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Otterhead Lakes
Otterhead Lakes are a pair of reservoirs in the Blackdown Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty south of Otterford in Somerset, England. They are fed by the River Otter and managed by the Otterhead Estate Trust Company Limited, working with the Somerset Wildlife Trust on behalf of Wessex Water. They are a Local Nature Reserve. The two lakes which remain are all that are left of a series of pools in the landscaped gardens of Otterhead House which was built in 1845 and demolished in 1952, and its surrounding estate developed by William Beadon. The lakes are the centrepiece of the one mile long Otterhead Local Nature Reserve which includes dry woodland which has a ground flora including common bluebell, dogs mercury and twayblade. More moist areas are home to marsh pennywort and royal fern rhododendron and sycamore. There are dormice, badgers and bats in the woods and bird species include kingfisher, dipper and wagtail. The lakes contain wild brown trout and are used for f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Otterford
Otterford is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England. It is situated on the Blackdown Hills, south of Taunton in the Somerset West and Taunton district. The village has a population of 356. The River Otter rises close to Otterford. History A series of round barrows on Brown Down are known as Robin Hood's Butts. The village was named ''Oteriford'' in a Taunton charter of 854 by King Æthelwulf of Wessex. The parish of Otterford was part of the Taunton Deane Hundred. Governance The parish council has responsibility for local issues, including setting an annual precept (local rate) to cover the council's operating costs and producing annual accounts for public scrutiny. The parish council evaluates local planning applications and works with the local police, district council officers, and neighbourhood watch groups on matters of crime, security, and traffic. The parish council's role also includes initiating projects for the maintenance and repair of parish facilitie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hydrocotyle Vulgaris
''Hydrocotyle vulgaris'', the marsh pennywort, common pennywort, water naval, money plant, lucky plant or copper coin, is a small creeping aquatic perennial plant native to North Africa, Europe, the Caucasus and parts of the Levant. Description The plant has an umbrella-like leaf and lives commonly in wet places such as wetlands, marshes and swamps, sometimes even in deeper water. It grows as a perennial herbaceous plant and only reaches stature heights of 5 to 20 centimeters. With a slight smell of carrot, it is edible. This marsh plant forms numerous, up to 1 meter long, creeping offshoots. The serrated, rounded, shield-shaped leaves can have a diameter of up to 4 centimeters, but are often smaller. The approach of the long, hairy petioles is located in the middle of the leaf underside. The leaves are fresh green, shiny waxy and shows a clear, radially extending vein. The tiny, inconspicuous, hermaphrodite flowers are in low-flowered doldigen inflorescences or whorls, with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reservoirs In Somerset
A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of water, interrupting a watercourse to form an embayment within it, through excavation, or building any number of retaining walls or levees. In other contexts, "reservoirs" may refer to storage spaces for various fluids; they may hold liquids or gasses, including hydrocarbons. ''Tank reservoirs'' store these in ground-level, elevated, or buried tanks. Tank reservoirs for water are also called cisterns. Most underground reservoirs are used to store liquids, principally either water or petroleum. Types Dammed valleys Dammed reservoirs are artificial lakes created and controlled by a dam constructed across a valley, and rely on the natural topography to provide most of the basin of the re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fly Fishing
Fly fishing is an angling method that uses a light-weight lure—called an artificial fly—to catch fish. The fly is cast using a fly rod, reel, and specialized weighted line. The light weight requires casting techniques significantly different from other forms of casting. The flies may resemble natural invertebrates, bait-fish, or other food organisms. Fly fishing can be done in fresh or saltwater. North Americans usually distinguish freshwater fishing between cold-water species (trout, salmon) and warm-water species, notably bass. In Britain, where natural water temperatures vary less, the distinction is between game fishing for trout and salmon versus coarse fishing for other species. Techniques for fly fishing differ with habitat (lakes and ponds, small streams, large rivers, bays and estuaries, and open ocean.) Author Izaak Walton called fly fishing "The Contemplative Man's Recreation". Overview In fly fishing, fish are caught by using artificial flies that ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brown Trout
The brown trout (''Salmo trutta'') is a European species of salmonid fish that has been widely introduced into suitable environments globally. It includes purely freshwater populations, referred to as the riverine ecotype, ''Salmo trutta'' morpha ''fario'', a lacustrine ecotype, ''S. trutta'' morpha ''lacustris'', also called the lake trout, and anadromous forms known as the sea trout, ''S. trutta'' morpha ''trutta''. The latter migrates to the oceans for much of its life and returns to fresh water only to spawn. Sea trout in Ireland and Britain have many regional names: sewin in Wales, finnock in Scotland, peal in the West Country, mort in North West England, and white trout in Ireland. The lacustrine morph of brown trout is most usually potamodromous, migrating from lakes into rivers or streams to spawn, although evidence indicates some stocks spawn on wind-swept shorelines of lakes. ''S. trutta'' morpha ''fario'' forms stream-resident populations, typically in alpine stre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wagtail
Wagtails are a group of passerine birds that form the genus ''Motacilla'' in the family Motacillidae. The forest wagtail belongs to the monotypic genus ''Dendronanthus'' which is closely related to ''Motacilla'' and sometimes included therein. The common name and genus names are derived from their characteristic tail pumping behaviour. Together with the pipits and longclaws they form the family Motacillidae. The willie wagtail (''Rhipidura leucophrys'') of Australia is an unrelated bird similar in coloration and shape to the Japanese wagtail. It belongs to the fantails. Taxonomy The genus ''Motacilla'' was introduced by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his ''Systema Naturae''. The type species is the white wagtail. ''Motacilla'' is the Latin name for the pied wagtail; although actually a diminutive of ''motare'', "to move about", from medieval times it led to the misunderstanding of ''cilla'' as "tail". At first glance, the wagtails appea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dipper
