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Wye Marsh National Wildlife Area
The Wye Marsh is a wetland area on the south shores of Georgian Bay in Ontario, Canada. The Wye Marsh National Wildlife Area was established on the location in 1978. It is designated a Provincially Significant Wetland by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. Settlement The area was inhabited by Huron Indians when the Jesuit missionaries arrived in 1639. The Jesuit established a mission on the north-east corner of Wye Lake, the site is now known as Sainte-Marie among the Hurons. The largest Huron village of the time was situated between Wye Marsh and nearby Tiny Marsh. By 1650 conflict with Iroquois had driven all of the surviving missionaries to Quebec, along with the surviving Huron. The area remained unpopulated for 150 years. In the early 19th century, a naval base open in Penetanguishene, and settlement of the area by Europeans began in earnest. Wyebridge became the major business centre of Simcoe County, and by the 1860s Midland was surpassed only by Ottawa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Simcoe County
Simcoe County is located in the central portion of Southern Ontario, Canada. The county is just north of the Greater Toronto Area, stretching from the shores of Lake Simcoe in the east to Georgian Bay in the west. Simcoe County forms part of the Greater Golden Horseshoe area, a densely populated and industrialized region, centred on the Greater Toronto Area. The land area of the county is . The elevated Niagara Escarpment runs through sections of the western part of the county, and the Minesing Wetlands, a Ramsar Convention wetland of international importance, is located in the central area of the county. The county administrative centre is on Highway 26 in Midhurst, outside Barrie. Geography Simcoe County is informally split into two subregions, “South Simcoe” and “North Simcoe”. The dividing line between these two areas is Simcoe County Road 90 (Mill St.). South Simcoe municipalities are situated at the northern boundary of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and ther ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Soil Erosion
Soil erosion is the denudation or wearing away of the upper layer of soil. It is a form of soil degradation. This natural process is caused by the dynamic activity of erosive agents, that is, water, ice (glaciers), snow, air (wind), plants, and animals (including humans). In accordance with these agents, erosion is sometimes divided into water erosion, glacial erosion, snow erosion, wind (aeolean) erosion, zoogenic erosion and anthropogenic erosion such as tillage erosion. Soil erosion may be a slow process that continues relatively unnoticed, or it may occur at an alarming rate causing a serious loss of topsoil. The loss of soil from farmland may be reflected in reduced crop production potential, lower surface water quality and damaged drainage networks. Soil erosion could also cause sinkholes. Human activities have increased by 10–50 times the rate at which erosion is occurring world-wide. Excessive (or accelerated) erosion causes both "on-site" and "off-site" problems. On- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Common Grackle
The common grackle (''Quiscalus quiscula'') is a species of large icterid bird found in large numbers through much of North America. First described in 1758 by Carl Linnaeus, the common grackle has three subspecies. Adult common grackles have a long and dark bill, pale yellow eyes, and a long tail. Adults often have an iridescent appearance on their head, especially males. Common grackles can be found widely across North America east of the Rocky Mountains. Taxonomy The common grackle was first described in 1758 by Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of ''Systema Naturae'', as ''Gracula quiscula''. It was assigned to the genus ''Quiscalus'' by French ornithologist Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot in his 1816 ''Dictionnaire d'histoire naturelle''. Three subspecies are recognized: *the Florida grackle (''Q. q. quiscula'') (Linnaeus 1758), the nominate subspecies *the purple grackle (''Q. q. stonei'') (Chapman, 1935) *the bronzed grackle (''Q. q. versicolor'') (Vieillot, 1816) Descri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Red-winged Blackbird
The red-winged blackbird (''Agelaius phoeniceus'') is a passerine bird of the family Icteridae found in most of North America and much of Central America. It breeds from Alaska and Newfoundland south to Florida, the Gulf of Mexico, Mexico, and Guatemala, with isolated populations in western El Salvador, northwestern Honduras, and northwestern Costa Rica. It may winter as far north as Pennsylvania and British Columbia, but northern populations are generally migratory, moving south to Mexico and the southern United States. Claims have been made that it is the most abundant living land bird in North America, as bird-counting censuses of wintering red-winged blackbirds sometimes show that loose flocks can number in excess of a million birds per flock and the full number of breeding pairs across North and Central America may exceed 250 million in peak years. It also ranks among the best-studied wild bird species in the world. The red-winged blackbird is sexually dimorphic; the male i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Least Bittern
The least bittern (''Ixobrychus exilis'') is a small heron, the smallest member of the family Ardeidae found in the Americas. Taxonomy The least bittern was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's ''Systema Naturae''. He placed it with the herons, cranes, storks and bitterns in the genus '' Ardea'' and coined the binomial name ''Ardea exilis''. Gmelin based his description on the "minute bittern" from Jamaica that had been included by the English ornithologist John Latham in his multi-volume work ''A General Synopsis of Birds''. Latham did not specify how he had obtained the specimen. The least bittern is now one of ten species placed in the genus ''Ixobrychus'' that was introduced in 1828 by the Swedish naturalist Gustaf Johan Billberg. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek ''ixias'', a reed-like plant and ''brukhomai'', to bellow. The specific epithet ''exilis'' is Latin meaning "l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black Tern
