View allAll Photos Tagged conserver
It is in our Hands.
Due to years of dry weather, South East Queensland and some other states in Australia, are fast running out of water.
We must all give a hand in conserving our precious resource.
Agra, India, Fatehpur Sikri, a city and a municipal board in Agra district, India. A walled city, UNESCO heritage, one of of the best preserved collections of Indian Mughal architecture in India
WWF-Pakistan is working on another project, Vulture Safe Zone, in Nagar Parkar, Sindh, to conserve the white-backed vultures in the wild. To mobilize local communities for conservation of the species, Parkar Foundation, a community based organization has been established in Nagar Parkar. The Vulture Safe Zone stretches over an area of 100 km and serves as a protected area for the species. Furthermore free livestock vaccinations, livestock de-worming camps and information on better animal husbandry practices are provided to communities to protect vultures from further population losses.
The President of Parkar Foundation, Moti, stresses to conserve the remaining White-backed vultures in the wild, especially in Nagar Parkar, Sindh, which is the last stronghold of the species. Therefore Parkar Foundation is sensitizing communities for the conservation of White-backed vultures.
Meanwhile, a survey carried out by WWF-Pakistan in June 2014 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) recorded 68 Egyptian vultures in an area of 835 km. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species also lists the Egyptian vulture as endangered which clearly shows that they face threats to their survival. The study revealed a different behavior of this vulture species as they were observed feeding on garbage. Uzma Khan, Director Biodiversity, WWF-Pakistan, explained that due to scarcity of carcass in the area, vultures are seen feeding on garbage for survival.
Vultures can travel great distances in search of food, which was observed when the Peregrine Fund attached solar powered GPS units to a few white-backed vultures in 2003. One of the vultures travelled a distance of up to 300 km, revealing the great distances these vultures can travel.
To mitigate the effects of Diclofenac, an alternate drug Meloxicam is being promoted among local communities and veterinarians, which is not harmful for vultures. Moreover, through sensitization seminars and workshops, communities are being educated about the damaging use of the Diclofenac so that its usage can finally be stopped.
No doubt vultures in Pakistan face serious threats but they can be dealt with, if the government pays due attention to the issue. Through government funding, captive breeding aviaries can be increased and Diclofenac sodium, which is still used in rural areas can be banned completely. People are still unaware of the role vultures play in the ecosystem and if they are sensitized, it can yield positive results.
Z.B.Mirza also confirmed that after decline in vulture population, dead animals are now being sold to the poultry industry so that carcasses can be processed in chicken feed. Oil is also extracted from the intestines of dead animals as well as calcium from bones. Such unhygienic content can result in serious diseases, he added. Sadly, humans have taken over the role of vultures in the ecosystem which is not our purpose in the first place.
Even though vultures look ugly it does not mean that they should perish. They hold immense importance in the ecosystem which cannot be ignored. Losing this wildlife to extinction is a tragedy which shouldn’t happen at any cost.
Allah Almighty created every species for a special purpose which no other can perform, as we must let them do their job. The young generation might not know much about vultures as they have not seen the species but they need to be told that vultures stand on the brink of extinction only due to our mistakes. The time to act is now, before it gets too late
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_of_Wight
The Isle of Wight /ˈaɪl əv ˈwaɪt/, is a county and the largest and second most populous island of England. It is located in the English Channel, about 4 mi (6 km) off the coast of Hampshire and is separated from mainland Great Britain by the Solent. The island has several resorts which have been holiday destinations since Victorian times.
The history of the Isle of Wight includes a brief period of time as an independent kingdom in the 15th century. Until 1995, like Jersey and Guernsey, the island had a Governor.[n 1]
Home to the poets Swinburne and Tennyson and to Queen Victoria, who built her much-loved summer residence and final home Osborne House at East Cowes, the island has a maritime and industrial tradition including boat building, sail making, the manufacture of flying boats, the world's first hovercraft, and the testing and development of Britain's space rockets. The Isle hosts annual festivals including the Bestival and the Isle of Wight Festival, which, in 1970, was the largest rock music event ever held.[2] The island has well-conserved wildlife and some of the richest cliffs and quarries for dinosaur fossils in Europe.
The Isle of Wight was part of the County of Southampton until 1890, when it became an independent administrative county. Until 1974 it continued to share its Lord Lieutenant with Hampshire, when it was reconstituted as a non-metropolitan ceremonial county which gave it its own Lord Lieutenant and was recognised as a postal county.
The quickest public transport link to the mainland is to and from Southsea (Portsmouth) by hovercraft, while five ferry services shuttle across the Solent.
History
Neolithic Isle of Wight
There are theories that during the Neolithic era Bouldnor was an active seaport that supported trade with the Middle East as wheat was present here 8,000 years ago, hundreds of years before wheat was grown anywhere in Europe.[3][4][5]
Bronze and Iron Age Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight is first mentioned in writing in Geography by Ptolemy. Bronze Age Britain had large reserves of tin in the areas of Cornwall and Devon and tin is necessary to smelt bronze. At that time the sea level was much lower and carts of tin were brought across the Solent at low tide[6][7] for export, possibly on the Ferriby Boats. Anthony Snodgrass[8][9] suggests that a shortage of tin, as a part of the Bronze Age Collapse and trade disruptions in the Mediterranean around 1300 BC, forced metalworkers to seek an alternative to bronze. During Iron Age Britain,the Late Iron Age, the Isle of Wight would appear to have been occupied by the Celtic tribe, the Durotriges - as attested by finds of their coins, for example, the South Wight Hoard,[10] and the Shalfleet Hoard.[11] South eastern Britain experienced significant Continental immigration that is reflected in the genetic makeup of the current residents.[12] As the Iron Age began the value of tin likely dropped sharply and this likely greatly changed the economy of the Isle of Wight. Trade however continued as evidenced by the remarkable local abundance of European Iron Age coins.[13][14]
Roman Isle of Wight
Caesar reported that the Belgae took the Isle of Wight about 85 BC and named it Ictus (or Vectis).[15] The Roman historian Suetonius mentions that the entire island was captured by the commander Vespasian, who later became emperor. The remains of at least five Roman villas have been found on the island, including one near Gurnard which is submerged. First century exports were principally hides, slaves, hunting dogs, grain, cattle, silver, gold, and iron. Ferriby Boats and later Blackfriars Ships likely were important to the local economy.[citation needed]
At the end of the Roman Empire, the island of Vectis became a Jutish kingdom ruled by King Stuf and his successors until AD 661 when it was invaded by Wulfhere of Mercia and forcibly converted to Christianity. When he left for Mercia the islanders reverted to paganism.[citation needed]
In AD 685 it was invaded by Caedwalla of Wessex and can be considered to have become part of Wessex. The resistance to the invasion was led by the local King Arwald and after he was defeated and slain, at Caedwalla's insistence, Wight became the last part of the English lands to convert to Christianity in AD 686.[16][17][18] After Alfred the Great (who reigned 871 - 899) made the West Saxon kings the kings of all England, it then became administratively part of England. The island became part of the shire of Hampshire and was divided into hundreds as was the norm. From this time the island suffered especially from Viking predations. Alfred the Great's navy defeated the Danes in 871 after they had "ravaged Devon and the Isle of Wight".[citation needed]
Middle Ages
The Norman Conquest created the position of Lord of the Isle of Wight. Carisbrooke Priory and the fort of Carisbrooke Castle were founded. The island did not come under full control of the Crown until it was sold by the dying last Norman Lord, Lady Isabella de Fortibus, to Edward I in 1293.[citation needed]
In 1374, the Castilian fleet, led by Fernán Sánchez de Tovar, the 1st Lord of Belves, sacked and burned the island.[citation needed]
The Lordship thereafter became a royal appointment, with a brief interruption when Henry de Beauchamp, 1st Duke of Warwick was in 1444 crowned King of the Isle of Wight,[19] with King Henry VI assisting in person at the ceremony, placing the crown on his head. With no male heir, the regal title expired on the death of Henry de Beauchamp in 1446.[citation needed]
The French landed an invasion force on the island on 21 July 1545 but were rapidly repulsed by local militia. English ships were engaged in battle with the French navy, and it was two days earlier, on 19 July, that the Mary Rose was sunk.[citation needed]
Henry VIII, who developed the Royal Navy and its permanent base at Portsmouth, fortified the island at Yarmouth, Cowes, East Cowes, and Sandown. Much later, after the Spanish Armada in 1588, the threat of Spanish attacks remained and the outer fortifications of Carisbrooke Castle were built between 1597 and 1602.[citation needed]
Civil War
During the English Civil War King Charles fled to the Isle of Wight, believing he would receive sympathy from the governor, Robert Hammond. Hammond was appalled, and imprisoned the king in Carisbrooke Castle. Charles had originally intended to flee to Jersey, but became lost in the New Forest and missed the boat.[citation needed]
Seven Years War
During the Seven Years' War, the Island was used as a staging post for British troops departing on expeditions against the French coast such as the Raid on Rochefort. During 1759 with a planned French invasion imminent, a large force of soldiers was kept there so they could be moved at speed to any destination on the Southern English coast. The French called off their invasion following the Battle of Quiberon Bay. A later French invasion plan involved a landing on the Isle of Wight.[20]
Queen Victoria
Queen Victoria made Osborne House on the Isle of Wight her summer home for many years and, as a result, it became a major holiday resort for fashionable Victorians including Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Julia Margaret Cameron, Charles Dickens (who wrote much of David Copperfield there) as well as the French painter Berthe Morisot and members of European royalty.[citation needed]
Queen Victoria died on the island, on 22 January 1901, aged 81.
During her reign, in 1897, the world's first radio station was set up by Marconi, at the Needles Battery, at the western tip of the island.[21][22]
Modern history
During the Second World War the island was frequently bombed. With its proximity to France the island had a number of observation stations and transmitters. It was the starting-point for one of the earlier Operation Pluto pipelines to feed fuel to the Normandy landings.[23]
The Needles battery was used as the site for testing and development of the Black Arrow and Black Knight space rockets, subsequently launched from Woomera, Australia.[24]
The Isle of Wight Festival was a very large rock festival that took place near Afton Down, West Wight in 1970, following two smaller concerts in 1968 and 1969. The 1970 show was notable both for being one of the last public performances by Jimi Hendrix and for the number of attendees reaching, by many estimates, 600,000.[25] The festival was revived in 2002 in a different format and is now an annual event.[citation needed]
Physical geography and wildlife
The rest of the Island's landscape also has great diversity, with perhaps the most notable habitats being the soft cliffs and sea ledges, which are scenic features and important for wildlife, and are internationally protected. The River Medina flows north into the Solent, whilst the other main river, the Eastern Yar flows roughly north-east, emerging at Bembridge Harbour at the eastern end of the island. There is another river in the west of the island called the Western Yar, flowing the short distance from Freshwater Bay to a relatively large estuary at Yarmouth.[citation needed]
The south coast of the island borders the English Channel. Without man's intervention the sea might well have split the island into three; at the west end where a bank of pebbles separates Freshwater Bay from the marshy backwaters of the Western Yar east of Freshwater, and at the east end where a thin strip of land separates Sandown Bay from the marshy basin of the Eastern Yar, east of Sandown. Yarmouth itself was effectively an island, only connected to the rest of the island by a regularly breached neck of land immediately east of the town.[citation needed]
The Isle of Wight is one of the few places in England where the red squirrel is flourishing, with a stable population (Brownsea Island is another), and unlike most of England, no grey squirrels are to be found on the island.[27] There are occasional sightings of deer at large in the wild on the island[28][29][30] Rare and protected species such as the dormouse and many rare bats can be found. The Glanville Fritillary butterfly's distribution in the United Kingdom is largely restricted to the edges of the crumbling cliffs of the Isle of Wight.[citation needed]
A competition in 2002 named the Pyramidal Orchid as the Isle of Wight's county flower.[31]
The island has one of the most important areas in Europe for dinosaur fossils. The eroding cliffs often reveal previously hidden remains particularly along the region known as the Back of the Wight.[citation needed]
Climate
The Isle of Wight has a milder sub-climate than other areas of the UK, which makes it a holiday destination, particularly the resorts in the south east of the island. It also has a longer growing season. The mean temperature is 13 degrees Celsius averaged over the year, and is 18 degrees in July and August. The microclimate of places such as Lower Ventnor is influenced by their sheltered position under the cliffs. The Isle of Wight is also sunnier than parts of the UK, with 1800–2100 hours of sunshine a year.[32] Some years have almost no snow in winter, and only a few days of hard frost.