Dippers are members of the genus ''Cinclus'' in the bird family Cinclidae, so-called because of their bobbing or dipping movements. They are unique among passerines for their ability to dive and swim underwater. Taxonomy The genus ''Cinclus'' was introduced by the German naturalist Moritz Balthasar Borkhausen in 1797 with the white-throated dipper (''Cinclus cinclus'') as the type species. The name ''cinclus'' is from the Ancient Greek word ''kinklos'' that was used to describe small tail-wagging birds that resided near water. ''Cinclus'' is the only genus in the family Cinclidae. The white-throated dipper and American dipper are also known in Britain and America, respectively, as the ''water ouzel'' (sometimes spelt "ousel") – ouzel originally meant the only distantly related but superficially similar Eurasian blackbird (Old English ''osle''). Ouzel also survives as the name of a relative of the blackbird, the ring ouzel. The genus contains five species: *White-throated d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kingfisher
Kingfishers are a family, the Alcedinidae, of small to medium-sized, brightly colored birds in the order Coraciiformes. They have a cosmopolitan distribution, with most species found in the tropical regions of Africa, Asia, and Oceania, but also can be seen in Europe. They can be found in deep forests near calm ponds and small rivers. The family contains 114 species and is divided into three subfamilies and 19 genera. All kingfishers have large heads, long, sharp, pointed bills, short legs, and stubby tails. Most species have bright plumage with only small differences between the sexes. Most species are tropical in distribution, and a slight majority are found only in forests. They consume a wide range of prey usually caught by swooping down from a perch. While kingfishers are usually thought to live near rivers and eat fish, many species live away from water and eat small invertebrates. Like other members of their order, they nest in cavities, usually tunnels dug into ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sycamore
Sycamore is a name which has been applied to several types of trees, but with somewhat similar leaf forms. The name derives from the ancient Greek ' (''sūkomoros'') meaning "fig-mulberry". Species of trees known as sycamore: * ''Acer pseudoplatanus'', a species of maple native to central Europe and southwestern Asia * ''Ficus sycomorus'', the sycamore (or sycomore) of the Bible; a species of fig, also called the sycamore fig or fig-mulberry, native to the Middle East and eastern Africa * ''Platanus orientalis'', chinar tree (Old World sycamore) * Some North American members of the genus ''Platanus'', including ** ''Platanus occidentalis'', the American sycamore ** ''Platanus racemosa'', the California sycamore or western sycamore ** ''Platanus wrightii'', the Arizona sycamore ** ''Platanus mexicana''. the Mexican sycamore * In Australia, there are numerous trees which have the common name "sycamore": ** ''Litsea reticulata'' or ''Cryptocarya glaucescens'' (silver sycamore) ** ''P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rhododendron
''Rhododendron'' (; from Ancient Greek ''rhódon'' "rose" and ''déndron'' "tree") is a very large genus of about 1,024 species of woody plants in the heath family (Ericaceae). They can be either evergreen or deciduous. Most species are native to eastern Asia and the Himalayan region, but smaller numbers occur elsewhere in Asia, and in North America, Europe and Australia. It is the national flower of Nepal, the state flower of Washington and West Virginia in the United States, the state flower of Nagaland in India, the provincial flower of Jiangxi in China and the state tree of Sikkim and Uttarakhand in India. Most species have brightly colored flowers which bloom from late winter through to early summer. Azaleas make up two subgenera of ''Rhododendron''. They are distinguished from "true" rhododendrons by having only five anthers per flower. Species Description ''Rhododendron'' is a genus of shrubs and small to (rarely) large trees, the smallest species growing to t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Osmunda Regalis
''Osmunda regalis'', or royal fern, is a species of deciduous fern, native to Europe, Africa and Asia, growing in woodland bogs and on the banks of streams. The species is sometimes known as flowering fern due to the appearance of its fertile fronds. Names The name ''Osmunda'' possibly derives from ''Osmunder'', a Saxon name for the god Thor. The name "royal fern" derives from its being one of the largest and most imposing European ferns. The name has been qualified as "old world royal fern" in some American literature to distinguish it from the closely related American royal fern, '' O. spectabilis''. However this terminology is not found in British literature. Description ''Osmunda regalis'' produces separate fertile and sterile fronds. The sterile fronds are spreading, tall and broad, bipinnate, with 7-9 pairs of pinnae up to long, each pinna with 7-13 pairs of pinnules 2.5-6.5 cm long and 1–2 cm broad. The fertile fronds are erect and shorter, 20–50 cm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Listera
''Neottia'' is a genus of orchids. The genus now includes the former genus ''Listera'', commonly known as twayblades referring to the single pair of opposite leaves at the base of the flowering stem. The genus is native to temperate, subarctic and arctic regions across most of Europe, northern Asia (Siberia, China, the Himalayas, Central Asia, etc), and North America, with a few species extending into subtropical regions in the Mediterranean, Indochina, the southeastern United States, etc.Pridgeon, A.M., Cribb, P.J., Chase, M.C. & Rasmussen, F.N. (2006). Epidendroideae (Part One). Genera Orchidacearum 4: 1-672. Oxford University Press, New York, Oxford. ''Neottia'' produces a racemose inflorescences with flowers in shades of green or dull pink through to maroon and purple. The lip of each flower is prominently forked or two-lobed. Some species (those which were previously the only members of the genus ''Neottia'' in the strict sense, such as the bird's-nest orchid, ''Neottia n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
