Eggcase '~]z With over 600 species of skate and ray worldwide, at least 16 species have been regularly recorded in UK coastal waters; most of these species reproduce by laying tough leathery eggcases on the seabed. Of more than 30 species of British sharks, only two species lay eggcases that are commonly found on our beaches; the Smallspotted Catshark and the Nursehound. Each eggcase contains one embryo which will develop over several months into a miniature shark, skate or ray. Once empty, the eggcases often wash ashore and can be found among the strandline on beaches. The Great Eggcase Hunt aims to get as many people as possible hunting for eggcases that have either been washed ashore, or are found by divers and snorkelers underwater. Funding for this project, provided by Save Our Seas Foundation (SOSF) and the Co-operative, assures the continued expansion of this exciting, flagship project. Eggcase Hunting Identify & Record Eggcase Results Print Page
Welcome to Viet Nam Creatures Website Les oiseaux Insect Boxes from the Nestbox Company The Nestbox Company are pleased to offer you their innovative range of "gardener friendly" insect nest boxes to encourage bees, lacewings and other beneficial insects to stay in your garden. The presence of these will reduce your need to purchase pesticides and other harmful chemicals, and help with ensuring your crops are pollinated. Insect preferred : Thoughtfully designed nesting boxes make safe and secure homes. Chosen by professionals : With all the right features, the nest boxes of choice for professionals! Selected by you : Modern designs, traditionally made in wood - look good, and work well. Designed by experts : Designed with the help of insect specialists.
Beetles (Order: Coleoptera) - Amateur Entomologists' Society (AES) Possibly the most well known of Britain's beetles, the Stag beetle Lucanus cervus. The males have large 'antlers' and this gives them their common name. The smaller female does not possess large antlers. Introduction The Order Coleoptera or beetles forms the largest group of insects worldwide with about 370,000 described species. However, the situation in the British Isles is slightly different and beetle diversity comes third with about 4,100 species, being surpassed by both Diptera (flies) and Hymenoptera (bees, wasps, ants, etc.). General features Beetles belong to the Endopterygota or insects having a complete metamorphosis, with a distinct pupal stage between the larval and sexually mature adult stages. Beetles can be found in almost every imaginable terrestrial or aquatic habitat but many more species are found in tropical countries than in places with more temperate climates. Special features A number of beetle species are dependant upon other insects for their survival. Setting
Identifying Rooks Top left: Juvenile Rook by Breffni Martin. Bottom left: Adult Rook by John Harding. Right:Carrion Crow by Jill Pakenham. (Click to enlarge). Adult Rooks are easy to identify thanks to the bare, greyish-white skin around the base of their bill. A juvenile Rook, however, is similar to a Carrion Crow as it doesn't develop the bare bill-base until its second calendar year. Rooks also have a straighter, more pointed bill, unlike the Carrion Crow's thicker, blunter and more curved bill. Corvid Identification Video Watch the BTO Rook Identification video to help you tell apart a Rook from a Crow. Find out more about Rooks You can find out more about Rooks, including their breeding behaviour and distribution, by having a look at the BTO's July 'Bird of the Month' feature.
Avibase - La base ornithologique mondiale I am excited to announce a new important addition to Avibase, called myAvibase. This is a new section of the site that provides tools for planning your next birding trip and manage your own personal checklists. You can use maps and graphs to quickly see how many species can be found in a given region and at various times of year, for instance. If you import your own sightings in myAvibase, you can also view how many new species (lifers) you could add to your lifelist on your next trip and decide when and where you should go. For some additional details on the types of reports available, please click here. People who participate in eBird can very simply import their lifelist from their eBird account with a click of a button.
4 Poisonous Birds Toxins: they're not just for snakes and spiders! While no bird currently known to science wields a venomous bite, a fair number do in fact release noxious poisons from their skin, making them dangerous to consume... including one species upon which humans have been precariously dining for centuries. Here's a quartet of toxic avians. 1. Though New Guinea natives have long known that these stunning orange and black songbirds (above) are indeed quite poisonous, the scientific community didn't catch on until relatively recently as explained in this video: 2. Wikimedia Commons Back in 2000, a team of researchers collected a pair of these insect-eating Oceania natives and discovered that the feathers of one specimen actually contained secretions of a toxin similar to that used by the notorious poison dart frogs of Central and South America. 3. Wikimedia Commons In nature, you are what you eat. 4. Wikimedia Commons So what makes these seemingly harmless fowl so dangerous to nibble on?
En trente ans, 420 millions d'oiseaux ont disparu en Europe Une étude publiée ce lundi 3 novembre dans le journal scientifique Ecology Letters vient de révéler de nouveaux chiffres inquiétants concernant le déclin de la population des oiseaux. L'étude révèle que 420 millions d'oiseaux ont disparu en trente ans en Europe. Près de 90% de cette disparition a été enregistrée chez 36 espèces d'oiseaux communs telles que le moineau, l'étourneau, la perdrix grise et l'alouette. Richard Inger, chercheur à l'institut pour l'environnement et le développement durable à l'université d'Exeter et qui a participé à l'étude, s'alarme : "Il est très préoccupant que les espèces les plus communes disparaissent rapidement puisque ce sont précisément ces oiseaux qui sont utiles aux hommes." Un déclin néfaste Ces oiseaux permettent de lutter contre les parasites agricoles, de disséminer les graines et d'éliminer les carcasses d'animaux. Protéger les espèces et leur habitat Par ailleurs, l'étude montre que la population de certaines espèces d'oiseaux est en augmentation.