Geology
The Isle of Wight is made up of a wide variety of different rock types ranging from early Cretaceous times (around 127 million years ago) to the middle of the Palaeogene (around 30 million years ago). The northern half of the island is mainly made up of Tertiary clays, with the southern half formed of Cretaceous rocks (the chalk that forms the central east-west downs, as well as Upper and Lower Greensands and Wealden strata).
All the rocks found on the island are sedimentary – made up of mineral grains from previously existing rocks. These are consolidated to form the rocks that can be seen on the island today, such as limestone, mudstone and sandstone. Rocks on the island are very rich in fossils and many of these can be seen exposed on the beaches as the cliffs erode. Lignitic coal is present in small quantities in seams on the cliffs and shore at Whitecliff Bay and fossilised molluscs have been found there.
Dinosaur bones and footprints can be seen in and on the rocks exposed around the island's beaches, especially at Yaverland and Compton Bay. As a result, the isle has been nicknamed Dinosaur Island.
Along the northern coast of the island there is a rich source of fossilised shellfish, crocodiles, turtles and mammal bones. The youngest of these date back to around 30 million years ago.
The geological structure is dominated by a large monocline which causes the marked change in age of strata from the northern younger Tertiary beds to the older Cretaceous beds of the south. This gives rise to a dip of almost 90 degrees in the chalk beds, seen best at the Needles.
About 10,000 years ago, the great ice sheets of the last Ice Age melted and the sea level rose. Probably about 7,000 years ago, the Isle of Wight became separated from the mainland.
Politics
With a single Member of Parliament and 132,731 permanent residents in 2001, it is the most populous parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom (more than 50% above the average of English constituencies).[n 2][33] Parliament has passed Section 11, Clause 6(1) of the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011 to alter this.[n 3]
The Isle of Wight is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county. Since the abolition of its two borough councils in 1995 and the restructuring of the county council as the Isle of Wight Council, it has been a unitary county.[citation needed]
As a constituency of the House of Commons, it is traditionally a battleground between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. The current Member of Parliament Andrew Turner is a Conservative, and his predecessor Dr Peter Brand was a Liberal Democrat.[citation needed]
The Isle of Wight Council election of 2013 saw the Conservative Party lose the majority which they had held since 2005 to the Island Independents. Independent councillors currently hold 20 of the 40 seats in the council.[35]
There have been small regionalist movements: the Vectis National Party and the Isle of Wight Party; but they have attracted little support in elections.[citation needed]
Main towns
##Newport, in the centre of the Island, is the county town of the Isle of Wight and the Island's main shopping area. Located next to the River Medina, Newport Quay was a busy port until the mid 19th century.
##Ryde, the island's largest town with a population of around 30,000, is in the north east of the island. It is a Victorian town with the oldest seaside pier in England, pier and miles of beaches. Ryde is home to the ice hockey club Wightlink Raiders, who play in the third-tier English National Ice Hockey League.
##Cowes is the location of the annual Cowes Week and an international sailing centre. It is the home of the record-setting sailor Dame Ellen MacArthur.
##East Cowes is famous for Osborne House, Norris Castle and as the home from 1929 to 1964 of Saunders-Roe, the historic aircraft, flying boat, rocket and hovercraft company.
##Sandown is a popular seaside resort. It is home to the Isle of Wight Zoo, the Dinosaur Isle geological museum and one of the island's two 18-hole golf courses.
##Shanklin, just south of Sandown, attracts tourists with its high summer sunshine levels, sandy beaches, Shanklin Chine and the old village.
##Ventnor, built on the steep slopes of St Boniface Down on the south coast of the island, leads down to a picturesque bay that attracts many tourists. Ventnor Haven is a small harbour built around a Victorian-style bandstand.
Culture
Language and dialect
The accent of the Isle of Wight is similar to the traditional dialect of Hampshire, featuring the dropping of some consonants and an emphasis on longer vowels. It is similar to the West Country dialects heard in SW England, but less removed in sound[clarification needed] from the Estuary English of the SE. As with many other traditional southern English regional dialects and accents, a strong island accent is not now commonly heard, and, as speakers tend to be older, this decline is likely to continue.[citation needed]
The island has its own local and regional words. Some words, such as nipper/nips (a young male person), are still commonly used and are shared with neighbouring areas of the mainland. A few are unique to the island, for example overner (a mainlander who has settled on the island), caulkhead (someone born on the island and born from long-established island stock) and grockle (a tourist/visitor).Other words are more obscure and now used mainly for comic emphasis, such as mallishag (meaning "caterpillar"). Some other words are gurt meaning "large", nammit (a mid-morning snack) and gallybagger ("scarecrow").[36]
Identity
There has been and still is some confusion between the identities of the Isle of Wight as a separate county and, as it once was, a part of the nearby county of Hampshire. At least one mainstream newspaper article as recently as 2008 refers to the "Isle of Wight in Hampshire".[37] Prior to 1890, the Isle of Wight was normally regarded and was administered as a part of Hampshire. With the formation of the Isle of Wight County Council in 1890, the distinct identity became officially established: see also Politics of the Isle of Wight. In January 2009, the new Flag of the Isle of Wight, the first general flag for the county, was accepted by the Flag Institute.[38] Denizens of the Isle of Wight are sometimes referred to as 'Vectensians', 'Vectians' or "caulkheads".[
Cette petite porte, bâtie au XIIIe siècle selon Eugène Saintier, est la seule de la ville qui ait été conservée. Originellement nommée porte sous le Château à cause de sa position, les événements de 1421 avec la guerre contre les Anglais la firent indirectement changer de nom. En effet, cette année-là, un prêtre dont l'histoire ne nous a apparemment pas rapporté le nom, s'introduisit par cette porte afin de permettre aux Français de reprendre la ville. Le mot prêtre ne doit donc jamais ici être mis au pluriel.
Une maison fut ultérieurement bâtie au-dessus de cette porte, le créneau servant même d'ouverture de fenêtre, ce qui lui donna sa physionomie actuelle.
En 1845, la construction des quais causa des remblais importants, ce qui enfouit la base de la porte, lui donnant l'apparence d'une porte basse.
Avec la pollution, la porte se salit progressivement, et en 2005, la partie supérieure fut nettoyée ; en revanche, le bas fut laissé aussi sale.
Le peintre Albert Dagnaux (1861-1933) s'y installa et y passa le reste de sa vie. Plus récemment, c'est Jean-Paul David, maire de la ville, qui y élut domicile jusqu'à son décès en 2007. Aujourd'hui, elle serait à vendre.
<a href="http://mantes.histoire.free.fr/item.php?nom=Porte+au+Prêtre"
paper from various history books, wax, yarn and found objects. read about it here: ines-seidel.de/2014/02/beruhrungsempfindlich/?lang=en
drei aufbewahrte Geschichten -
Papier aus verschiedenen Geschichtsbüchern, Wachs, Garn und Fundstücke
Mehr dazu im Blog: ines-seidel.de/2014/02/beruhrungsempfindlich/
A new poll conducted by @vanaqua shows that 76% of Canadians say we’re not doing enough to conserve & protect our oceans. What can you do? Choose @ocean_wise sustainable seafood, join a @shorelinecleanup, just to name a few. As we move forward together toward a sustainable future we would like to hear your ideas — what do you do to keep a healthy balance with our natural world? Share with us the ways you reduce waste, keep our oceans debris free, and live a “green” life, using the hashtag #vanaqua60. Let’s talk sustainability and keep the conversation alive!
You can read more about this pair of American Bald Eagles at Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey www.conservewildlifenj.org/blog/2017/11/20/w34-a-ny-bande...
SPOTLIGHT ON THE BALD EAGLE’S ALL-AMERICAN COMEBACK IN NEW JERSEY
by Lindsay McNamara, Communications Manager
June 20th 2016
In 1985 — just 31 years ago — a single bald eagle nest remained in the state of New Jersey. In 2015, CWF and partners monitored 161 nests throughout the Garden State. Just this year (as of June 20, 2016), over 50 young eagles have already fledged from their nests! What sparked this All-American comeback of the United States’ National Bird?
DDT use was banned in the United States in 1972. That ban combined with restoration efforts by biologists within the NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife’s Endangered and Nongame Species Program (ENSP) resulted in 25 bald eagle pairs by 2000.
In 2017 the number of New Jersey active bald eagle pairs was 170.
For more info: www.conservewildlifenj.org/blog/tag/new-jersey-bald-eagle...
New Jersey Bald Eagle Project Report | 2016
New Jersey Bald Eagle Project Report | 2016 may be downloaded here: docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYX...
For more info: www.conservewildlifenj.org/blog/tag/new-jersey-bald-eagle...
This is a bit different from my usual photos but just thought I'd include it for fun.
I ran across this at a shop in Laguna Hills, California that specializes in British foods. Rhubarb with ginger is a flavor that I've never seen nor tasted before. But because I also like strawberry-rhubarb pie, I decided to give it a try.
It's delicious! Is this a common flavor variety in the UK? I've seen ginger preserves before in other British grocery stores but not rhubarb with ginger.
I like the moderate tartness imparted by the rhubarb, the sharp taste of ginger and of course the sweetness from the sugar mixed in.
When I finish this jar I'll look for it again, perhaps online because it would be a 6+ hour drive to the store where I bought this!
"Do these feathers make me look fat?"
NEW JERSEY 2017 BALD EAGLE PROJECT REPORT
ANOTHER PRODUCTIVE YEAR FOR NJ’S EAGLES
by Larissa Smith, CWF Wildlife Biologist
The Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ in partnership with the NJ Endangered and Nongame Species Program has released the 2017 NJ Bald Eagle Project Report. In 2017, 178 eagle nests were monitored during the nesting season. Of these nests 153 were active (with eggs) and 25 were territorial or housekeeping pairs. One hundred and ninety young were fledged.
In 2017 the number of active nests was three more than in 2016, but the number young fledged decreased by 27 from a record high of 216 fledged in 2016. The productivity rate this season of 1.25 young/active nest is still above the required range of 0.0 to 1.1 for population maintenance. Productivity could be lower this season for many reasons including weather, predation and disturbance to the nesting area. In 2017 nest monitors reported several instances of “intruder” eagles at nests which did disrupt the nesting attempts of several pairs. One of these “eagle dramas” unfolded at the Duke Farms eagle cam watched by millions of people. An intruder female attempted to replace the current female. This harassment interrupted the pairs bonding and copulation and no eggs were laid.
