseshoe crabs extend back as far as 480 million years ago, with extant forms being living fossils. A 2019 molecular analysis places them as the sister group of Ricinule ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Egret
Egrets ( ) are herons, generally long-legged wading birds, that have white or buff plumage, developing fine plumes (usually milky white) during the breeding season. Egrets are not a biologically distinct group from herons and have the same build. Biology Many egrets are members of the genera ''Egretta'' or '' Ardea'', which also contain other species named as herons rather than egrets. The distinction between a heron and an egret is rather vague, and depends more on appearance than biology. The word "egret" comes from the French word ''aigrette'' that means both "silver heron" and "brush", referring to the long, filamentous feathers that seem to cascade down an egret's back during the breeding season (also called "egrets"). Several of the egrets have been reclassified from one genus to another in recent years; the great egret, for example, has been classified as a member of either ''Casmerodius'', ''Egretta'', or ''Ardea''. In the 19th and early part of the 20th centuries, s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bison
Bison are large bovines in the genus ''Bison'' (Greek: "wild ox" (bison)) within the tribe Bovini. Two extant and numerous extinct species are recognised. Of the two surviving species, the American bison, ''B. bison'', found only in North America, is the more numerous. Although colloquially referred to as a buffalo in the United States and Canada, it is only distantly related to the true buffalo. The North American species is composed of two subspecies, the Plains bison, ''B. b. bison'', and the wood bison, ''B. b. athabascae'', which is the namesake of Wood Buffalo National Park in Canada. A third subspecies, the eastern bison (''B. b. pennsylvanicus'') is no longer considered a valid taxon, being a junior synonym of ''B. b. bison''. References to "woods bison" or "wood bison" from the eastern United States refer to this subspecies, not ''B. b. athabascae'', which was not found in the region. The European bison, ''B. bonasus'', or wisent, or zubr, or colloquially European buff ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cowbirds
Cowbirds are birds belonging to the genus ''Molothrus'' in the family Icteridae. They are of New World origin, and are obligate brood parasites, laying their eggs in the nests of other species. The genus was introduced by English naturalist William John Swainson in 1832 with the brown-headed cowbird (''Molothrus ater'') as the type species. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek , meaning "struggle" or "battle", with , meaning "to sire" or "to impregnate". Species The genus contains six species: One extinct species, the Talara cowbird (''Molothrus resinosus''), is known from fossil remains recovered from the Talara Tar Seeps of northwestern Peru, and likely went extinct during the late Quaternary. It may have been a close associate of Pleistocene megafauna communities, and may have gone extinct following their collapse in populations. The nonparasitic baywings were formerly placed in this genus; they are now classified as ''Agelaioides''. Behavior Cowbirds are insectivor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grunion
Grunion are two fish species of the genus ''Leuresthes'': the California grunion, ''L. tenuis'', and the Gulf grunion, ''L. sardinas''. They are sardine-sized teleost fishes of the New World silverside family Atherinopsidae, found only off the coast of California, USA, and Baja California, Mexico, where the species are found on both the Pacific Ocean and Gulf of California coasts. Many people enjoy catching grunion at events called "grunion runs." Grunion are known for their unusual mating ritual wherein at very high tides, the females come up on to sandy beaches where they dig their tails into the sand to lay their eggs. The male then wraps himself around the female to deposit his sperm, and for the next 10 days the grunion eggs remain hidden in the sand. At the next set of high tides, the eggs hatch and the young grunion are washed out to sea. A related species, the false grunion (''Colpichthys regis'') lives in the Gulf of California. Although the fish looks and acts simi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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