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Haymill Valley
Haymill Valley is a Local Nature Reserve in Slough in Berkshire. It is owned by Slough Borough Council and managed by the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust. The site is known locally as The Millie. Geography and site The site features ancient woodland with extensive reed beds and ponds fed by Two Mill Brook (also known as Two Mile Brook), which flows from Burnham Beeches into the Thames. At the reserve's southernmost end is a site of an ancient watermill. The site features a pair of 7 foot metal sculptures of Kingfishers called the Millie Kingfishers, which were added in 2008. History Haymill Valley Nature Reserve was declared a local nature reserve status in 1994 by Slough Borough Council. Fauna The site has the following fauna: Mammals *Wood mouse Invertebrates *Gonepteryx rhamni *Celastrina argiolus *Anthocharis cardamines *Pararge aegeria *White-letter hairstreak Birds *Eurasian blue tit *Great tit *European green woodpecker *Sylvia atricap ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sylvia Atricapilla
The Eurasian blackcap (''Sylvia atricapilla''), usually known simply as the blackcap, is a common and widespread typical warbler. It has mainly olive-grey upperparts and pale grey underparts, and differences between the five subspecies are small. Both sexes have a neat coloured cap to the head, black in the male and reddish-brown in the female. The male's typical song is a rich musical warbling, often ending in a loud high-pitched crescendo, but a simpler song is given in some isolated areas, such as valleys in the Alps. The blackcap's closest relative is the garden warbler, which looks quite different but has a similar song. The blackcap breeds in much of Europe, western Asia and northwestern Africa, and its preferred habitat is mature deciduous woodland. The male holds a territory when breeding, which is defended against garden warblers as well as other blackcaps. The nest is a neat cup, built low in brambles or scrub, and the clutch is typically 4–6 mainly buff eggs, which ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iris Pseudacorus
''Iris pseudacorus'', the yellow flag, yellow iris, or water flag, is a species of flowering plant in the family Iridaceae. It is native to Europe, western Asia and northwest Africa. Its specific epithet ''pseudacorus'' means "false acorus", referring to the similarity of its leaves to those of ''Acorus calamus'' (sweet flag), as they have a prominently veined mid-rib and sword-like shape. However, the two plants are not closely related. The flower is commonly attributed with the fleur-de-lis. Description This herbaceous flowering perennial plant grows to , or a rare tall, with erect leaves up to long and broad. The flowers are bright yellow, across, with the typical iris form. The fruit is a dry capsule long, containing numerous pale brown seeds. ''I. pseudacorus'' grows best in very wet conditions, and is common in wetlands, where it tolerates submersion, low pH, and anoxic soils. The plant spreads quickly, by both rhizome and water-dispersed seed. It fills a simila ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hyacinthoides Non-scripta
''Hyacinthoides non-scripta'' (formerly ''Endymion non-scriptus'' or ''Scilla non-scripta'') is a bulbous perennial plant, found in Atlantic areas from north-western Spain to the British Isles, and also frequently used as a garden plant. It is known in English as the common bluebell or simply bluebell, a name which is used in Scotland to refer to the harebell, ''Campanula rotundifolia''. In spring, ''H. non-scripta'' produces a nodding, one-sided inflorescence of 5–12 tubular, sweet-scented violet–blue flowers, with strongly recurved tepals, and 3–6 long, linear, basal leaves. ''H. non-scripta'' is particularly associated with ancient woodland where it may dominate the understorey to produce carpets of violet–blue flowers in "bluebell woods", but also occurs in more open habitats in western regions. It is protected under UK law, and in some other parts of its range. A related species, '' H. hispanica'' has also been introduced to the British Isles and hyb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caltha Palustris
''Caltha palustris'', known as marsh-marigold and kingcup, is a small to medium size perennial herbaceous plant of the buttercup family, native to marshes, fens, ditches and wet woodland in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. It flowers between April and August, dependent on altitude and latitude, but occasional flowers may occur at other times. Description ''Caltha palustris'' is a high, hairless, fleshy, perennial, herbaceous plant that dies down in autumn and overwinters with buds near the surface of the marshy soil. The plants have many, thick strongly branching roots. Its flowering stems are hollow, erect or more or less decumbent. The alternate true leaves are in a rosette, each of which consist of a leaf stem that is about four times as long as the kidney-shaped leaf blade, itself between long and wide, with a heart-shaped foot, a blunt tip, and a scalloped to toothed, sometime almost entire margin particularly towards the tip. In their youth the leaves ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crataegus
''Crataegus'' (), commonly called hawthorn, quickthorn, thornapple, Voss, E. G. 1985. ''Michigan Flora: A guide to the identification and occurrence of the native and naturalized seed-plants of the state. Part II: Dicots (Saururaceae–Cornaceae)''. Cranbrook Institute of Science and University of Michigan Herbarium, Ann Arbor, Michigan. May-tree,Graves, Robert. ''The White Goddess: A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth'', 1948, amended and enlarged 1966, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. whitethorn, Mayflower, or hawberry, is a genus of several hundred species of shrubs and trees in the family Rosaceae, native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere in Europe, Asia, North Africa, and North America. The name "hawthorn" was originally applied to the species native to northern Europe, especially the common hawthorn ''C. monogyna'', and the unmodified name is often so used in Britain and Ireland. The name is now also applied to the entire genus and to the related Asian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phylloscopus Trochilus