This year’s report includes a section on Resightings of banded eagles. Resightings of NJ (green) banded eagles have increased over the years, as well as eagles seen in NJ that were banded in other states. These resightings are important, as they help us to understand eagle movements during the years between fledging and settling into a territory, as well as adult birds at a nest site.
For more info: www.conservewildlifenj.org/blog/2017/12/06/new-jersey-201...
New Jersey Bald Eagle Project Report | 2017 may be downloaded here: www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/ensp/pdf/eglrpt17.pdf
Shii-chan and Sherman conserving body warmth.
It never fails to amaze me what you can do with a simple camera in a smart phone. You cannot really tell here, but there was minimal light and the shot was take at ISO 600 for an eighth of a second hand held. It might take a moment for you to pick out the bit that is the dog.
View my portfolio at www.eclecticair.com.
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___Wendell Berry
Happy Earth Day to the Universe, the children of this land and to the friends, and family & animals of this beautiful world in which we have been given, I hope we make a difference in this vast beauty of rebirth!
If you have a moment, please read my tags, and add one if you like =)
I took this photo from the flyer that I received in the mail from The Kelowna Flower Farm.
taken with my Sony DSC-H9 (macro shot)
_______________________________________________________________________
Do not use in blogs or personal uses without my permission.
© Copyright Image
You can read more about this pair of American Bald Eagles at Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey www.conservewildlifenj.org/blog/2017/11/20/w34-a-ny-bande...
SPOTLIGHT ON THE BALD EAGLE’S ALL-AMERICAN COMEBACK IN NEW JERSEY
by Lindsay McNamara, Communications Manager
June 20th 2016
In 1985 — just 31 years ago — a single bald eagle nest remained in the state of New Jersey. In 2015, CWF and partners monitored 161 nests throughout the Garden State. Just this year (as of June 20, 2016), over 50 young eagles have already fledged from their nests! What sparked this All-American comeback of the United States’ National Bird?
DDT use was banned in the United States in 1972. That ban combined with restoration efforts by biologists within the NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife’s Endangered and Nongame Species Program (ENSP) resulted in 25 bald eagle pairs by 2000.
In 2017 the number of New Jersey active bald eagle pairs was 170.
For more info: www.conservewildlifenj.org/blog/tag/new-jersey-bald-eagle...
New Jersey Bald Eagle Project Report | 2016
New Jersey Bald Eagle Project Report | 2016 may be downloaded here: docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYX...
For more info: www.conservewildlifenj.org/blog/tag/new-jersey-bald-eagle...
Conserved ruins of a late 13th Century castle on a hill in a long and tight valley. The builders formerly colonized western Bohemia, and when they secured eastern Bohemia, they built new castles which they named after those in the West, there is also another Litice Castle (almost non-existent today). This castle mas a major strongpoint in the area for the next centuries, besieged and damaged in 1421, rebuilt and extended after 1450. It lost importance in the 16th Century, only the most basic personal maintained it, it´s seen as half demolished on a 1657 illustration, and last repairs were made in 1681. The northern palace was saved when it got a new roof in 1776, but the southern palace was left to it´s faith. Conservations of the remaining buildings and walls were done between 1890 and 1935, the preserved remains show that it was indeed a well built and durable fortress. The ruin was closed for some years due bad statics in the 1980´s, and reopened only after basic stabilization, a palace wall partially collapsed in 2015 and the castle still needs rescue efforts.
Le Théâtre Antique d'Orange est le théâtre romain
le mieux conservé en occident, classé au patrimoine mondial de l'UNESCO. Edifié sous l'empereur Auguste au Ier siècle de notre ère. Son mur de scène (37 mètres de haut sur 103 mètres de long), est l'un des mieux conservés du monde romain, et place le monument parmi les plus grands témoignages de toute la Rome Antique. Le théâtre occupait une place centrale dans la cité et la vie de ses habitants qui y passaient une grande partie de leur temps libre. Pour le pouvoir romain, le théâtre était un moyen de diffusion de la culture latine auprès des populations colonisées mais aussi un prétexte pour les éloigner de toute préoccupation politique. Véritables divertissements, les spectacles duraient toute la journée. Les Romains, peu passionnés par les tragédies grecques dont s'inspiraient au début les auteurs latins, préféraient un répertoire plus léger : dell'Arte. Les mimes, pantomimes, récitals de poésie, et surtout l'attelane, farce assez proche de la Commedia public populaire voulait avant tout du sensationnel : la mise en scène devint donc prédominante avec le développement de la machinerie. Le théâtre, gratuit, était accessible à tous et était le seul endroit public où l'on pouvait côtoyer les femmes. En revanche, la circulation dans les couloirs et les galeries était conçue de telle sorte que les spectateurs de statut social différent ne se mélangent pas. Aujourd'hui, le Théatre Antique d'Orange est un lieu culturel où des événements tels que le théâtre, l'opéra ou des concerts sont proposés. Sa capacité d'accueil est importante avec 9000 places réservées aux spectateurs.
The Roman Theater of Orange is the Roman theater
the best preserved in the West, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Built under the Emperor Augustus in the first century of our era. Its stage wall (37 meters high and 103 meters long), is one of the best preserved in the Roman world, and places the monument among the greatest testimonies of all the ancient Rome. The theater occupied a central place in the city and the life of its inhabitants, who spent a great deal of their free time there. For the Roman power, the theater was a means of spreading the Latin culture to the colonized populations but also a pretext to remove them from any political concern. True entertainment, the shows lasted all day. The Romans, unenthusiastic about the Greek tragedies that initially inspired Latin authors, preferred a lighter repertoire: dell'Arte. The mimes, pantomimes, recitals of poetry, and especially the attelane, a prank close enough to the Commedia public popular wanted above all the sensational: the staging became predominant with the development of the machinery. The theater, free, was accessible to all and was the only public place where women could be seen. On the other hand, traffic in corridors and galleries was designed in such a way that spectators of different social status did not mix. Today, the Antique Theater of Orange is a cultural venue where events such as theater, opera or concerts are offered. Its capacity is important with 9000 seats reserved for spectators.
El teatro romano de naranja es el teatro romano.
El mejor conservado de Occidente, declarado Patrimonio de la Humanidad por la UNESCO. Construido bajo el emperador Augusto en el primer siglo de nuestra era. Su muro escénico (37 metros de altura y 103 metros de largo), es uno de los mejor conservados del mundo romano, y coloca el monumento entre los testimonios más grandes de toda la antigua Roma. El teatro ocupó un lugar central en la ciudad y en la vida de sus habitantes, quienes pasaron gran parte de su tiempo libre allí. Para el poder romano, el teatro era un medio para difundir la cultura latina a las poblaciones colonizadas, pero también un pretexto para alejarlos de cualquier preocupación política. El verdadero entretenimiento, los espectáculos duraron todo el día. Los romanos, poco entusiastas con respecto a las tragedias griegas que inicialmente inspiraron a los autores latinos, preferían un repertorio más ligero: dell'Arte. Los mimos, las pantomimas, los recitales de poesía y, especialmente, el attelano, una broma lo bastante cercana a la gente de la comedia popular, sobre todo sensacional: la puesta en escena se hizo predominante con el desarrollo de la maquinaria. El teatro, gratuito, era accesible para todos y era el único lugar público donde se podía ver a las mujeres. Por otro lado, el tráfico en los pasillos y galerías fue diseñado de tal manera que los espectadores de diferente estatus social no se mezclaron. Hoy en día, el Antique Theatre of Orange es un lugar cultural donde se ofrecen eventos como teatro, ópera o conciertos. Su capacidad es importante con 9000 asientos reservados para espectadores.
The Story of Locust
(A Falcon’s Second Lease on Life)
In early July, a juvenile male Peregrine Falcon (PEFA) was rescued from the water near the Oceanic Bridge in Rumson, New Jersey. The Falcon had an injury to one of its wings and was unable to fly. The injury was most likely caused by a vehicle strike on the bridge. After the rescue, the bird was taken to Toms River Avian Care, which is operated by Don Bonica. Don does amazing work and had Locust rehabilitated and ready for release on July 30, 2019. With bird-in-hand and a few semi-defrosted rats, Don wished me luck as I transported Locust to the release site somewhere on the Jersey Shore.
I was met at the site by local legend Nothside Jim of “Readings from the Northside” fame, as well as the Godfather of the entire New Jersey Osprey population, Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey, Ben Wurst - Habitat Program Manager. At the site, Locust was removed from the carrier and examined by Ben, as he held the bird carefully, Jim banded it … BE/74.
The site selection was fantastic, with an entire PEFA family occupying the vast marshy acreage like royalty that they are. With plenty of high perches and an abundant food supply, and since birds can’t count or read band ID’s, Locust was set free to join his new family who will help him learn how to hunt and feed himself.
Many thanks to Biologist Kathy Clark, with the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife's Endangered and Nongame Species Program (ENSP), Ben Wurst of Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey, and Northside Jim, a founding board member of Little Egg Foundation, for all they do every day to maintain the health of our endangered wildlife, and their fragile habitat. And a special thanks to Don Bonica of Toms River Avian Care, for his remarkable work.
Reading From The North Side – Life On the Beach: exit63.wordpress.com
Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey: www.conservewildlifenj.org
Little Egg Foundation: www.little-egg.org/about/people.php
Toms River Avian Care: www.facebook.com/pages/Toms-River-Avian-Care/168047699879380
Peregrine Falcons of New Jersey
The Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus), also known as the Peregrine, and historically as the Duck Hawk in North America, is a widespread bird of prey in the family Falconidae. A large, crow-sized falcon, it has a blue-grey back, barred white underparts, and a black head and "moustache". As is typical of bird-eating raptors, Peregrine Falcons are sexually dimorphic, females being considerably larger than males. The Peregrine is renowned for its speed, reaching over 200 mph during its characteristic hunting stoop (high speed dive), making it the fastest member of the animal kingdom. According to a National Geographic TV program, the highest measured speed of a Peregrine Falcon is 242 mph.
For more info: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peregrine_falcon" rel="noreferrer
In an attempt to conserve petrol during the recent fuel crisis I walked down to Longbridge and hopped on the train to Kings Norton for a half decent shot of this test train.
I didn't bargain for the MPV coming in from Camphill !
...can be excruciating.
Make sure you are left with water...Clean Water!
Conserve!
P.S:
Thank you for leaving your thoughts on my previous posts.
The first law of thermodynamics encompasses several principles, one being that energy can be neither created nor destroyed. However, according to the Law energy can change forms, and energy can flow from one place to another, but still, the total energy of an isolated system remains the same.
It's very important that now, maybe more than ever, that we conserve energy. Please have a lovely weekend.
You can read more about this pair of American Bald Eagles at Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey www.conservewildlifenj.org/blog/2017/11/20/w34-a-ny-bande...
SPOTLIGHT ON THE BALD EAGLE’S ALL-AMERICAN COMEBACK IN NEW JERSEY
by Lindsay McNamara, Communications Manager
June 20th 2016
In 1985 — just 31 years ago — a single bald eagle nest remained in the state of New Jersey. In 2015, CWF and partners monitored 161 nests throughout the Garden State. Just this year (as of June 20, 2016), over 50 young eagles have already fledged from their nests! What sparked this All-American comeback of the United States’ National Bird?
