|
Swan Bay And Port Phillip Bay Islands Important Bird Area
The Swan Bay and Port Phillip Bay Islands Important Bird Area comprises a cluster of disparate sites centred at the eastern end of the Bellarine Peninsula, and the southern end of Port Phillip, in Victoria, south-eastern Australia. As well as providing core wintering habitat for orange-bellied parrots, it is important for waders, or shorebirds, and seabirds. Description Sites included in the Important Bird Area (IBA) are:BirdLife International. (2011). Important Bird Areas factsheet: Swan Bay and Port Phillip Bay Islands. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 2011-10-27. ;Swan Bay area wetlands and barrier islands * Portarlington sewage treatment works * Swan Bay - 30 km2 marine embayment with intertidal flats fringed by saltmarsh * Edwards Point - 4 km sandspit with coastal woodland, heathland and saltmarsh * Duck Island - small sand and saltmarsh island * Swan Island - 140 ha sand island, with coastal scrub and saltmarsh * Rabbit Island - small saltmar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Swan Bay Map
Swans are birds of the family Anatidae within the genus ''Cygnus''. The swans' closest relatives include the geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe Cygnini. Sometimes, they are considered a distinct subfamily, Cygninae. There are six living and many extinct species of swan; in addition, there is a species known as the coscoroba swan which is no longer considered one of the true swans. Swans usually mate for life, although "divorce" sometimes occurs, particularly following nesting failure, and if a mate dies, the remaining swan will take up with another. The number of eggs in each clutch ranges from three to eight. Etymology and terminology The English word ''swan'', akin to the German , Dutch and Swedish , is derived from Indo-European root ' ('to sound, to sing'). Young swans are known as '' cygnets'' or as '' swanlings''; the former derives via Old French or (diminutive suffix et 'little') from ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edwards Point (Victoria)
Edwards Point is a 4 km long sand spit extending southwards between Swan Bay and Port Phillip Bay, at the eastern end of the Bellarine Peninsula, Victoria, Australia. It is about 115 km by road south-west of Melbourne and 40 km east of Geelong. The township of St Leonards lies at its northern end. With Duck Island and Swan Island it forms the part-barrier that separates Swan Bay from Port Phillip. Edwards Point Wildlife Reserve The spit is entirely included within the Edwards Point Wildlife Reserve, established in March 1971 to protect the vegetation communities and fauna of the area. These communities include the last remaining stand of coastal woodland on the Bellarine Peninsula, saltmarsh and beach. The adjacent Swan Bay contains extensive areas of intertidal mudflats that are important for waterbirds and migratory waders. The end of the spit is a high tide roost for waders. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Port Phillip Bay (Western Shoreline) And Bellarine Peninsula Ramsar Site
The Port Phillip Bay (Western Shoreline) and Bellarine Peninsula Ramsar Site is one of the Australian sites listed under the Ramsar Convention as a wetland of international importance. It was designated on 15 December 1982, and is listed as Ramsar Site No.266. Much of the site is also part of either the Swan Bay and Port Phillip Bay Islands Important Bird Area or the Werribee and Avalon Important Bird Area, identified as such by BirdLife International because of their importance for wetland and waterbirds as well as for orange-bellied parrots.BirdLife International (2011). It comprises some six disjunct, largely coastal, areas of land, totalling 229 km2, along the western shore of Port Phillip and on the Bellarine Peninsula, in the state of Victoria. Wetland types protected include shallow marine waters, estuaries, freshwater lakes, seasonal swamps, intertidal mudflats and seagrass beds. The subsites include: * Part of Point Cook, including the coastline from Skeleto ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
South Channel Fort
South Channel Fort, also known as South Channel Island, is a 0.7 ha artificial island in southern Port Phillip, Victoria, Australia, 6 km north-east of the town of Sorrento. It was part of a network of fortifications protecting the narrow entrance to Port Phillip. It is 122 m long, 76 m wide, and is 6.4 m above sea-level, and was built on a shoal, close to the main shipping channel of the bay, with 14,000 tonnes of bluestone boulders, concrete and sand. It was constructed during the 1880s as part of a defensive strategy to protect and control access by sea to Port Phillip and the cities of Melbourne and Geelong. Its principal purpose was to illuminate the main shipping channel at night, and to explode mines under attacking ships which had breached the defences at Port Phillip Heads. The fort still contains remnants of its original military equipment, including disappearing guns. Construction South Channel Fort was built with a protective ring of bluestone rocks which ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pope's Eye
Pope's Eye is the uncompleted foundation for an island fortification, fort intended to defend the entrance to Port Phillip in the state of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. The undefined area of the fort, generally assessed at , is one of six separate areas that comprise the Port Phillip Heads Marine National Park and is a popular site for Recreational diving, divers. Features The fort has been protected as a marine reserve since 1979 and is now part of the Port Phillip Heads Marine National Park. It is located about inside Port Phillip Heads, east of Queenscliff, Victoria, Queenscliff, north of Portsea, Victoria, Portsea, and is less than south-west of the former Chinaman's Hat (Port Phillip), Chinaman's Hat. It is named after a naval midshipman and has no papal, religious connotations. Construction of Pope's Eye began in the 1880s, under the supervision of William Jervois, Sir William Jervois, by dumping bluestone boulders on a submerged deep sandbank until the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mud Islands
