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Highwood, Wokingham
Highwood is a Local Nature Reserve in Woodley, west of Wokingham in Berkshire. It is owned by Wokingham Borough Council and managed by the council together with The Friends of Highwood. Geography and site The nature reserve is mixed lowland woodland with a heathland area. The site also features examples of exotic tree species which were part of an arboretum in the grounds of what was Woodley Lodge. History Highwood used to form part of the grounds of Woodley Lodge. Fauna The site has the following fauna: Birds *Common merganser *Common pochard *Northern shoveler *Grey heron *Grey wagtail *Eurasian treecreeper * Great spotted woodpecker *Common kingfisher Flora The site has the following flora: Trees *''Araucaria araucana'' *''Sequoiadendron giganteum ''Sequoiadendron giganteum'' (giant sequoia; also known as giant redwood, Sierra redwood, Sierran redwood, California big tree, Wellingtonia or simply big treea nickname also used by John Muir) is the sole living ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Woodley, Berkshire
Woodley is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Wokingham, Berkshire, England, east of Reading and joined to the neighbouring town of Earley, to the west, and from Wokingham. Nearby are the villages of Sonning, Twyford, Winnersh, Hurst and Charvil. History The toponym Woodley is derived from Old English words meaning "a clearing in the wood". Anciently, Woodley was part of the ecclesiastical parish of Sonning. Woodley was not mentioned in the Domesday Book. The first written record of the name was in The Register of St Osmund, which is housed in the archives of Salisbury Cathedral. St Osmund was Bishop of Salisbury between 1074 and 1099. The document states that St Osmund visited Sonning and says: "Osbertus de Woodleghe holds a dwelling house and yard and is able to pasture his pigs on the Lord of the Manor's woods". The 1550 Survey of Sonning, housed in Berkshire Record Office, includes the first modern spelling of the name Woodley. In the west of Woodley, Old Bulmersh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wokingham
Wokingham is a market town in Berkshire, England, west of London, southeast of Reading, north of Camberley and west of Bracknell. History Wokingham means 'Wocca's people's home'. Wocca was apparently a Saxon chieftain who may also have owned lands at Wokefield in Berkshire and Woking in Surrey. In Victorian times, the name became corrupted to ''Oakingham'', and consequently the acorn with oak leaves is the town's heraldic charge, granted in the 19th century. Geologically, Wokingham sits at the northern end of the Bagshot Formation, overlying London clay, suggesting a prehistorical origin as a marine estuary. The courts of Windsor Forest were held at Wokingham and the town had the right to hold a market from 1219. The Bishop of Salisbury was largely responsible for the growth of the town during this period. He set out roads and plots making them available for rent. There are records showing that in 1258 he bought the rights to hold three town fairs every year. E ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Berkshire
Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berkshire in 1957 because of the presence of Windsor Castle, and letters patent were issued in 1974. Berkshire is a county of historic origin, a ceremonial county and a non-metropolitan county without a county council. The county town is Reading. The River Thames formed the historic northern boundary, from Buscot in the west to Old Windsor in the east. The historic county, therefore, includes territory that is now administered by the Vale of White Horse and parts of South Oxfordshire in Oxfordshire, but excludes Caversham, Slough and five less populous settlements in the east of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. All the changes mentioned, apart from the change to Caversham, took place in 1974. The towns of Abingdon, Didcot, Far ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wokingham Borough Council
Wokingham Borough Council is the local authority of the Borough of Wokingham in Berkshire, England. It is a unitary authority A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governmen ..., being a district council (but designated a borough council) also exercising the functions of a county council. Elections Elections to the council are held in three out of every four years, with one third of the 54 seats on the council being elected at each election. At the 2022 election the Conservative party lost their majority on the council, moving it into no overall control. A joint administration was subsequently formed by the Liberal Democrats, Labour and independent councilors. Following the 2022 Wokingham Borough Council election, the council is composed of the following councillors: P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arboretum
An arboretum (plural: arboreta) in a general sense is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, many modern arboreta are in botanical gardens as living collections of woody plants and is intended at least in part for scientific study. In Latin, an ''arboretum'' is a place planted with trees, not necessarily in this specific sense, and "arboretum" as an English word is first recorded used by John Claudius Loudon in 1833 in ''The Gardener's Magazine'', but the concept was already long-established by then. An arboretum specializing in growing conifers is known as a pinetum. Other specialist arboreta include saliceta (willows), populeta (Populus, poplar), and querceta (oaks). Related collections include a fruticetum, from the Latin ''frutex'', meaning ''shrub'', much more often a shrubbery, and a viticetum (from the Latin ''vitis,'' meani ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Common Merganser