DDT use was banned in the United States in 1972. That ban combined with restoration efforts by biologists within the NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife’s Endangered and Nongame Species Program (ENSP) resulted in 25 bald eagle pairs by 2000.
In 2017 the number of New Jersey active bald eagle pairs was 170.
For more info: www.conservewildlifenj.org/blog/tag/new-jersey-bald-eagle...
New Jersey Bald Eagle Project Report | 2016
New Jersey Bald Eagle Project Report | 2016 may be downloaded here: docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYX...
For more info: www.conservewildlifenj.org/blog/tag/new-jersey-bald-eagle...
Hortus Bulborum is a Dutch foundation that conserves historic cultivars of spring flowering bulb- and tuber crops. The collection comprises some 2500 different cultivars, of which 2000 are tulips.
L'original de ce tableau est conservé à la Alte Pinakothek de Munich.
You should know that it is not the original works that are exhibited at the Jheronimus Bosch Art Center but high quality photos in the original size of the work framed optimally. You can manipulate the triptychs.
In 2016, there was a big exhibition that had a lot of success with the original works at the Noordbrabants museum which adjoins the Stedelijk museum, but you could hardly get close and the cameras were forbidden.
The original of this painting is kept in Alte Pinakothek in Munich.
Il faut savoir que ce ne sont pas les oeuvres originales qui sont exposées au Jheronimus Bosch Art Center mais bien des photos de grande qualité au format original de l'oeuvre encadrées de façon optimale. Vous pouvez manipuler les triptyques.
En 2016, il y a eu une grande exposition qui a eu énormément de succès avec les oeuvres originales au Noordbrabants museum qui jouxte le Stedelijk museum, mais vous pouviez à peine approcher et les appareils photos étaient interdits.
Parmi une série de cinq maisons dessinées par le même architecte, Raphaël Lambin, se détache celle-ci, plus soignée et mieux conservée que les autres. Située au n° 21 de l'avenue du Avenue du Castel à Woluwe-Saint-Lambert (Bruxelles) et construite en 1932, elle se démarque par son beau porche d’entrée encadré d’un décor géométrique très élaboré en mosaïques. La porte d’entrée garnie de vitraux en pâte de verre a heureusement conservé son aspect d’origine. Toute la façade aux proportions un peu surprenantes est très dessinée, les fenêtres assez petites, le balcon arrondi, le travail des briques alternant verticalités et horizontalités, tout contribuant à donner à cette façade une belle personnalité, même les murets d’enceinte et leurs ferronneries étant d’époque (cf. www.admirable-facades.brussels et merci pour la photo).
Borgund Stave Church (Norwegian: Borgund stavkyrkje) is a former parish church of the Church of Norway in Lærdal Municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It was built around the year 1200 as the village church of Borgund, and belonged to Lærdal parish (part of the Sogn prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Bjørgvin) until 1868, when its religious functions were transferred to a "new" Borgund Church, which was built nearby. The old church was restored, conserved and turned into a museum. It is funded and run by the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Norwegian Monuments, and is classified as a triple-nave stave church of the Sogn-type. Its grounds contain Norway's sole surviving stave-built free-standing bell tower.
Borgund Stave Church was built sometime between 1180 and 1250 AD with later additions and restorations. Its walls are formed by vertical wooden boards, or staves, hence the name "stave church." The four corner posts are connected to one another by ground sills, resting on a stone foundation. The intervening staves rise from the ground sills; each is tongued and grooved, to interlock with its neighbours and form a sturdy wall. The exterior timber surfaces are darkened by protective layers of tar, distilled from pine.
Borgund is built on a basilica plan, with reduced side aisles, and an added chancel and apse. It has a raised central nave demarcated on four sides by an arcade. An ambulatory runs around this platform and into the chancel and apse, both added in the 14th century. An additional ambulatory, in the form of a porch, runs around the exterior of the building, sheltered under the overhanging shingled roof. The floor plan of this church resembles that of a central plan, double-shelled Greek cross with an apse attached to one end in place of the fourth arm. The entries to the church are in the three shorter arms of the cross.
Structurally, the building has been described as a "cube within a cube", each independent of the other. The inner "cube" is formed by continuous columns that rise from ground level to support the roof. The top of the arcade is formed by arched buttresses, knee jointed to the columns. Above the arcade, the columns are linked by cross-shaped, diagonal trusses, commonly dubbed "Saint Andrew's crosses"; these carry arched supports that offer the visual equivalent of a "second storey". While not a functional gallery, this is reminiscent of contemporary second story galleries of large stone churches elsewhere in Europe. Smaller beams running between these upper supporting columns help clamp everything firmly together. The weight of the roof is thus supported by buttresses and columns, preventing downward and outward movement of the stave walls.
The roof beams are supported by steeply angled scissor trusses that form an "X" shape with a narrow top span and a broader bottom span, tied by a bottom truss to prevent collapse. Additional support is given by a truss that cuts across the "X", below the crossing point but above the bottom truss. The roof is steeply pitched, boarded horizontally and clad with shingles. The original outer roof would have been weatherproofed with boards laid lengthwise, rather than shingles. In later years wooden shingles became more common. Scissor beam roof construction is typical of most stave churches.
Borgund has tiered, overhanging roofs, topped at their intersection by a shingle-roofed tower or steeple. On each of its four gables is a stylised "dragon" head, swooping from the carved roof ridge crests, Hohler remarks their similarity to the carved dragon heads found on the prows of Norse ships. Similar gable heads appear on small bronze church-shaped reliquaries common in Norway and Europe in this period. Borgund's current dragon heads are possible 18th century replacements; similar, original dragon heads remain on older structures, such as Lom Stave Church and nearby Urnes Stave Church. Borgund is one of the only stave churches to have preserved its crested ridge caps. They are carved with openwork vine and entangled plant designs.
The four outer dragon heads are perhaps the most distinctive of all non-Christian symbols adorning Borgund Stave Church. Their function is uncertain, and disputed; if pagan, they are recruited to the Christian cause in the battle between Good and Evil. They may have been intended to keep away evil spirits thought to threaten the church building; to ward off evil, rather than represent it,
On the lower side panel of the steeple are four carved circular cutouts. The carvings are weather-beaten, tarred and difficult to decipher, and there is disagreement about what they symbolize. Some[who?] believe they represent the four evangelists, symbolised by an eagle, an ox, a lion and a man. Hauglid describes the carvings as "dragons that extend their heads over to the neighboring field's dragon and bite into it", and points out their similarity to carvings at Høre Stave Church.
The church's west portal (the nave's main entrance), is surrounded by a larger carving of dragons biting each other in the neck and tail. At the bottom of the half-columns that flank the front entrance, two dragon heads spew vine stalks that wind upwards and are braided into the dragons above. The carving shares similarities with the west portal of Ål Stave Church, which also has kites[clarification needed] in a band braiding pattern, and follows the usual composition[clarification needed] in the Sogn-Valdres portals, a larger group of portals with very clear similarities. Bugge writes that Christian authority may have come to terms with such pagan and "wild scenes" in the church building because the rift could be interpreted as a struggle between good and evil; in Christian medieval art, the dragon was often used as a symbol of the devil himself but Bugge believes that the carvings were protective, like the dragon heads on the church roof.
The church interior is dark, as not much daylight enters the building. Some of the few sources of natural light are narrow circular windows along the roof, examples of daylighting. It was supposed that the narrow apertures would prevent the entry of evil spirits. Three entrances are heavily adorned with foliage and snakes, and are only wide enough for one person to enter, supposedly preventing the entry of evil spirits alongside the churchgoers. The portals were originally painted green, red, black, and white.
Most of the internal fittings have been removed. There is little in the building, apart from the row of benches that are installed along the wall inside the church in the ambulatory outside of the arcade and raised platform, a soapstone font, an altar (with 17th-century altarpiece), a 16th-century lectern, and a 16th-century cupboard for storing altar vessels. After the Reformation, when the church was converted for Protestant worship, pews, a pulpit and other standard church furnishings were included, however these have been removed since the building has come under the protection of the Fortidsminneforeningen (The Society for the Preservation of Norwegian Ancient Monuments).
The interior structure of the church is characterized by the twelve free-standing columns that support the nave's elevated central space. On the long side of the church there is a double interval between the second and third pillars, but with a half pillar resting on the lower bracing beam (the pier) which runs in between. The double interval provides free access from the south portal to the church's central compartment, which would otherwise have been obstructed by the middle bar. The tops of the poles are finished with grotesque, carved human and animal masks. The tie-bars are secured with braces in the form of St. Andrew's crosses with a sun - shaped center and carved leaf shapes along the arms. The crosses reappear in less ornate form as braces along the church walls. On the north and south sides of the nave, a total of eight windows let in small amounts of light, and at the top of the nave's west gable is a window of more recent date - probably from pre-Reformation times. On the south wall of the nave, the inauguration crosses are still on the inside of the wall. The interior choir walls and west portal have engraved figures and runes, some of which date to the Middle Ages. One, among the commonest of runic graffiti, reads "Ave Maria". An inscription by Þórir (Thor), written "in the evening at St. Olav's Mass" blames the pagan Norns for his problems; perhaps a residue of ancient beliefs, as these female beings were thought to rule the personal destinies of all in Norse mythology and the Poetic Edda.
The medieval interior of the stave church is almost untouched, save for its restorations and repairs, though the medieval crucifix was removed after the Reformation. The original wooden floor and the benches that run along the walls of the nave are largely intact, together with a medieval stone altar and a box-shaped baptismal font in soapstone. The pulpit is from the period 1550–1570 and the altarpiece dates from 1654, while the frame around the tablet is dated to 1620. The painting on the altarpiece shows the crucifixion in the centre, flanked by the Virgin Mary on the left and John the Baptist on the right. In the tympanum field, a white dove hovers on a blue background. Below the painting is an inscription with golden letters on a black background. A sacrament from the period 1550–1570 in the same style as the pulpit is also preserved. A restoration of the building was carried out in the early 1870s, led by the architect Christian Christie, who removed benches, a second-floor gallery with seating, a ceiling over the chancel, and various windows including two large windows on the north and south sides. As the goal was to return the church to pre-Reformation condition, all post-Reformation interior paintwork was also removed.
Images from the 1990s show deer antlers hung on the lower, east-facing pillars. A local story claims that this is all that remains of a whole stuffed reindeer, shot when it tried to enter during a Mass. A travelogue from 1668 claims that a reindeer was shot during a sermon "when it marched like a wizard in front of the other animal carcasses"
To the south of the church is a free-standing stave-work bell tower that covers remnants of the mediaeval foundry used to cast the church bell. It was probably built in the mid-13th century. It is Norway's only remaining free-standing stave-work bell tower.It was given a new door around the year 1700 but this was removed and not replaced at some time between the 1920s and 1940s, leaving the foundry pit was exposed. To preserve the interior, new walls were built as cladding on the outside of the stave walls in the 1990s. One of the medieval bells is on display in the new Borgund church.
Management
In 1868 the building was abandoned as a church but was turned into a museum; this saved it from the commonplace demolition of stave churches in that period. A new Borgund Church was built in 1868 a short distance south of the old church. The old church has not been formally used for religious purposes since that year. Borgund Stave Church was bought by the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Norwegian Monuments in 1877. The first guidebook in English for the stave church was published in 1898. From 2001, the Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage has funded a program to research, restore, conserve and maintain stave churches.
