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Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge
Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge is a National Wildlife Refuge located in the eastern shore of Lake Champlain in the U.S. state of Vermont. The refuge is in Franklin County in the northwest corner of the state near the International Boundary with Canada. It is the only National Wildlife Refuge located entirely in Vermont (Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge is partly in Vermont and three other states), and is administered by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. The refuge was established on February 4, 1943, under the authority of the Migratory Bird Conservation Act. The initial acquisition was 1,582 acres (6.4 km2) of land in the Missisquoi River delta, including Shad Island and Big Marsh Slough. Additional land is acquired from willing sellers to fill in the refuge boundary. The refuge's current size is 7,232 acres (27 km2). It is located in the towns of Swanton and Highgate with satellite units in Derby, Vermont and Westville, New York. Hab ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Franklin County, Vermont
Franklin County is a county located in the U.S. state of Vermont. As of the 2020 census, the population was 49,946. Its county seat is the city of St. Albans. It borders the Canadian province of Quebec. The county was created in 1792 and organized in 1796. Franklin County is part of the Burlington metropolitan area. History Franklin County is one of several Vermont counties created from land claimed by Vermont on January 15, 1777, when Vermont declared itself to be a state distinct from New York. The land originally was contested by Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and New York, but it remained undelineated until July 20, 1764, when King George III established the boundary between New Hampshire and New York along the west bank of the Connecticut River, north of Massachusetts and south of the parallel of 45 degrees north latitude. New York assigned the land gained to Albany County. On March 12, 1772, Albany County was partitioned to create Charlotte County, and this situation re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wetlands
A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The primary factor that distinguishes wetlands from terrestrial land forms or Body of water, water bodies is the characteristic vegetation of aquatic plants, adapted to the unique anoxic hydric soils. Wetlands are considered among the most biologically diverse of all ecosystems, serving as home to a wide range of plant and animal species. Methods for assessing wetland functions, wetland ecological health, and general wetland condition have been developed for many regions of the world. These methods have contributed to wetland conservation partly by raising public awareness of the functions some wetlands provide. Wetlands occur naturally on every continent. The water in wetlands is either freshwater, brackish or saltwater. The main wetland ty ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rough-legged Hawk
The rough-legged buzzard or rough-legged hawk (''Buteo lagopus'') is a medium-large bird of prey. It is found in Arctic and Subarctic regions of North America, Europe, and Russia during the breeding season and migrates south for the winter. It was traditionally also known as the rough-legged falcon in such works as John James Audubon's ''The Birds of America''. Nests are typically located on cliffs, bluffs or in trees. Clutch sizes are variable with food availability, but three to five eggs are usually laid. These hawks hunt over open land, feeding primarily on small mammals. Along with the kestrels, kites, and osprey, this is one of the few birds of prey to hover regularly. Description This fairly large raptorial species is with wingspan ranging from . Individuals can weigh from with females typically being larger and heavier than males. Weights appear to increase from summer to winter in adults, going from an average of in males and from in females. Among the members of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Northern Harrier
The northern harrier (''Circus hudsonius''), or ring-tailed hawk, is a bird of prey. It breeds throughout the northern parts of the northern hemisphere in Canada and the northernmost USA. The northern harrier migrates to more southerly areas in winter, with breeding birds in more northern areas moving to the southernmost USA, Mexico, and Central America. In milder regions in the southern US, they may be present all year, but the higher ground is largely deserted in winter. This bird inhabits prairies, open areas, and marshes. The northern harrier was formerly considered to be a subspecies of the Eurasian hen harrier. Taxonomy In 1750 the English naturalist George Edwards included an illustration and a description of the northern harrier in the third volume of his ''A Natural History of Uncommon Birds''. He used the English name "The Ring-tail'd Hawk". Edwards based his hand-coloured etching on a bird collected near the Hudson Bay in Canada and brought to London by James Ish ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Kestrel
The American kestrel (''Falco sparverius''), also called the sparrow hawk, is the smallest and most common falcon in North America. It has a roughly two-to-one range in size over subspecies and sex, varying in size from about the weight of a blue jay to a mourning dove. It also ranges to South America and is a well-established species that has evolved into 17 subspecies adapted to different environments and habitats throughout the Americas. It exhibits sexual dimorphism in size (females being moderately larger) and plumage, although both sexes have a rufous back with noticeable barring. Its plumage is colorful and attractive, and juveniles are similar in plumage to adults. The American kestrel usually hunts in energy-conserving fashion by perching and scanning the ground for prey to ambush, though it also hunts from the air. It sometimes hovers in the air with rapid wing beats while homing in on prey. Its diet typically consists of grasshoppers and other insects, lizards, m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bobolink