The common merganser (North American) or goosander (Eurasian) (''Mergus merganser'') is a large seaduck of rivers and lakes in forested areas of Europe, Asia, and North America. The common merganser eats mainly fish. It nests in holes in trees. Taxonomy The first formal description of the common merganser was by Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the 10th edition of his ''Systema Naturae''. He introduced the current binomial name ''Mergus merganser''. The genus name is a Latin word used by Pliny and other Roman authors to refer to an unspecified waterbird, and ''merganser'' is derived from ''mergus'' and ''anser'', Latin for "goose". In 1843 John James Audubon used the name "Buff-breasted Merganser" in addition to "goosander" in his book ''The Birds of America''. The three subspecies differ in only minor detail: * ''M. m. merganser'' – Linnaeus, 1758 is found throughout northern Europe and northern Asiatic Russia. * ''M. m. orientalis'' – Gould, 1845 (syn. ''M. m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Common Pochard
The common pochard (; ''Aythya ferina'') is a medium-sized diving duck. The scientific name is derived from Greek '' aithuia'', an unidentified seabird mentioned by authors including Hesychius and Aristotle, and Latin ''ferina'', "wild game", from ''ferus'', "wild". Description The adult male has a long dark bill with a grey band, a red head and neck, a black breast, red eyes and a grey back. The adult female has a brown head and body and a narrower grey bill-band. The triangular head shape is distinctive. Pochards are superficially similar to the closely related North American redhead and canvasback. Females give hoarse growls. Males have whistles cut off by a final nasal note ''aaoo-oo-haa''. Distribution and habitat Their breeding habitat consists of marshes and lakes with a metre or more water depth. Pochards breed in much of temperate and northern Europe and across the Palearctic. They are migratory, and spend winter in the south and west of Europe. In the British Is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Northern Shoveler
The northern shoveler (; ''Spatula clypeata''), known simply in Britain as the shoveler, is a common and widespread duck. It breeds in northern areas of Europe and across the Palearctic and across most of North America, wintering in southern Europe, the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, Central, the Caribbean, and northern South America. It is a rare vagrant to Australia. In North America, it breeds along the southern edge of Hudson Bay and west of this body of water, and as far south as the Great Lakes west to Colorado, Nevada, and Oregon. The northern shoveler is one of the species to which the ''Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds'' (AEWA) applies. The conservation status of this bird is Least Concern. Taxonomy The northern shoveler was first formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his ''Systema Naturae''. He introduced the binomial name ''Anas clypeata''. A molecular phylogentic study ... [...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-gree ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grey Wagtail
The grey wagtail (''Motacilla cinerea'') is a member of the wagtail family, Motacillidae, measuring around 18–19 cm overall length. The species looks somewhat similar to the yellow wagtail but has the yellow on its underside restricted to the throat and vent. Breeding males have a black throat. The species is widely distributed, with several populations breeding in Eurosiberia and migrating to tropical regions in Asia and Africa. The species is always associated with running water when breeding, although they may use man-made structures near streams for the nest. Outside the breeding season, they may also be seen around lakes, coasts and other watery habitats. Like other wagtails, they frequently wag their tail and fly low with undulations and they have a sharp call that is often given in flight. Taxonomy and systematics The binomial name of the grey wagtail ''Motacilla cinerea'' was introduced by Marmaduke Tunstall in his 1771 publication ''Ornithologia Britannica''. '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eurasian Treecreeper
The Eurasian treecreeper or common treecreeper (''Certhia familiaris'') is a small passerine bird also known in the British Isles, where it is the only living member of its genus, simply as treecreeper. It is similar to other treecreepers, and has a curved bill, patterned brown upperparts, whitish underparts, and long stiff tail feathers which help it creep up tree trunks. It can be most easily distinguished from the similar short-toed treecreeper, which shares much of its European range, by its different song. The Eurasian treecreeper has nine or more subspecies which breed in different parts of its range in the Palearctic. This species is found in woodlands of all kinds, but where it overlaps with the short-toed treecreeper in western Europe it is more likely to be found in coniferous forests or at higher altitudes. It nests in tree crevices or behind bark flakes, and favours introduced giant sequoia as nest sites where they are available. The female typically lays five or six p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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