Legacy
The church served as an example for the reconstruction of the Fantoft Stave Church in Fana, Bergen, in 1883 and for its rebuilding in 1997. The Gustav Adolf Stave Church in Hahnenklee, Germany, built in 1908, is modeled on the Borgund church. Four replicas exist in the United States, one at Chapel in the Hills, Rapid City, South Dakota, another in Lyme, Connecticut, the third on Washington Island, Wisconsin, and the fourth in Minot, North Dakota at the Scandinavian Heritage Park.
Borgund is a former municipality in Sogn og Fjordane county, Norway. It was located in the southeastern part of the traditional district of Sogn. The 635-square-kilometre (245 sq mi) municipality existed from 1864 until its dissolution in 1964. It encompassed an area in the eastern part of the present-day Lærdal Municipality. The administrative center of Borgund was the village of Steinklepp, just northeast of the village of Borgund. Steinklepp was the site of a store, a bank, and a school. The historical Filefjell Kongevegen road passes through the Borgund area.
Location
The former municipality of Borgund was situated near the southeastern end of the Sognefjorden, along the Lærdalselvi river. The lower parts of the municipality were farms such as Sjurhaugen and Nedrehegg. They were at an elevation of about 270 m (890 ft) above sea level. Høgeloft, on the border with the neighboring municipality of Hemsedal, is a mountain in the Filefjell range and it was the highest point in Borgund at 1,920 m (6,300 ft) above sea level. The lakes Eldrevatnet, Juklevatnet, and Øljusjøen were also located near the border with Hemsedal.
History
Borgund was established as a municipality in 1864 when it was separated from the municipality of Lærdal. Initially it had a population of 963. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, the municipality of Borgund (population: 492) was merged with the Muggeteigen area (population: 11) of the neighboring Årdal Municipality and all of Lærdal Municipality (population: 1,755) were all merged to form a new, larger municipality of Lærdal
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway , is a Nordic , European country and an independent state in the west of the Scandinavian Peninsula . Geographically speaking, the country is long and narrow, and on the elongated coast towards the North Atlantic are Norway's well-known fjords . The Kingdom of Norway includes the main country (the mainland with adjacent islands within the baseline ), Jan Mayen and Svalbard . With these two Arctic areas, Norway covers a land area of 385,000 km² and has a population of approximately 5.5 million (2023). Mainland Norway borders Sweden in the east , Finland and Russia in the northeast .
Norway is a parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy , where Harald V has been king and head of state since 1991 , and Jonas Gahr Støre ( Ap ) has been prime minister since 2021 . Norway is a unitary state , with two administrative levels below the state: counties and municipalities . The Sami part of the population has, through the Sami Parliament and the Finnmark Act , to a certain extent self-government and influence over traditionally Sami areas. Although Norway has rejected membership of the European Union through two referendums , through the EEA Agreement Norway has close ties with the Union, and through NATO with the United States . Norway is a significant contributor to the United Nations (UN), and has participated with soldiers in several foreign operations mandated by the UN. Norway is among the states that have participated from the founding of the UN , NATO , the Council of Europe , the OSCE and the Nordic Council , and in addition to these is a member of the EEA , the World Trade Organization , the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and is part of the Schengen area .
Norway is rich in many natural resources such as oil , gas , minerals , timber , seafood , fresh water and hydropower . Since the beginning of the 20th century, these natural conditions have given the country the opportunity for an increase in wealth that few other countries can now enjoy, and Norwegians have the second highest average income in the world, measured in GDP per capita, as of 2022. The petroleum industry accounts for around 14% of Norway's gross domestic product as of 2018. Norway is the world's largest producer of oil and gas per capita outside the Middle East. However, the number of employees linked to this industry fell from approx. 232,000 in 2013 to 207,000 in 2015.
In Norway, these natural resources have been managed for socially beneficial purposes. The country maintains a welfare model in line with the other Nordic countries. Important service areas such as health and higher education are state-funded, and the country has an extensive welfare system for its citizens. Public expenditure in 2018 is approx. 50% of GDP, and the majority of these expenses are related to education, healthcare, social security and welfare. Since 2001 and until 2021, when the country took second place, the UN has ranked Norway as the world's best country to live in . From 2010, Norway is also ranked at the top of the EIU's democracy index . Norway ranks third on the UN's World Happiness Report for the years 2016–2018, behind Finland and Denmark , a report published in March 2019.
The majority of the population is Nordic. In the last couple of years, immigration has accounted for more than half of population growth. The five largest minority groups are Norwegian-Poles , Lithuanians , Norwegian-Swedes , Norwegian-Syrians including Syrian Kurds and Norwegian-Pakistani .
Norway's national day is 17 May, on this day in 1814 the Norwegian Constitution was dated and signed by the presidency of the National Assembly at Eidsvoll . It is stipulated in the law of 26 April 1947 that 17 May are national public holidays. The Sami national day is 6 February. "Yes, we love this country" is Norway's national anthem, the song was written in 1859 by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson (1832–1910).
Norway's history of human settlement goes back at least 10,000 years, to the Late Paleolithic , the first period of the Stone Age . Archaeological finds of settlements along the entire Norwegian coast have so far been dated back to 10,400 before present (BP), the oldest find is today considered to be a settlement at Pauler in Brunlanes , Vestfold .
For a period these settlements were considered to be the remains of settlers from Doggerland , an area which today lies beneath the North Sea , but which was once a land bridge connecting today's British Isles with Danish Jutland . But the archaeologists who study the initial phase of the settlement in what is today Norway reckon that the first people who came here followed the coast along what is today Bohuslân. That they arrived in some form of boat is absolutely certain, and there is much evidence that they could easily move over large distances.
Since the last Ice Age, there has been continuous settlement in Norway. It cannot be ruled out that people lived in Norway during the interglacial period , but no trace of such a population or settlement has been found.
The Stone Age lasted a long time; half of the time that our country has been populated. There are no written accounts of what life was like back then. The knowledge we have has been painstakingly collected through investigations of places where people have stayed and left behind objects that we can understand have been processed by human hands. This field of knowledge is called archaeology . The archaeologists interpret their findings and the history of the surrounding landscape. In our country, the uplift after the Ice Age is fundamental. The history of the settlements at Pauler is no more than fifteen years old.
The Fosna culture settled parts of Norway sometime between 10,000–8,000 BC. (see Stone Age in Norway ). The dating of rock carvings is set to Neolithic times (in Norway between 4000 BC to 1700 BC) and show activities typical of hunters and gatherers .
Agriculture with livestock and arable farming was introduced in the Neolithic. Swad farming where the farmers move when the field does not produce the expected yield.
More permanent and persistent farm settlements developed in the Bronze Age (1700 BC to 500 BC) and the Iron Age . The earliest runes have been found on an arrowhead dated to around 200 BC. Many more inscriptions are dated to around 800, and a number of petty kingdoms developed during these centuries. In prehistoric times, there were no fixed national borders in the Nordic countries and Norway did not exist as a state. The population in Norway probably fell to year 0.
Events in this time period, the centuries before the year 1000, are glimpsed in written sources. Although the sagas were written down in the 13th century, many hundreds of years later, they provide a glimpse into what was already a distant past. The story of the fimbul winter gives us a historical picture of something that happened and which in our time, with the help of dendrochronology , can be interpreted as a natural disaster in the year 536, created by a volcanic eruption in El Salvador .
In the period between 800 and 1066 there was a significant expansion and it is referred to as the Viking Age . During this period, Norwegians, as Swedes and Danes also did, traveled abroad in longships with sails as explorers, traders, settlers and as Vikings (raiders and pirates ). By the middle of the 11th century, the Norwegian kingship had been firmly established, building its right as descendants of Harald Hårfagre and then as heirs of Olav the Holy . The Norwegian kings, and their subjects, now professed Christianity . In the time around Håkon Håkonsson , in the time after the civil war , there was a small renaissance in Norway with extensive literary activity and diplomatic activity with Europe. The black dew came to Norway in 1349 and killed around half of the population. The entire state apparatus and Norway then entered a period of decline.
Between 1396 and 1536, Norway was part of the Kalmar Union , and from 1536 until 1814 Norway had been reduced to a tributary part of Denmark , named as the Personal Union of Denmark-Norway . This staff union entered into an alliance with Napoléon Bonaparte with a war that brought bad times and famine in 1812 . In 1814, Denmark-Norway lost the Anglophone Wars , part of the Napoleonic Wars , and the Danish king was forced to cede Norway to the king of Sweden in the Treaty of Kiel on 14 January of that year. After a Norwegian attempt at independence, Norway was forced into a loose union with Sweden, but where Norway was allowed to create its own constitution, the Constitution of 1814 . In this period, Norwegian, romantic national feeling flourished, and the Norwegians tried to develop and establish their own national self-worth. The union with Sweden was broken in 1905 after it had been threatened with war, and Norway became an independent kingdom with its own monarch, Haakon VII .
Norway remained neutral during the First World War , and at the outbreak of the Second World War, Norway again declared itself neutral, but was invaded by National Socialist Germany on 9 April 1940 .
Norway became a member of the Western defense alliance NATO in 1949 . Two attempts to join the EU were voted down in referendums by small margins in 1972 and 1994 . Norway has been a close ally of the United States in the post-war period. Large discoveries of oil and natural gas in the North Sea at the end of the 1960s led to tremendous economic growth in the country, which is still ongoing. Traditional industries such as fishing are also part of Norway's economy.
Stone Age (before 1700 BC)
When most of the ice disappeared, vegetation spread over the landscape and due to a warm climate around 2000-3000 BC. the forest grew much taller than in modern times. Land uplift after the ice age led to a number of fjords becoming lakes and dry land. The first people probably came from the south along the coast of the Kattegat and overland into Finnmark from the east. The first people probably lived by gathering, hunting and trapping. A good number of Stone Age settlements have been found which show that such hunting and trapping people stayed for a long time in the same place or returned to the same place regularly. Large amounts of gnawed bones show that they lived on, among other things, reindeer, elk, small game and fish.
Flintstone was imported from Denmark and apart from small natural deposits along the southern coast, all flintstone in Norway is transported by people. At Espevær, greenstone was quarried for tools in the Stone Age, and greenstone tools from Espevær have been found over large parts of Western Norway. Around 2000-3000 BC the usual farm animals such as cows and sheep were introduced to Norway. Livestock probably meant a fundamental change in society in that part of the people had to be permanent residents or live a semi-nomadic life. Livestock farming may also have led to conflict with hunters.
The oldest traces of people in what is today Norway have been found at Pauler , a farm in Brunlanes in Larvik municipality in Vestfold . In 2007 and 2008, the farm has given its name to a number of Stone Age settlements that have been excavated and examined by archaeologists from the Cultural History Museum at UiO. The investigations have been carried out in connection with the new route for the E18 motorway west of Farris. The oldest settlement, located more than 127 m above sea level, is dated to be about 10,400 years old (uncalibrated, more than 11,000 years in real calendar years). From here, the ice sheet was perhaps visible when people settled here. This locality has been named Pauler I, and is today considered to be the oldest confirmed human traces in Norway to date. The place is in the mountains above the Pauler tunnel on the E18 between Larvik and Porsgrunn . The pioneer settlement is a term archaeologists have adopted for the oldest settlement. The archaeologists have speculated about where they came from, the first people in what is today Norway. It has been suggested that they could come by boat or perhaps across the ice from Doggerland or the North Sea, but there is now a large consensus that they came north along what is today the Bohuslän coast. The Fosna culture , the Komsa culture and the Nøstvet culture are the traditional terms for hunting cultures from the Stone Age. One thing is certain - getting to the water was something they mastered, the first people in our country. Therefore, within a short time they were able to use our entire long coast.