The Mud Islands reserve is located within Port Phillip, about south-west of Melbourne, Australia, lying inside Port Phillip Heads, north of Portsea and east of Queenscliff. The land area of about is made up of three low-lying islands surrounding a shallow tidal lagoon connected to the sea by three narrow channels. The shapes and configuration of the islands change over the years due to movement of sand by tidal currents. History First sighted by Europeans in 1802, the islands were originally named ''Swan Isles'' because of the large number of swans on the surrounding waters. It was not until 1836 that Lieutenants T M Symonds and H R Henry of surveyed the islands and renamed them ''Mud Islands''. Protection In 1961, the Victorian Fisheries and Wildlife Department declared the islands a sanctuary for the White-Faced Storm Petrel. In 1979, the area of the islands above high water was proclaimed a permanent reserve for the management of wildlife. It forms part of the P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cyperaceae
The Cyperaceae are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as sedges. The family is large, with some 5,500 known species described in about 90 genera, the largest being the "true sedges" genus ''Carex'' with over 2,000 species. These species are widely distributed, with the centers of diversity for the group occurring in tropical Asia and tropical South America. While sedges may be found growing in almost all environments, many are associated with wetlands, or with poor soils. Ecological communities dominated by sedges are known as sedgelands or sedge meadows. Some species superficially resemble the closely related rushes and the more distantly related grasses. Features distinguishing members of the sedge family from grasses or rushes are stems with triangular cross-sections (with occasional exceptions, a notable example being the tule which has a round cross-section) and leaves that are spirally arranged in three ranks. In comparison, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mudflat
Mudflats or mud flats, also known as tidal flats or, in Ireland, slob or slobs, are coastal wetlands that form in intertidal areas where sediments have been deposited by tides or rivers. A global analysis published in 2019 suggested that tidal flat ecosystems are as extensive globally as mangroves, covering at least of the Earth's surface. / They are found in sheltered areas such as bays, bayous, lagoons, and estuaries; they are also seen in freshwater lakes and salty lakes (or inland seas) alike, wherein many rivers and creeks end. Mudflats may be viewed geologically as exposed layers of bay mud, resulting from deposition of estuarine silts, clays and aquatic animal detritus. Most of the sediment within a mudflat is within the intertidal zone, and thus the flat is submerged and exposed approximately twice daily. A recent global remote sensing analysis estimated that approximately 50% of the global extent of tidal flats occurs within eight countries (Indonesia, China, Austral ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lake Victoria (Victoria)
Lake Victoria is a shallow saline lake on the Bellarine Peninsula, Victoria in Australia, close to the township of Point Lonsdale and part of the Lonsdale Lakes Nature Reserve administered by Parks Victoria. Location and features The lake is separated from Bass Strait by a narrow strip of coastal dunes. It forms part of the Swan Bay wetland system of shallow marine areas and lagoons, and is an important wetland for waterbirds and waders.Hewish, M.J. (2003). ''Fauna values of three sub-coastal wetlands on the Bellarine Peninsula: Lake Victoria, Freshwater Lake and St Leonards Salt Lagoon''. Parks Victoria Technical Series No.10. Parks Victoria: Melbourne. ISSN 1448-4935 The site is part of the Swan Bay and Port Phillip Bay Islands Important Bird Area, identified as such by BirdLife International. Birds of conservation significance for which the lake and its surrounds are important include the hooded plover, little egret and orange-bellied parrot. It sometimes holds internat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Herbaceous Plant
Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials. Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous" The fourth edition of the ''Shorter Oxford English Dictionary'' defines "herb" as: #"A plant whose stem does not become woody and persistent (as in a tree or shrub) but remains soft and succulent, and dies (completely or down to the root) after flowering"; #"A (freq. aromatic) plant used for flavouring or scent, in medicine, etc.". (See: Herb) The same dictionary defines "herbaceous" as: #"Of the nature of a herb; esp. not forming a woody stem but dying down to the root each year"; #"BOTANY Resembling a leaf in colour or texture. Opp. scarious". Botanical sources differ from each other on the definition of "herb". For instance, the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation includes the condition "when persisting over more than one growing season, the parts o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Swan Island (Victoria)
Swan Island (Wathaurong: ''Woorang-a'look'') is a 1.4 km2 sand barrier island which, with Duck Island and the Edwards Point spit, separate Swan Bay from Port Phillip in Victoria, Australia. It lies close to and north of the town of Queenscliff at the eastern end of the Bellarine Peninsula, and is an official bounded locality of the Borough of Queenscliffe. Description Swan Island Swan Island is home to the Queenscliff Golf Club on land leased from Defence, which occupies the western end of the island, and to the Department of Defence, which operates a training facility occupying the central and eastern parts of the island. It also serves as the land access point for the Queenscliff Cruising Yacht Club on Sand Island. It can be reached by a one-lane vehicular bridge and causeway from Queenscliff via the small saltmarsh-covered Rabbit Island. Access to both Swan and Sand Islands is restricted to members of the golf and yacht clubs, Defence Department personnel, or by per ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Duck Island (Victoria)
Duck Island, a small barrier island, lies 1.5 km north of Swan Island and south of Edwards Point in the main entrance to Swan Bay from Port Phillip in southern Victoria, Australia. It is part of the Port Phillip Heads Marine National Park and the plants and animals on and around the island are protected, including the critically endangered orange-bellied parrot. The island is part of the Swan Bay and Port Phillip Bay Islands Important Bird Area, identified as such by BirdLife International. See also * Swan Bay Swans are birds of the family Anatidae within the genus ''Cygnus''. The swans' closest relatives include the geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe Cygnini. Sometim ... External linksDepartment of Primary Industries References Islands of Victoria (Australia) Port Phillip Bellarine Peninsula Important Bird Areas of Victoria (Australia) {{Melbourne-geo-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