The willow warbler (''Phylloscopus trochilus'') is a very common and widespread leaf warbler which breeds throughout northern and temperate Europe and the Palearctic, from Ireland east to the Anadyr River basin in eastern Siberia. It is strongly migratory, with almost all of the population wintering in sub-Saharan Africa. It is a bird of open woodlands with trees and ground cover for nesting, including most importantly birch, alder, and willow habitats. The nest is usually built in close contact with the ground, often in low vegetation. Like most Old World warblers ( Sylviidae), this small passerine is insectivorous. In northern Europe, it is one of the first warblers to return in the spring, though later than the closely related chiffchaff. Taxonomy The willow warbler was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his ''Systema Naturae'' under the binomial name ''Motacilla trochilus''. The willow warbler is now one of aroun ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Acrocephalus Scirpaceus
The common reed warbler (''Acrocephalus scirpaceus'') is an Old World warbler in the genus '' Acrocephalus''. It breeds across Europe into the temperate western Palaearctic where it is migratory, wintering in sub-Saharan Africa. It is also a resident species over large parts of Africa. Taxonomy The common reed warbler was formally described in 1804 by the French naturalist Johann Hermann under the binomial name ''Turdus scirpaceus''. The type locality is Alsace. The common reed warbler is now one of around 40 species placed in the genus '' Acrocephalus'' that was introduced by Johann Andreas Naumann and his son Johann Friedrich Naumann in 1811. The genus name ''Acrocephalus'' is from Ancient Greek ''akros'', "highest", and ''kephale'', "head". It is possible that the Naumanns thought ''akros'' meant "sharp-pointed". The specific ''scirpaceus'' is from Latin and means "reed". Ten subspecies are recognised: * ''A. s. scirpaceus'' (Hermann, 1804) – breeds in Europe to west Russ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Emberiza Schoeniclus
The common reed bunting (''Emberiza schoeniclus'') is a passerine bird in the bunting family Emberizidae, a group now separated by most modern authors from the finches, Fringillidae. The genus name ''Emberiza'' is from Old German ''Embritz'', a bunting. The specific ''schoeniclus'' is from Ancient Greek ''skhoiniklos'', a now unknown waterside bird. It breeds across Europe and much of the Palearctic. Most birds migrate south in winter, but those in the milder south and west of the range are resident. It is common in reedbeds and also breeds in drier open areas such as moorland and cultivation. For example, it is a component of the purple moor grass and rush pastures, a type of Biodiversity Action Plan habitat in the UK. It occurs on poorly drained neutral and acidic soils of the lowlands and upland fringe. Taxonomy The common reed bunting was described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his ''Systema Naturae'' under the binomial name '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gallinula Chloropus
The common moorhen (''Gallinula chloropus''), also known as the waterhen or swamp chicken, is a bird species in the rail family (Rallidae). It is distributed across many parts of the Old World. The common moorhen lives around well-vegetated marshes, ponds, canals and other wetlands. The species is not found in the polar regions or many tropical rainforests. Elsewhere it is likely the most common rail species, except for the Eurasian coot in some regions. The closely related common gallinule of the New World has been recognized as a separate species by most authorities, starting with the American Ornithologists' Union and the International Ornithological Committee in 2011. Name The name ''mor-hen'' has been recorded in English since the 13th century. The word ''moor'' here is an old sense meaning ''marsh''; the species is not usually found in moorland. An older name, common waterhen, is more descriptive of the bird's habitat. A "watercock" is not a male "waterhen" but the rai ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alcedo Atthis
The common kingfisher (''Alcedo atthis''), also known as the Eurasian kingfisher and river kingfisher, is a small kingfisher with seven subspecies recognized within its wide distribution across Eurasia and North Africa. It is resident in much of its range, but migrates from areas where rivers freeze in winter. This sparrow-sized bird has the typical short-tailed, large-headed kingfisher profile; it has blue upperparts, orange underparts and a long bill. It feeds mainly on fish, caught by diving, and has special visual adaptations to enable it to see prey under water. The glossy white eggs are laid in a nest at the end of a burrow in a riverbank. Taxonomy The common kingfisher was first described by Carl Linnaeus in the 10th edition of his ''Systema Naturae'' in 1758 as ''Gracula atthis''. The modern binomial name derives from the Latin ', 'kingfisher' (from Greek , '), and ''Atthis'', a beautiful young woman of Lesbos, and favourite of Sappho. The genus ''Alcedo'' comprises s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dendrocopos Major
The great spotted woodpecker (''Dendrocopos major'') is a medium-sized woodpecker with pied black and white plumage and a red patch on the lower belly. Males and young birds also have red markings on the neck or head. This species is found across the Palearctic including parts of North Africa. Across most of its range it is bird migration, resident, but in the north some will migrate if the conifer cone crop fails. Some individuals have a tendency to wander, leading to the recent recolonisation of Ireland and to Vagrancy (biology), vagrancy to North America. Great spotted woodpeckers chisel into trees to find food or excavate nest holes, and also drum for contact and territorial advertisement; like other woodpeckers, they have anatomy, anatomical adaptations to manage the physical stresses from the hammering action. This species is similar to the Syrian woodpecker. This woodpecker occurs in all types of woodlands and eats a variety of foods, being capable of extracting seeds from ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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