In the New Stone Age (4000 BC–1700 BC) there is a theory that a new people immigrated to the country, the so-called Stone Ax People . Rock carvings from this period show motifs from hunting and fishing , which were still important industries. From this period, a megalithic tomb has been found in Østfold .
It is uncertain whether there were organized societies or state-like associations in the Stone Age in Norway. Findings from settlements indicate that many lived together and that this was probably more than one family so that it was a slightly larger, organized herd.
Finnmark
In prehistoric times, animal husbandry and agriculture were of little economic importance in Finnmark. Livelihoods in Finnmark were mainly based on fish, gathering, hunting and trapping, and eventually domestic reindeer herding became widespread in the Middle Ages. Archaeological finds from the Stone Age have been referred to as the Komsa culture and comprise around 5,000 years of settlement. Finnmark probably got its first settlement around 8000 BC. It is believed that the coastal areas became ice-free 11,000 years BC and the fjord areas around 9,000 years BC. after which willows, grass, heather, birch and pine came into being. Finnmarksvidda was covered by pine forest around 6000 BC. After the Ice Age, the land rose around 80 meters in the inner fjord areas (Alta, Tana, Varanger). Due to ice melting in the polar region, the sea rose in the period 6400–3800 BC. and in areas with little land elevation, some settlements from the first part of the Stone Age were flooded. On Sørøya, the net sea level rise was 12 to 14 meters and many residential areas were flooded.
According to Bjørnar Olsen , there are many indications of a connection between the oldest settlement in Western Norway (the " Fosnakulturen ") and that in Finnmark, but it is uncertain in which direction the settlement took place. In the earliest part of the Stone Age, settlement in Finnmark was probably concentrated in the coastal areas, and these only reflected a lifestyle with great mobility and no permanent dwellings. The inner regions, such as Pasvik, were probably used seasonally. The archaeologically proven settlements from the Stone Age in inner Finnmark and Troms are linked to lakes and large watercourses. The oldest petroglyphs in Alta are usually dated to 4200 BC, that is, the Neolithic . Bjørnar Olsen believes that the oldest can be up to 2,000 years older than this.
From around 4000 BC a slow deforestation of Finnmark began and around 1800 BC the vegetation distribution was roughly the same as in modern times. The change in vegetation may have increased the distance between the reindeer's summer and winter grazing. The uplift continued slowly from around 4000 BC. at the same time as sea level rise stopped.
According to Gutorm Gjessing, the settlement in Finnmark and large parts of northern Norway in the Neolithic was semi-nomadic with movement between four seasonal settlements (following the pattern of life in Sami siida in historical times): On the outer coast in summer (fishing and seal catching) and inland in winter (hunting for reindeer, elk and bear). Povl Simonsen believed instead that the winter residence was in the inner fjord area in a village-like sod house settlement. Bjørnar Olsen believes that at the end of the Stone Age there was a relatively settled population along the coast, while inland there was less settlement and a more mobile lifestyle.
Bronze Age (1700 BC–500 BC)
Bronze was used for tools in Norway from around 1500 BC. Bronze is a mixture of tin and copper , and these metals were introduced because they were not mined in the country at the time. Bronze is believed to have been a relatively expensive material. The Bronze Age in Norway can be divided into two phases:
Early Bronze Age (1700–1100 BC)
Younger Bronze Age (1100–500 BC)
For the prehistoric (unwritten) era, there is limited knowledge about social conditions and possible state formations. From the Bronze Age, there are large burial mounds of stone piles along the coast of Vestfold and Agder, among others. It is likely that only chieftains or other great men could erect such grave monuments and there was probably some form of organized society linked to these. In the Bronze Age, society was more organized and stratified than in the Stone Age. Then a rich class of chieftains emerged who had close connections with southern Scandinavia. The settlements became more permanent and people adopted horses and ard . They acquired bronze status symbols, lived in longhouses and people were buried in large burial mounds . Petroglyphs from the Bronze Age indicate that humans practiced solar cultivation.
Finnmark
In the last millennium BC the climate became cooler and the pine forest disappears from the coast; pine forests, for example, were only found in the innermost part of the Altafjord, while the outer coast was almost treeless. Around the year 0, the limit for birch forest was south of Kirkenes. Animals with forest habitats (elk, bear and beaver) disappeared and the reindeer probably established their annual migration routes sometime at that time. In the period 1800–900 BC there were significantly more settlements in and utilization of the hinterland was particularly noticeable on Finnmarksvidda. From around 1800 BC until year 0 there was a significant increase in contact between Finnmark and areas in the east including Karelia (where metals were produced including copper) and central and eastern Russia. The youngest petroglyphs in Alta show far more boats than the earlier phases and the boats are reminiscent of types depicted in petroglyphs in southern Scandinavia. It is unclear what influence southern Scandinavian societies had as far north as Alta before the year 0. Many of the cultural features that are considered typical Sami in modern times were created or consolidated in the last millennium BC, this applies, among other things, to the custom of burying in brick chambers in stone urns. The Mortensnes burial ground may have been used for 2000 years until around 1600 AD.
Iron Age (c. 500 BC–c. 1050 AD)
The Einangsteinen is one of the oldest Norwegian runestones; it is from the 4th century
Simultaneous production of Vikings
Around 500 years BC the researchers reckon that the Bronze Age will be replaced by the Iron Age as iron takes over as the most important material for weapons and tools. Bronze, wood and stone were still used. Iron was cheaper than bronze, easier to work than flint , and could be used for many purposes; iron probably became common property. Iron could, among other things, be used to make solid and sharp axes which made it much easier to fell trees. In the Iron Age, gold and silver were also used partly for decoration and partly as means of payment. It is unknown which language was used in Norway before our era. From around the year 0 until around the year 800, everyone in Scandinavia (except the Sami) spoke Old Norse , a North Germanic language. Subsequently, several different languages developed in this area that were only partially mutually intelligible. The Iron Age is divided into several periods:
Early Iron Age
Pre-Roman Iron Age (c. 500 BC–c. 0)
Roman Iron Age (c. 0–c. AD 400)
Migration period (approx. 400–600). In the migration period (approx. 400–600), new peoples came to Norway, and ruins of fortress buildings etc. are interpreted as signs that there has been talk of a violent invasion.
Younger Iron Age
Merovingian period (500–800)
The Viking Age (793–1066)
Norwegian Vikings go on plundering expeditions and trade voyages around the coastal countries of Western Europe . Large groups of Norwegians emigrate to the British Isles , Iceland and Greenland . Harald Hårfagre starts a unification process of Norway late in the 8th century , which was completed by Harald Hardråde in the 1060s . The country was Christianized under the kings Olav Tryggvason , fell in the battle of Svolder ( 1000 ) and Olav Haraldsson (the saint), fell in the battle of Stiklestad in 1030 .
Sources of prehistoric times
Shrinking glaciers in the high mountains, including in Jotunheimen and Breheimen , have from around the year 2000 uncovered objects from the Viking Age and earlier. These are objects of organic material that have been preserved by the ice and that elsewhere in nature are broken down in a few months. The finds are getting older as the melting makes the archaeologists go deeper into the ice. About half of all archaeological discoveries on glaciers in the world are made in Oppland . In 2013, a 3,400-year-old shoe and a robe from the year 300 were found. Finds at Lomseggen in Lom published in 2020 revealed, among other things, well-preserved horseshoes used on a mountain pass. Many hundreds of items include preserved clothing, knives, whisks, mittens, leather shoes, wooden chests and horse equipment. A piece of cloth dated to the year 1000 has preserved its original colour. In 2014, a wooden ski from around the year 700 was found in Reinheimen . The ski is 172 cm long and 14 cm wide, with preserved binding of leather and wicker.
Pytheas from Massalia is the oldest known account of what was probably the coast of Norway, perhaps somewhere on the coast of Møre. Pytheas visited Britannia around 325 BC. and traveled further north to a country by the "Ice Sea". Pytheas described the short summer night and the midnight sun farther north. He wrote, among other things, that people there made a drink from grain and honey. Caesar wrote in his work about the Gallic campaign about the Germanic tribe Haruders. Other Roman sources around the year 0 mention the land of the Cimbri (Jutland) and the Cimbri headlands ( Skagen ) and that the sources stated that Cimbri and Charyds lived in this area. Some of these peoples may have immigrated to Norway and there become known as hordes (as in Hordaland). Sources from the Mediterranean area referred to the islands of Scandia, Scandinavia and Thule ("the outermost of all islands"). The Roman historian Tacitus wrote around the year 100 a work about Germania and mentioned the people of Scandia, the Sviones. Ptolemy wrote around the year 150 that the Kharudes (Hordes) lived further north than all the Cimbri, in the north lived the Finnoi (Finns or Sami) and in the south the Gutai (Goths). The Nordic countries and Norway were outside the Roman Empire , which dominated Europe at the time. The Gothic-born historian Jordanes wrote in the 5th century about 13 tribes or people groups in Norway, including raumaricii (probably Romerike ), ragnaricii ( Ranrike ) and finni or skretefinni (skrid finner or ski finner, i.e. Sami) as well as a number of unclear groups. Prokopios wrote at the same time about Thule north of the land of the Danes and Slavs, Thule was ten times as big as Britannia and the largest of all the islands. In Thule, the sun was up 40 days straight in the summer. After the migration period , southern Europeans' accounts of northern Europe became fuller and more reliable.
Settlement in prehistoric times
Norway has around 50,000 farms with their own names. Farm names have persisted for a long time, over 1000 years, perhaps as much as 2000 years. The name researchers have arranged different types of farm names chronologically, which provides a basis for determining when the place was used by people or received a permanent settlement. Uncompounded landscape names such as Haug, Eid, Vik and Berg are believed to be the oldest. Archaeological traces indicate that some areas have been inhabited earlier than assumed from the farm name. Burial mounds also indicate permanent settlement. For example, the burial ground at Svartelva in Løten was used from around the year 0 to the year 1000 when Christianity took over. The first farmers probably used large areas for inland and outland, and new farms were probably established based on some "mother farms". Names such as By (or Bø) show that it is an old place of residence. From the older Iron Age, names with -heim (a common Germanic word meaning place of residence) and -stad tell of settlement, while -vin and -land tell of the use of the place. Farm names in -heim are often found as -um , -eim or -em as in Lerum and Seim, there are often large farms in the center of the village. New farm names with -city and -country were also established in the Viking Age . The first farmers probably used the best areas. The largest burial grounds, the oldest archaeological finds and the oldest farm names are found where the arable land is richest and most spacious.
It is unclear whether the settlement expansion in Roman times, migrations and the Iron Age is due to immigration or internal development and population growth. Among other things, it is difficult to demonstrate where in Europe the immigrants have come from. The permanent residents had both fields (where grain was grown) and livestock that grazed in the open fields, but it is uncertain which of these was more important. Population growth from around the year 200 led to more utilization of open land, for example in the form of settlements in the mountains. During the migration period, it also seems that in parts of the country it became common to have cluster gardens or a form of village settlement.