The bobolink (''Dolichonyx oryzivorus'') is a small New World blackbird and the only member of the genus ''Dolichonyx''. An old name for this species is the "rice bird", from its tendency to feed on cultivated grains during winter and migration. The bobolink breeds in the summer in United States and Canada, with most of the summer range in the northern U.S. Bobolinks winter in southern South America, primarily Paraguay, Argentina, and Bolivia. Bobolink populations are rapidly declining due to numerous factors, such as agricultural intensification and habitat loss; they are considered threatened in Canada, and are at risk throughout their range. Etymology The genus name ''Dolichonyx'' is from Ancient Greek , "long", and , "claw". The specific ''oryzivorus'' is from Latin , "rice", and , "to devour"; an old name for this species is "Rice Bird". The English "Bobolink" is from Bob o' Lincoln, describing the call. Description Measurements: * Length: * Weight: * Wingspan: Adults ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wild Turkey
The wild turkey (''Meleagris gallopavo'') is an Upland game bird, upland ground bird native to North America, one of two extant species of Turkey (bird), turkey and the heaviest member of the order Galliformes. It is the ancestor to the domestic turkey, which was originally derived from a southern Mexican subspecies of wild turkey (not the related ocellated turkey). Description Adult wild turkeys have long reddish-yellow to grayish-green legs. The body feathers are generally blackish and dark, sometimes grey brown overall with a coppery sheen that becomes more complex in adult males. Adult males, called toms or gobblers, have a large, featherless, reddish head, red throat, and red Wattle (anatomy), wattles on the throat and neck. The head has fleshy growths called Caruncle (bird anatomy) , caruncles. Juvenile males are called jakes; the difference between an adult male and a juvenile is that the jake has a very short beard and his tail fan has longer feathers in the middle. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ruffed Grouse
The ruffed grouse (''Bonasa umbellus'') is a medium-sized grouse occurring in forests from the Appalachian Mountains across Canada to Alaska. It is the most widely distributed game bird in North America. It is non-migratory. It is the only species in the genus ''Bonasa''. The ruffed grouse is sometimes incorrectly referred to as a "partridge", an unrelated phasianid, and occasionally confused with the grey partridge, a bird of open areas rather than woodlands. The ruffed grouse is the state game bird of Pennsylvania, United States. Taxonomy ''Bonasa umbellus'' was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1766 12th edition of ''Systema Naturae''. He classified it as ''Tetrao umbellus'', placing it in a subfamily with Eurasian grouse. The genus ''Bonasa'' was applied by British naturalist John Francis Stephens in 1819. Ruffed grouse is the preferred common name because it applies only to this species. Misleading vernacular names abound, however, and it is often called partridge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Woodcock
The woodcocks are a group of seven or eight very similar living species of wading birds in the genus ''Scolopax''. The genus name is Latin for a snipe or woodcock, and until around 1800 was used to refer to a variety of waders. The English name its first recorded in about 1050. According to the Harleian Miscellany, a group of woodcocks is called a "fall". Taxonomy The genus ''Scolopax'' was introduced in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his ''Systema Naturae''. The genus name is Latin for a snipe or woodcock. The type species is the Eurasian woodcock (''Scolopax rusticola''). Only two woodcocks are widespread, the others being localized island endemics. Most are found in the Northern Hemisphere but a few range into the Greater Sundas, Wallacea and New Guinea. Their closest relatives are the typical snipes of the genus ''Gallinago''. As with many other sandpiper genera, the lineages that led to ''Gallinago'' and ''Scolopax'' likely diverged ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
White-tailed Deer
The white-tailed deer (''Odocoileus virginianus''), also known as the whitetail or Virginia deer, is a medium-sized deer native to North America, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru and Bolivia. It has also been introduced to New Zealand, all the Greater Antilles in the Caribbean (Cuba, Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ..., Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico), and some countries in Europe, such as the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Romania and Serbia. In the Americas, it is the most widely distributed wild ungulate. In North America, the species is widely distributed east of the Rocky Mountains as well as in southwestern Arizona and most of Mexico, except Baja California peninsula, Lower California. It is mostly displaced by the black ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Woodwardia
''Woodwardia'' is a genus of ferns in the family Blechnaceae, in the suborder Aspleniineae (eupolypods II) of the order Polypodiales. Species are known as chain ferns. The genus is native to warm temperate and subtropical regions of the Northern Hemisphere. They are large ferns, with fronds growing to 50–300 cm long depending on the species. The fossil record of the genus extends to the Paleocene. Taxonomy ''Woodwardia'' was first described by James Edward Smith in 1793. It was named after Thomas Jenkinson Woodward. When broadly circumscribed, the genus contains about 15 species (plus some hybrids). In the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016 (PPG I), the genera '' Anchistea'' and '' Lorinseria'' (each with one species) are kept separate. Species , Plants of the World Online accepts the following species, excluding those placed in other genera in the PPG I system. *'' Woodwardia auriculata'' Blume *'' Woodwardia fimbriata'' Sm. *'' Woodwardia harlandii'' H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rhodora
''Rhododendron canadense'', the rhodora or Canada rosebay, is a deciduous flowering shrub that is native to northeastern North America. Classification Today's botanists consider the rhodora to be a distant relative of the other North American members of its genus, but the difference in floral structure did lead 19th century taxonomists to assign the plant its own genus ''Rhodora''. Its closest relative is ''Rhododendron vaseyi'' from the Appalachian Mountains, which differs in having seven stamens. DNA sequencing shows that ''R. vaseyi'' is not related to ''R. canadense'', but more to '' R. albrechtii''. Description It reaches a mature height of 0.5–1.2 m (approximately 1–3 feet). In early spring, it produces pinkish-purple flowers in clusters of 2–6 together; each flower is 2–3 cm (approximately 1 inch) in diameter, with a five-lobed purple corolla. The flowers are unusual in comparison with other species of the genus ''Rhododendron'' found in northeastern Nor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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