The black tern (''Chlidonias niger'') is a small tern generally found in or near inland water in Europe, Western Asia and North America. As its name suggests, it has predominantly dark plumage. In some lights it can appear blue in the breeding season, hence the old English name "blue darr". The genus name is from Ancient Greek ''khelidonios'', "swallow-like", from ''khelidon'', "swallow": another old English name for the black tern is "carr (i.e. lake) swallow". The species name is from Latin ''niger'' "shining black". Description Adults are long, with a wingspan , and weigh . They have short dark legs and a short, weak-looking black bill, measuring , nearly as long as the head. The bill is long, slender, and looks slightly decurved. They have a dark grey back, with a white forewing, black head, neck (occasionally suffused with grey in the adult) and belly, black or blackish-brown cap (which unites in color with the ear coverts, forming an almost complete hood), and a light ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Firearm
A firearm is any type of gun designed to be readily carried and used by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see Legal definitions). The first firearms originated in 10th-century China, when bamboo tubes containing gunpowder and pellet projectiles were mounted on spears to make the portable fire lance, operable by a single person, which was later used effectively as a shock weapon in the Siege of De'an in 1132. In the 13th century, fire lance barrels were replaced with metal tubes and transformed into the metal-barreled hand cannon. The technology gradually spread throughout Eurasia during the 14th century. Older firearms typically used black powder as a propellant, but modern firearms use smokeless powder or other propellants. Most modern firearms (with the notable exception of smoothbore shotguns) have rifled barrels to impart spin to the projectile for improved flight stability. Modern firearms can be described by their caliber ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Archeology
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscapes. Archaeology can be considered both a social science and a branch of the humanities. It is usually considered an independent academic discipline, but may also be classified as part of anthropology (in North America – the four-field approach), history or geography. Archaeologists study human prehistory and history, from the development of the first stone tools at Lomekwi in East Africa 3.3 million years ago up until recent decades. Archaeology is distinct from palaeontology, which is the study of fossil remains. Archaeology is particularly important for learning about prehistoric societies, for which, by definition, there are no written records. Prehistory includes over 99% of the human past, from the Paleolithic until the adven ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trumpeter Swan
The trumpeter swan (''Cygnus buccinator'') is a species of swan found in North America. The heaviest living bird native to North America, it is also the largest extant species of waterfowl, with a wingspan of 185 to 250 cm (6 ft 2 in to 8 ft 2 in). It is the American counterpart and a close relative of the whooper swan (''Cygnus cygnus'') of Eurasia, and even has been considered the same species by some authorities. By 1933, fewer than 70 wild trumpeters were known to exist, and extinction seemed imminent, until aerial surveys discovered a Pacific population of several thousand trumpeters around Alaska's Copper River. Careful reintroductions by wildlife agencies and the Trumpeter Swan Society gradually restored the North American wild population to over 46,000 birds by 2010. Description The trumpeter swan is the largest extant species of waterfowl, and both the heaviest and longest native bird of North America. Adults usually measure long, though large males can exceed in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hectare
The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is about and one hectare contains about . In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the ''are'' was defined as 100 square metres, or one square decametre, and the hectare ("hecto-" + "are") was thus 100 ''ares'' or km2 (10,000 square metres). When the metric system was further rationalised in 1960, resulting in the International System of Units (), the ''are'' was not included as a recognised unit. The hectare, however, remains as a non-SI unit accepted for use with the SI and whose use is "expected to continue indefinitely". Though the dekare/decare daa (1,000 m2) and are (100 m2) are not officially "accepted for use", they are still used in some contexts. Description The hectare (), although not a unit of SI, i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cattail
''Typha'' is a genus of about 30 species of monocotyledonous flowering plants in the family Typhaceae. These plants have a variety of common names, in British English as bulrush or reedmace, in American English as reed, cattail, or punks, in Australia as cumbungi or bulrush, in Canada as bulrush or cattail, and in New Zealand as raupo. Other taxa of plants may be known as bulrush, including some sedges in ''Scirpus'' and related genera. The genus is largely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere, where it is found in a variety of wetland habitats. The rhizomes are edible. Evidence of preserved starch grains on grinding stones suggests they were already eaten in Europe 30,000 years ago. Description ''Typha'' are aquatic or semi-aquatic, rhizomatous, herbaceous perennial plants. The leaves are glabrous (hairless), linear, alternate and mostly basal on a simple, jointless stem that bears the flowering spikes. The plants are monoecious, with unisexual flowers that develop in d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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