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Grand-ÃŽlet
Grand-ÃŽlet (officially in French: Grand-ÃŽlet des Saintes) is an island in the ÃŽles des Saintes archipelago, in the Lesser Antilles. It belongs to the communes of France, commune (municipality) of Terre-de-Haut into the French department of Guadeloupe. Geography Grand-ÃŽlet is located, south of Terre-de-Haut Island. Of triangular shape, It ends by three headlands: Grosse Pointe in the east is an abrupt cliff which plunges into Dominica Passage, Basse Pointe in the north of the island overlooking la Redonde, in front of which is located a series of sharpened rocks called les Quilles and Pointe des Colibris on the west, forming with the eastern headland of la Coche, the dangerous passage called Passe des Dames. The island is about from east to west and from north to south. The official size is 84 hectares (although some mistakes appear with a calculated 48 hectares) . Its highest mount, Morne Grosse Pointe hill culminates at . It contain two coves: Anse du Grand Etang, a rocky i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
ÃŽles Des Saintes
The Îles des Saintes (; "Islands of the Female Saints"), also known as Les Saintes, is a group of small islands in the archipelago of Guadeloupe, an overseas department of France. It is part of the Canton of Trois-Rivières and is divided into two communes: Terre-de-Haut and Terre-de-Bas. It is in the arrondissement of Basse-Terre and also in Guadeloupe's 4th constituency. History Pre-Columbian ''Les Saintes'', due to their location in the heart of the Lesser Antilles, were frequented first by Indian tribes coming from Caribbean and Central America. ''Caaroucaëra'' (the Arawak name of ''Îles des Saintes''), although uninhabited due to the lack of spring water, were regularly visited by Arawak peoples then Kalinagos living on the neighbourhood islands of Guadeloupe and Dominica around the 9th century. They went there to practise hunting and fishing. The archaeological remains of war axes and pottery dug up on the site of ''Anse Rodrigue's Beach'' and stored at "Fort Nap ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Terre-de-Haut
Terre-de-Haut (; gcf, label=Antillean Creole, Tèdého) is a commune in the French overseas department of Guadeloupe, including Terre-de-Haut Island and a few other small uninhabited islands of the archipelago (''les Roches Percées''; ''Îlet à Cabrit''; ''Grand-Îlet''; ''la Redonde''). It is the most populous island of the archipelago of Les Saintes. The Fort Napoléon is located in this commune. Tourism Terre-de-Haut is the most tourist-friendly municipality in ''les Saintes'' archipelago, with hotels, bungalows, bars and restaurants. There is little formalized activity, but one can tour the restored Fort Napoleon or rent mopeds. Located there is the beautiful ''Plage de Pompierre'' beach, as well as small guest-houses, eateries, French-Creole shops, and an active harbour where ferries passengers from Guadeloupe arrive. The local people make a living from fishing and from tourism. Visitors are free to explore without modern-day intrusion. The local currency is the Euro, but ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Terre-de-Bas Island
Terre-de-Bas Island (officially in French: Terre-de-Bas des Saintes ''(literally: Lowland of les Saintes)'') is an island in the Îles des Saintes archipelago, in the Lesser Antilles. It belongs to the communes of France, commune (municipality) of Terre-de-Bas in the French department of Guadeloupe. Geography Description Terre-de-Bas island is the most occidental island of the archipelago of ''les Saintes''. Like its neighbour ''Terre-de-Haut Island, Terre-de-Haut'', it derives its name from maritime speak which called the islands exposed to the wind ''hightland'' and those protected from the wind, ''lowlands''. It is an island of dominated by a mountain massif sheltering a protected forest in its center (''Morne à Coq'' hill, ''Morne Paquette'' hill, ''Morne Madis'' hill, ''Morne Abymes'' hill) and a coast lined with cliffs and points (in French: ''Pointe'') (''Pointe à Nègre'' point, ''Gros cap'' cliff, ''Pointe à Vache'' point, ''Pointe Noire'' point, ''Pointe Sud'' point). ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Terre-de-Haut Island
Terre-de-Haut Island (; gcf, label=Antillean Creole, Tèdého; also formerly known as ''Petite Martinique'') is the easternmost island in the Îles des Saintes , part of the archipelago of Guadeloupe. Like name of neighboring Terre-de-Bas, name Terre-de-Haut comes from the maritime vocabulary, which called the islands exposed to the "highland" winds and those protected from the wind, "lowlands". Geography Terre-de-Haut is separated from Terre-de-Bas by a narrow channel of . Besides Terre-de-Bas, several small islands surround Terre-de-Haut. It is an island of dominated in the north by Morne Mire hill () and Morel hill (). Morel is on the North of the island, between the bay of Marigot and the bay of Pompierre. There is an ancient fortress there, Caroline battery. The Chameau , in the southwest, is the highest elevation in the archipelago. It is covered with forest. On the summit, there is a watchtower, called La tour modèle. Chameau is the property of the Conservatoire d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Masked Booby
The masked booby (''Sula dactylatra''), also called the masked gannet or the blue-faced booby, is a large seabird of the booby and gannet family, Sulidae. First described by the French naturalist René-Primevère Lesson in 1831, the masked booby is one of six species of booby in the genus '' Sula''. It has a typical sulid body shape, with a long pointed yellowish bill, long neck, aerodynamic body, long slender wings and pointed tail. The adult is bright white with black wings, a black tail and a dark face mask; at long, it is the largest species of booby. The sexes have similar plumage. This species ranges across tropical oceans, except in the eastern Atlantic and eastern Pacific. In the latter, it is replaced by the Nazca booby (''Sula granti''), which was formerly regarded as a subspecies of masked booby. Nesting takes place in colonies, generally on islands and atolls far from the mainland and close to deep water required for foraging. Territorial when breeding, the masked ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Double-crested Cormorant
