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McIlroy Park
McIlroy Park is a Local Nature Reserve in Tilehurst, a suburb of Reading in Berkshire. It is owned and managed by Reading Borough Council. Along with Blundells Copse and Lousehill Copse it is part of West Reading Woodlands. Geography and site McIlroy Park is located on a steep hill and features a large species-rich grassland field and a large block of mixed deciduous woodland. There are two ancient sunken paths that pass through the woodland. There are old chalk pits in the west woodland area from the old clay extraction industry and a possible Saxon mound on its eastern edge. McIlroy Park abuts, and is contiguous with another local nature reserve called Round Copse. History The land for the reservation was donated by William Mcilroy, who owned a department store in Reading, and was mayor of the town. In 1992 site was designated a local nature reserve. Fauna The site has the following fauna: Birds *Red kite * Common buzzard *Common kestrel * Common starling *Common ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Round Copse
Round Copse is a Local Nature Reserve in Reading in Berkshire. It is owned and managed by Reading Borough Council. Geography and site Round Copse is a small woodland, and is contiguous with another local nature reserve called McIlroy Park. History The site was designated a local nature reserve in 2002. Fauna The site has the following fauna: Birds *European green woodpecker *Eurasian nuthatch * Great spotted woodpecker *Lesser spotted woodpecker *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 ha ... * Common blackbird Flora The site has the following flora: Trees * Hazel References {{Local Nature Reserves in Berkshire Parks and open spaces in Reading, Berkshire Nature reserves in Berkshire Local Nature Reserves in Berkshire ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
House Sparrow
The house sparrow (''Passer domesticus'') is a bird of the sparrow family Passeridae, found in most parts of the world. It is a small bird that has a typical length of and a mass of . Females and young birds are coloured pale brown and grey, and males have brighter black, white, and brown markings. One of about 25 species in the genus ''Passer'', the house sparrow is native to most of Europe, the Mediterranean Basin, and a large part of Asia. Its intentional or accidental introductions to many regions, including parts of Australasia, Africa, and the Americas, make it the most widely distributed wild bird. The house sparrow is strongly associated with human habitation, and can live in urban or rural settings. Though found in widely varied habitats and climates, it typically avoids extensive woodlands, grasslands, and deserts away from human development. It feeds mostly on the seeds of grains and weeds, but it is an opportunistic eater and commonly eats insects and many o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lycaena Phlaeas
''Lycaena phlaeas'', the small copper, American copper, or common copper, is a butterfly of the Lycaenids or gossamer-winged butterfly family. According to Guppy and Shepard (2001), its specific name ''phlaeas'' is said to be derived either from the Greek (''phlégo''), "to burn up", or from the Latin ''floreo'', "to flourish". Description The upperside forewings are a bright orange with a dark outside edge border and with eight or nine black spots. The hindwings are dark with an orange border. Some females also have a row of blue spots inside the orange border and are known as form ''caeruleopunctata''. The undersides are patterned in a similar way but are paler. The black spots on the forewings are outlined in yellow and the dark colouring is replaced by a pale brownish grey. The hindwings are the same brown/grey colour with small black dots and a narrow orange border. The caterpillars (larvae) are usually green, but some have a purple stripe down the middle of the back ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Meadow Brown
The meadow brown (''Maniola jurtina'') is a butterfly found in the Palearctic realm. Its range includes Europe south of 62°N, Russia eastwards to the Urals, Asia Minor, Iraq, Iran, North Africa and the Canary Islands. The larvae feed on grasses. Description There is marked sexual dimorphism in this species. The upperside of the male is uniformly light brown with a black ocellus centered white at the apex of the forewing, while the female has a tawny patch more or less extended around this ocella. The underside forewing is ochre-colored bordered with dark beige with the same ocelli at the apex in the male, while the hindwing is greyish to brown with a more or less orange band in the female. The males are also much more active and range far about, while females fly less and often may not move away from the area where they grew up. Description in Seitz Above dark brown: the apical ocellus minutely centred with white, being in the male bordered with dull dark yellow, and standing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Holly Blue
The holly blue (''Celastrina argiolus'') Retrieved April 20, 2018. is a butterfly that belongs to the lycaenids or blues family and is native to the Palearctic. The holly blue has pale silver-blue wings spotted with pale ivory dots. Seitz describes it "Male above shining violet blue, only the apical portion of the costal margin being minutely edged with white. The female has both wings broadly bordered with dark, the margin of the hindwing bearing vestiges of ocelli. Underside silver-white, in the disc a row of black dots, some of which are elongate, and before the margin blackish shadowy dots. Egg very flat, whitish. Larva green or brown, marked with yellowish white, bearing catenulate stripes on the back, on segment 7 a gland to attract ants; head brown. On Ivy, ''Ilex'', ''Evonymus'', ''Rhamnus'', ''Robinia'', ''Genista'', ''Spartium'', ''Astragalus'', ''Rubus'', ''Erica'', ''Pyrus'' and many other plants; in Europe visited usually by ants of the genus ''Lasius''; in June an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gatekeeper (butterfly)