Norwegian expansion northwards
From around the year 200, there was a certain migration by sea from Rogaland and Hordaland to Nordland and Sør-Troms. Those who moved settled down as a settled Iron Age population and became dominant over the original population which may have been Sami . The immigrant Norwegians, Bumen , farmed with livestock that were fed inside in the winter as well as some grain cultivation and fishing. The northern border of the Norwegians' settlement was originally at the Toppsundet near Harstad and around the year 500 there was a Norwegian settlement to Malangsgapet. That was as far north as it was possible to grow grain at the time. Malangen was considered the border between Hålogaland and Finnmork until around 1400 . Further into the Viking Age and the Middle Ages, there was immigration and settlement of Norwegian speakers along the coast north of Malangen. Around the year 800, Norwegians lived along the entire outer coast to Vannøy . The Norwegians partly copied Sami livelihoods such as whaling, fur hunting and reindeer husbandry. It was probably this area between Malangen and Vannøy that was Ottar from the Hålogaland area. In the Viking Age, there were also some Norwegian settlements further north and east. East of the North Cape are the scattered archaeological finds of Norwegian settlement in the Viking Age. There are Norwegian names for fjords and islands from the Viking Age, including fjord names with "-anger". Around the year 1050, there were Norwegian settlements on the outer coast of Western Finnmark. Traders and tax collectors traveled even further.
North of Malangen there were Norse farming settlements in the Iron Age. Malangen was considered Finnmark's western border until 1300. There are some archaeological traces of Norse activity around the coast from Tromsø to Kirkenes in the Viking Age. Around Tromsø, the research indicates a Norse/Sami mixed culture on the coast.
From the year 1100 and the next 200–300 years, there are no traces of Norwegian settlement north and east of Tromsø. It is uncertain whether this is due to depopulation, whether it is because the Norwegians further north were not Christianized or because there were no churches north of Lenvik or Tromsø . Norwegian settlement in the far north appears from sources from the 14th century. In the Hanseatic period , the settlement was developed into large areas specialized in commercial fishing, while earlier (in the Viking Age) there had been farms with a combination of fishing and agriculture. In 1307 , a fortress and the first church east of Tromsø were built in Vardø . Vardø became a small Norwegian town, while Vadsø remained Sami. Norwegian settlements and churches appeared along the outermost coast in the Middle Ages. After the Reformation, perhaps as a result of a decline in fish stocks or fish prices, there were Norwegian settlements in the inner fjord areas such as Lebesby in Laksefjord. Some fishing villages at the far end of the coast were abandoned for good. In the interior of Finnmark, there was no national border for a long time and Kautokeino and Karasjok were joint Norwegian-Swedish areas with strong Swedish influence. The border with Finland was established in 1751 and with Russia in 1826.
On a Swedish map from 1626, Norway's border is indicated at Malangen, while Sweden with this map showed a desire to control the Sami area which had been a common area.
The term Northern Norway only came into use at the end of the 19th century and administratively the area was referred to as Tromsø Diocese when Tromsø became a bishopric in 1840. There had been different designations previously: Hålogaland originally included only Helgeland and when Norse settlement spread north in the Viking Age and the Middle Ages, Hålogaland was used for the area north approximately to Malangen , while Finnmark or "Finnmarken", "the land of the Sami", lay outside. The term Northern Norway was coined at a cafe table in Kristiania in 1884 by members of the Nordlændingernes Forening and was first commonly used in the interwar period as it eventually supplanted "Hålogaland".
State formation
The battle in Hafrsfjord in the year 872 has long been regarded as the day when Norway became a kingdom. The year of the battle is uncertain (may have been 10-20 years later). The whole of Norway was not united in that battle: the process had begun earlier and continued a couple of hundred years later. This means that the geographical area became subject to a political authority and became a political unit. The geographical area was perceived as an area as it is known, among other things, from Ottar from Hålogaland's account for King Alfred of Wessex around the year 880. Ottar described "the land of the Norwegians" as very long and narrow, and it was narrowest in the far north. East of the wasteland in the south lay Sveoland and in the north lay Kvenaland in the east. When Ottar sailed south along the land from his home ( Malangen ) to Skiringssal, he always had Norway ("Nordveg") on his port side and the British Isles on his starboard side. The journey took a good month. Ottar perceived "Nordveg" as a geographical unit, but did not imply that it was a political unit. Ottar separated Norwegians from Swedes and Danes. It is unclear why Ottar perceived the population spread over such a large area as a whole. It is unclear whether Norway as a geographical term or Norwegians as the name of a ethnic group is the oldest. The Norwegians had a common language which in the centuries before Ottar did not differ much from the language of Denmark and Sweden.
According to Sverre Steen, it is unlikely that Harald Hårfagre was able to control this entire area as one kingdom. The saga of Harald was written 300 years later and at his death Norway was several smaller kingdoms. Harald probably controlled a larger area than anyone before him and at most Harald's kingdom probably included the coast from Trøndelag to Agder and Vestfold as well as parts of Viken . There were probably several smaller kingdoms of varying extent before Harald and some of these are reflected in traditional landscape names such as Ranrike and Ringerike . Landscape names of "-land" (Rogaland) and "-mark" (Hedmark) as well as names such as Agder and Sogn may have been political units before Harald.
According to Sverre Steen, the national assembly was completed at the earliest at the battle of Stiklestad in 1030 and the introduction of Christianity was probably a significant factor in the establishment of Norway as a state. Håkon I the good Adalsteinsfostre introduced the leasehold system where the "coastal land" (as far as the salmon went up the rivers) was divided into ship raiders who were to provide a longship with soldiers and supplies. The leidange was probably introduced as a defense against the Danes. The border with the Danes was traditionally at the Göta älv and several times before and after Harald Hårfagre the Danes had control over central parts of Norway.
Christianity was known and existed in Norway before Olav Haraldson's time. The spread occurred both from the south (today's Denmark and northern Germany) and from the west (England and Ireland). Ansgar of Bremen , called the "Apostle of the North", worked in Sweden, but he was never in Norway and probably had little influence in the country. Viking expeditions brought the Norwegians of that time into contact with Christian countries and some were baptized in England, Ireland and northern France. Olav Tryggvason and Olav Haraldson were Vikings who returned home. The first Christians in Norway were also linked to pre-Christian local religion, among other things, by mixing Christian symbols with symbols of Odin and other figures from Norse religion.
According to Sverre Steen, the introduction of Christianity in Norway should not be perceived as a nationwide revival. At Mostratinget, Christian law was introduced as law in the country and later incorporated into the laws of the individual jurisdictions. Christianity primarily involved new forms in social life, among other things exposure and images of gods were prohibited, it was forbidden to "put out" unwanted infants (to let them die), and it was forbidden to have multiple wives. The church became a nationwide institution with a special group of officials tasked with protecting the church and consolidating the new religion. According to Sverre Steen, Christianity and the church in the Middle Ages should therefore be considered together, and these became a new unifying factor in the country. The church and Christianity linked Norway to Roman Catholic Europe with Church Latin as the common language, the same time reckoning as the rest of Europe and the church in Norway was arranged much like the churches in Denmark, Sweden and England. Norway received papal approval in 1070 and became its own church province in 1152 with Archbishop Nidaros .
With Christianity, the country got three social powers: the peasants (organized through the things), the king with his officials and the church with the clergy. The things are the oldest institution: At allthings all armed men had the right to attend (in part an obligation to attend) and at lagthings met emissaries from an area (that is, the lagthings were representative assemblies). The Thing both ruled in conflicts and established laws. The laws were memorized by the participants and written down around the year 1000 or later in the Gulationsloven , Frostatingsloven , Eidsivatingsloven and Borgartingsloven . The person who had been successful at the hearing had to see to the implementation of the judgment themselves.
Early Middle Ages (1050s–1184)
The early Middle Ages is considered in Norwegian history to be the period between the end of the Viking Age around 1050 and the coronation of King Sverre in 1184 . The beginning of the period can be dated differently, from around the year 1000 when the Christianization of the country took place and up to 1100 when the Viking Age was over from an archaeological point of view. From 1035 to 1130 it was a time of (relative) internal peace in Norway, even several of the kings attempted campaigns abroad, including in 1066 and 1103 .
During this period, the church's organization was built up. This led to a gradual change in religious customs. Religion went from being a domestic matter to being regulated by common European Christian law and the royal power gained increased power and influence. Slavery (" servitude ") was gradually abolished. The population grew rapidly during this period, as the thousands of farm names ending in -rud show.
The urbanization of Norway is a historical process that has slowly but surely changed Norway from the early Viking Age to today, from a country based on agriculture and sea salvage, to increasingly trade and industry. As early as the ninth century, the country got its first urban community, and in the eleventh century we got the first permanent cities.
In the 1130s, civil war broke out . This was due to a power struggle and that anyone who claimed to be the king's son could claim the right to the throne. The disputes escalated into extensive year-round warfare when Sverre Sigurdsson started a rebellion against the church's and the landmen's candidate for the throne , Magnus Erlingsson .
Emergence of cities
The oldest Norwegian cities probably emerged from the end of the 9th century. Oslo, Bergen and Nidaros became episcopal seats, which stimulated urban development there, and the king built churches in Borg , Konghelle and Tønsberg. Hamar and Stavanger became new episcopal seats and are referred to in the late 12th century as towns together with the trading places Veøy in Romsdal and Kaupanger in Sogn. In the late Middle Ages, Borgund (on Sunnmøre), Veøy (in Romsdalsfjorden) and Vågan (in Lofoten) were referred to as small trading places. Urbanization in Norway occurred in few places compared to the neighboring countries, only 14 places appear as cities before 1350. Stavanger became a bishopric around 1120–1130, but it is unclear whether the place was already a city then. The fertile Jæren and outer Ryfylke were probably relatively densely populated at that time. A particularly large concentration of Irish artefacts from the Viking Age has been found in Stavanger and Nord-Jæren.
It has been difficult to estimate the population in the Norwegian medieval cities, but it is considered certain that the cities grew rapidly in the Middle Ages. Oscar Albert Johnsen estimated the city's population before the Black Death at 20,000, of which 7,000 in Bergen, 3,000 in Nidaros, 2,000 in Oslo and 1,500 in Tunsberg. Based on archaeological research, Lunden estimates that Oslo had around 1,500 inhabitants in 250 households in the year 1300. Bergen was built up more densely and, with the concentration of exports there, became Norway's largest city in a special position for several hundred years. Knut Helle suggests a city population of 20,000 at most in the High Middle Ages, of which almost half in Bergen.
The Bjarkøyretten regulated the conditions in cities (especially Bergen and Nidaros) and in trading places, and for Nidaros had many of the same provisions as the Frostating Act . Magnus Lagabøte's city law replaced the bjarkøretten and from 1276 regulated the settlement in Bergen and with corresponding laws also drawn up for Oslo, Nidaros and Tunsberg. The city law applied within the city's roof area . The City Act determined that the city's public streets consisted of wide commons (perpendicular to the shoreline) and ran parallel to the shoreline, similarly in Nidaros and Oslo. The roads were small streets of up to 3 cubits (1.4 metres) and linked to the individual property. From the Middle Ages, the Norwegian cities were usually surrounded by wooden fences. The urban development largely consisted of low wooden houses which stood in contrast to the relatively numerous and dominant churches and monasteries built in stone.