The double-crested cormorant (''Nannopterum auritum'') is a member of the cormorant family of water birds. It is found near rivers and lakes, and in coastal areas, and is widely distributed across North America, from the Aleutian Islands in Alaska down to Florida and Mexico. Measuring in length, it is entirely black except for a bare patch of orange-yellow facial skin and some extra plumage that it exhibits in the breeding season, when it grows a double crest in which black feathers are mingled with white. Five subspecies are recognized. It mainly eats fish and hunts by swimming and diving. Its feathers, like those of all cormorants, are not waterproof and it must spend time drying them out after spending time in the water. Once threatened by the use of DDT, the numbers of this bird have increased markedly in recent years. Taxonomy The double-crested cormorant was described by René Primevère Lesson in 1831. It was formerly classified in the genus '' Phalacrocorax'', but a 2014 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pelican
Pelicans (genus ''Pelecanus'') are a genus of large water birds that make up the family Pelecanidae. They are characterized by a long beak and a large throat pouch used for catching prey and draining water from the scooped-up contents before swallowing. They have predominantly pale plumage, except for the brown and Peruvian pelicans. The bills, pouches, and bare facial skin of all pelicans become brightly coloured before the breeding season. The eight living pelican species have a patchy global distribution, ranging latitudinally from the tropics to the temperate zone, though they are absent from interior South America and from polar regions and the open ocean. Long thought to be related to frigatebirds, cormorants, tropicbirds, and gannets and boobies, pelicans instead are now known to be most closely related to the shoebill and hamerkop, and are placed in the order Pelecaniformes. Ibises, spoonbills, herons, and bitterns have been classified in the same order. Fossil ev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Petrel
Petrels are tube-nosed seabirds in the bird order Procellariiformes. Description The common name does not indicate relationship beyond that point, as "petrels" occur in three of the four families within that group (all except the albatross family, Diomedeidae). Having a fossil record that was assumed to extend back at least 60 million years, the Procellariiformes was long considered to be among the older bird groupings, other than the ratites, with presumably distant ties to penguins and loons. However, recent research and fossil finds such as ''Vegavis'' show that the Galliformes (pheasants, grouse and relatives), and Anseriformes (ducks, geese) are still not fully resolved. Known species All the members of the order are exclusively pelagic in distribution—returning to land only to breed. The family Procellariidae is the main radiation of medium-sized true petrels, characterised by united nostrils with medium septum, and a long outer functional primary feather. It is dom ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Red-footed Booby
The red-footed booby (''Sula sula'') is a large seabird of the booby family, Sulidae. Adults always have red feet, but the colour of the plumage varies. They are powerful and agile fliers, but they are clumsy in takeoffs and landings. They are found widely in the tropics, and breed colonially in coastal regions, especially islands. The species faces few natural or man-made threats, although its population is declining; it is considered to be a least-concern species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Taxonomy The first formal description of the red-footed booby was by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1766 in the twelfth edition of his ''Systema Naturae''. He introduced the binomial name ''Pelecanus sula''. The type locality is Barbados in the West Indies. The present genus ''Sula'' was introduced by the French scientist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760. The word ''Sula'' is Norwegian for a gannet. There are three subspecies: * ''S. s. sula'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guano
Guano (Spanish from qu, wanu) is the accumulated excrement of seabirds or bats. As a manure, guano is a highly effective fertilizer due to the high content of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium, all key nutrients essential for plant growth. Guano was also, to a lesser extent, sought for the production of gunpowder and other explosive materials. The 19th-century seabird guano trade played a pivotal role in the development of modern input-intensive farming. The demand for guano spurred the human colonization of remote bird islands in many parts of the world. Unsustainable seabird guano mining processes can result in permanent habitat destruction and the loss of millions of seabirds. Bat guano is found in caves throughout the world. Many cave ecosystems are wholly dependent on bats to provide nutrients via their guano which supports bacteria, fungi, invertebrates, and vertebrates. The loss of bats from a cave can result in the extinction of species that rely on their guano. U ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blue-footed Booby
The blue-footed booby (''Sula nebouxii'') is a marine bird native to subtropical and tropical regions of the eastern Pacific Ocean. It is one of six species of the genus '' Sula'' – known as boobies. It is easily recognizable by its distinctive bright blue feet, which is a sexually selected trait and a product of their diet. Males display their feet in an elaborate mating ritual by lifting them up and down while strutting before the female. The female is slightly larger than the male and can measure up to long with a wingspan up to . The natural breeding habitats of the blue-footed booby are the tropical and subtropical islands of the Pacific Ocean. It can be found from the Gulf of California south along the western coasts of Central and South America to Peru. About half of all breeding pairs nest on the Galápagos Islands. Its diet mainly consists of fish, which it obtains by diving and sometimes swimming under water in search of its prey. It sometimes hunts alone, but u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Magnificent Frigatebird
The magnificent frigatebird (''Fregata magnificens'') is a seabird of the frigatebird family Fregatidae. With a length of and wingspan of it is the largest species of frigatebird. It occurs over tropical and subtropical waters off America, between northern Mexico and Perú on the Pacific coast and between Florida and southern Brazil along the Atlantic coast. There are also populations on the Galápagos Islands in the Pacific and the Cape Verde islands in the Atlantic. The magnificent frigatebird is a large, lightly built seabird with brownish-black plumage, long narrow wings and a deeply forked tail. The male has a striking red gular sac which he inflates to attract a mate. The female is slightly larger than the male and has a white breast and belly. Frigatebirds feed on fish taken in flight from the ocean's surface (often flying fish), and sometimes indulge in kleptoparasitism, harassing other birds to force them to regurgitate their food. Taxonomy The magnificent frigatebir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