The gatekeeper or hedge brown (''Pyronia tithonus'') is a European species of butterfly. Given its preference for warmer weather, the restriction of range expansion can be assumed to be due to climate. Colonies vary in size depending on the available habitat, and can range from a few dozen to several thousand butterflies. Similar species and subspecies It is a member of the subfamily Satyrinae in the family Nymphalidae. A similar species is the meadow brown; the two species can be difficult to distinguish with closed wings, since the underwing markings are very similar. However, the gatekeeper tends to rest with its wings open, whereas the meadow brown usually rests with its wings closed. The gatekeeper is also smaller and more orange than the meadow brown and has double pupils on its eyespots. Two other similar species of ''Pyronia'' are found in southern Europe, the southern gatekeeper ('' P. cecilia'') and the Spanish gatekeeper ('' P. bathsheba''). ''P. tithonu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scotopteryx Chenopodiata
''Scotopteryx chenopodiata'', the shaded broad-bar, is a moth of the family Geometridae. It was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae''. Description The wingspan is 25–30 mm. The length of the forewings is 16–19 mm. The colouration is highly variable. It ranges from yellow brown, light brown, red brown and grey brown to grey. The forewings have several, mostly parallel, undulate crosslines. There is a prominent broad dark brown band in the median field comprising two distinct shades, the middle being greyer, the edges more ferruginous. In addition, the females are usually brighter yellowish than the males, but both sexes vary in tint. There is also a small apical streak. The hindwings are pale with faint crosslines. The caterpillar is yellowish grey to slate grey. The dorsal line is dark and interrupted, the side stripes are light and continuous. The reddish-brown-glossy pupa has a dotted surface. The cremaster is wide, with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bombus Ruderarius
''Bombus ruderarius'', commonly known as the red-shanked carder bee or red-shanked bumblebee, is a species of bumblebee found in Eurasia. Description Though sometimes mistaken for ''Bombus lapidarius'', ''Bombus ruderarius'' varies slightly in appearance from ''B. lapidarius'' in several ways. ''Bombus ruderarius'' is a relatively small bumblebee with a wide abdomen, an oblong face, and a fairly long tongue. The queen has an average length of and a wingspan of , while the other castes are somewhat smaller; the workers have an average length of and the males . Their colour is prominently black, with a red tail; among males, however, a lighter form exists with yellow-green hairs on the thorax and the first two terga (abdominal segments). The corbicula (pollen basket) on the hind legs of females (queens and workers) is covered with yellow-red hair. Ecology The nest is constructed of grass or moss, on or slightly below ground, and typically contains 50 to 100 workers. Often, o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cinnabar Moth
The cinnabar moth (''Tyria jacobaeae'') is a brightly coloured arctiid moth found as a native species in Europe and western and central Asia then east across the Palearctic to Siberia to China. It has been introduced into New Zealand, Australia and North America to control ragwort, on which its larvae feed. The moth is named after the red mineral cinnabar because of the red patches on its predominantly black wings. The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae''. Cinnabar moths are about long and have a wingspan of . Cinnabar moths are day-flying insects with distinctive pinkish-red and black wings. There is little variation in patterning, although on rare occasions the red markings may be replaced with yellow, or the forewing is entirely red with a black border, or the wings are completely black. Like many other brightly coloured moths, it is unpalatable; the larvae use members of the genus ''Senecio'' as food plants. Many mem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eurasian Jay
The Eurasian jay (''Garrulus glandarius'') is a species of passerine bird in the crow family Corvidae. It has pinkish brown plumage with a black stripe on each side of a whitish throat, a bright blue panel on the upper wing and a black tail. The Eurasian jay is a woodland bird that occurs over a vast region from western Europe and north-west Africa to the Indian subcontinent and further to the eastern seaboard of Asia and down into south-east Asia. Across this vast range, several distinct racial forms have evolved which look different from each other, especially when comparing forms at the extremes of its range. The bird is called jay, without any epithets, by English speakers in Great Britain and Ireland. Taxonomy and systematics The Eurasian jay was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his '' Systema Naturae'' under the binomial name ''Corvus glandarius''. Linnaeus specified the locality as "Europa" but this was restric ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eurasian Sparrowhawk
The Eurasian sparrowhawk (''Accipiter nisus''), also known as the northern sparrowhawk or simply the sparrowhawk, is a small bird of prey in the family Accipitridae. Adult male Eurasian sparrowhawks have bluish grey upperparts and orange-barred underparts; females and juveniles are brown above with brown barring below. The female is up to 25% larger than the male – one of the greatest size differences between the sexes in any bird species. Though it is a predator which specialises in catching woodland birds, the Eurasian sparrowhawk can be found in any habitat and often hunts garden birds in towns and cities. Males tend to take smaller birds, including tits, finches, and sparrows; females catch primarily thrushes and starlings, but are capable of killing birds weighing or more. The Eurasian sparrowhawk is found throughout the temperate and subtropical parts of the Old World; while birds from the northern parts of the range migrate south for winter, their southern counterp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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