The City Act and supplementary provisions often determined where in the city different goods could be traded, in Bergen, for example, cattle and sheep could only be traded on the Square, and fish only on the Square or directly from the boats at the quayside. In Nidaros, the blacksmiths were required to stay away from the densely populated areas due to the risk of fire, while the tanners had to stay away from the settlements due to the strong smell. The City Act also attempted to regulate the influx of people into the city (among other things to prevent begging in the streets) and had provisions on fire protection. In Oslo, from the 13th century or earlier, it was common to have apartment buildings consisting of single buildings on a couple of floors around a courtyard with access from the street through a gate room. Oslo's medieval apartment buildings were home to one to four households. In the urban farms, livestock could be kept, including pigs and cows, while pastures and fields were found in the city's rooftops . In the apartment buildings there could be several outbuildings such as warehouses, barns and stables. Archaeological excavations show that much of the buildings in medieval Oslo, Trondheim and Tønsberg resembled the oblong farms that have been preserved at Bryggen in Bergen . The land boundaries in Oslo appear to have persisted for many hundreds of years, in Bergen right from the Middle Ages to modern times.
High Middle Ages (1184–1319)
After civil wars in the 12th century, the country had a relative heyday in the 13th century. Iceland and Greenland came under the royal authority in 1262 , and the Norwegian Empire reached its greatest extent under Håkon IV Håkonsson . The last king of Haraldsätten, Håkon V Magnusson , died sonless in 1319 . Until the 17th century, Norway stretched all the way down to the mouth of Göta älv , which was then Norway's border with Sweden and Denmark.
Just before the Black Death around 1350, there were between 65,000 and 85,000 farms in the country, and there had been a strong growth in the number of farms from 1050, especially in Eastern Norway. In the High Middle Ages, the church or ecclesiastical institutions controlled 40% of the land in Norway, while the aristocracy owned around 20% and the king owned 7%. The church and monasteries received land through gifts from the king and nobles, or through inheritance and gifts from ordinary farmers.
Settlement and demography in the Middle Ages
Before the Black Death, there were more and more farms in Norway due to farm division and clearing. The settlement spread to more marginal agricultural areas higher inland and further north. Eastern Norway had the largest areas to take off and had the most population growth towards the High Middle Ages. Along the coast north of Stad, settlement probably increased in line with the extent of fishing. The Icelandic Rimbegla tells around the year 1200 that the border between Finnmark (the land of the Sami) and resident Norwegians in the interior was at Malangen , while the border all the way out on the coast was at Kvaløya . From the end of the High Middle Ages, there were more Norwegians along the coast of Finnmark and Nord-Troms. In the inner forest and mountain tracts along the current border between Norway and Sweden, the Sami exploited the resources all the way down to Hedmark.
There are no censuses or other records of population and settlement in the Middle Ages. At the time of the Reformation, the population was below 200,000 and only in 1650 was the population at the same level as before the Black Death. When Christianity was introduced after the year 1000, the population was around 200,000. After the Black Death, many farms and settlements were abandoned and deserted, in the most marginal agricultural areas up to 80% of the farms were abandoned. Places such as Skien, Veøy and Borgund (Ålesund) went out of use as trading towns. By the year 1300, the population was somewhere between 300,000 and 560,000 depending on the calculation method. Common methods start from detailed information about farms in each village and compare this with the situation in 1660 when there are good headcounts. From 1300 to 1660, there was a change in the economic base so that the coastal villages received a larger share of the population. The inland areas of Eastern Norway had a relatively larger population in the High Middle Ages than after the Reformation. Kåre Lunden concludes that the population in the year 1300 was close to 500,000, of which 15,000 lived in cities. Lunden believes that the population in 1660 was still slightly lower than the peak before the Black Death and points out that farm settlement in 1660 did not reach the same extent as in the High Middle Ages. In 1660, the population in Troms and Finnmark was 6,000 and 3,000 respectively (2% of the total population), in 1300 these areas had an even smaller share of the country's population and in Finnmark there were hardly any Norwegian-speaking inhabitants. In the High Middle Ages, the climate was more favorable for grain cultivation in the north. Based on the number of farms, the population increased 162% from 1000 to 1300, in Northern and Western Europe as a whole the growth was 200% in the same period.
Late Middle Ages (1319–1537)
Due to repeated plague epidemics, the population was roughly halved and the least productive of the country's farms were laid waste. It took several hundred years before the population again reached the level before 1349 . However, those who survived the epidemics gained more financial resources by sharing. Tax revenues for the state almost collapsed, and a large part of the noble families died out or sank into peasant status due to the fall in national debt . The Hanseatic League took over trade and shipping and dominated fish exports. The Archbishop of Nidaros was the country's most powerful man economically and politically, as the royal dynasty married into the Swedish in 1319 and died out in 1387 . Eventually, Copenhagen became the political center of the kingdom and Bergen the commercial center, while Trondheim remained the religious center.
From Reformation to Autocracy (1537–1660)
In 1537 , the Reformation was carried out in Norway. With that, almost half of the country's property was confiscated by the royal power at the stroke of a pen. The large seizure increased the king's income and was able, among other things, to expand his military power and consolidated his power in the kingdom. From roughly the time of the Reformation and in the following centuries, the state increased its power and importance in people's lives. Until around 1620, the state administration was fairly simple and unspecialised: in Copenhagen, the central administration mainly consisted of a chancellery and an interest chamber ; and sheriffs ruled the civil (including bailiffs and sheriffs) and the military in their district, the sheriffs collected taxes and oversaw business. The accounts were not clear and without summaries. The clergy, which had great power as a separate organization, was appointed by the state church after the Reformation, administered from Copenhagen. In this period, Norway was ruled by (mainly) Danish noble sheriffs, who acted as intermediaries between the peasants and the Oldenborg king in the field of justice, tax and customs collection.
From 1620, the state apparatus went through major changes where specialization of functions was a main issue. The sheriff's tasks were divided between several, more specialized officials - the sheriffs retained the formal authority over these, who in practice were under the national administration in Copenhagen. Among other things, a separate military officer corps was established, a separate customs office was established and separate treasurers for taxes and fees were appointed. The Overbergamtet, the central governing body for overseeing mining operations in Norway, was established in 1654 with an office in Christiania and this agency was to oversee the mining chiefs in the Nordenfjeld and Sønnenfjeld areas (the mines at Kongsberg and Røros were established in the previous decades). The formal transition from county government to official government with fixed-paid county officials took place after 1660, but the real changes had taken place from around 1620. The increased specialization and transition to official government meant that experts, not amateurs, were in charge of each area, and this civil service meant, according to Sverre Steen that the dictatorship was not a personal dictatorship.
From 1570 until 1721, the Oldenborg dynasty was in repeated wars with the Vasa dynasty in Sweden. The financing of these wars led to a severe increase in taxation which caused great distress.
Politically-geographically, the Oldenborg kings had to cede to Sweden the Norwegian provinces of Jemtland , Herjedalen , Idre and Särna , as well as Båhuslen . As part of the financing of the wars, the state apparatus was expanded. Royal power began to assert itself to a greater extent in the administration of justice. Until this period, cases of violence and defamation had been treated as civil cases between citizens. The level of punishment was greatly increased. During this period, at least 307 people were also executed for witchcraft in Norway. Culturally, the country was marked by the fact that the written language became Danish because of the Bible translation and the University of Copenhagen's educational monopoly.
From the 16th century, business became more marked by production for sale and not just own consumption. In the past, it was particularly the fisheries that had produced such a large surplus of goods that it was sold to markets far away, the dried fish trade via Bergen is known from around the year 1100. In the 16th century, the yield from the fisheries multiplied, especially due to the introduction of herring in Western Norway and in Trøndelag and because new tools made fishing for herring and skre more efficient. Line fishing and cod nets that were introduced in the 17th century were controversial because the small fishermen believed it favored citizens in the cities.
Forestry and the timber trade became an important business, particularly because of the boom saw which made it possible to saw all kinds of tables and planks for sale abroad. The demand for timber increased at the same time in Europe, Norway had plenty of forests and in the 17th century timber became the country's most important export product. There were hundreds of sawmills in the country and the largest had the feel of factories . In 1680, the king regulated the timber trade by allowing exports only from privileged sawmills and in a certain quantity.
From the 1520s, some silver was mined in Telemark. When the peasants chased the German miners whereupon the king executed five peasants and demanded compensation from the other rebellious peasants. The background for the harsh treatment was that the king wanted to assert his authority over the extraction of precious metals. The search for metals led to the silver works at Kongsberg after 1624, copper in the mountain villages between Trøndelag and Eastern Norway, and iron, among other things, in Agder and lower Telemark. The financial gain of the quarries at that time is unclear because there are no reliable accounts. Kongsberg ma
Natural environment:
Moreton Bay Marine Park protects a vast array of marine habitats, plants and animals. Covering more than 3400km2 of open and sheltered waterways and dotted with islands, Moreton Bay Marine Park includes some of Australia's premier wetlands. Extensive mangroves and tidal flats support and shelter fish, birds and other wildlife. Sandflats provide roosting sites for migratory birds and seagrass beds nurture fish, shellfish, dugong and turtles.
Moreton Bay wetlands:
In 1971, in the Iranian city of Ramsar, representatives from 18 nations signed the Convention on Wetlands of International Significance (known as the Ramsar Convention) to stop global loss of wetlands, and to conserve and sustainably manage remaining wetlands. Moreton Bay is one of Australia's largest sites listed under the Ramsar Convention.
The wetlands of Moreton Bay are extremely varied and range from perched freshwater lakes and sedge swamps on the offshore islands, to intertidal mudflats, marshes, sandflats and mangroves adjoining the bay's islands and the mainland. This variety in habitats contributes to the bay's biological diversity. The high diversity is also due to the location and climate of the bay; it supports tropical, subtropical and temperate wildlife species.
There are 11 declared Fish Habitat Areas (FHAs) in Moreton Bay: Pumicestone Channel, Deception Bay, Kippa-Ring, Hay’s Inlet, Moreton Banks, Myora-Amity Banks, Peel Island, Jumpinpin-Broadwater, Pimpama, Coomera, Coombabah. Queensland’s first FHAs were declared in Moreton Bay in 1969. Declared FHAs protect important fish habitats like mangroves, seagrass, saltmarsh and mudflats from the impacts of coastal development, while still allowing legal fishing.
Seagrasses and mangroves:
The seagrass beds, mudflats and mangroves of Moreton Bay Marine Park provide food and habitat for a wide variety of marine life.
Seagrasses are flowering plants. Their closest relatives are lilies and orchids. Seagrasses need sunlight, clear water and nutrients—often obtained from nearby mangroves—to grow. The seagrasses between Russell Island and North Stradbroke Island and in southern Moreton Bay provide food and habitat for dugong, turtles, fish and crustaceans.
Mangroves provide a nursery for fish, prawns and crabs, which form the basis of an important commercial and recreational fishery. Mangrove communities act as stabilisers, helping to reduce excessive sediment flow and decreasing the threat of erosion caused by currents and stream flow. Seven species of mangroves are found in the marine park.
Dugong:
Dugong, also known as sea cows, can grow to about 3m long and weigh up to 400kg. Adult dugong feed predominantly on seagrass and can consume 30kg per day. As they feed, whole plants are uprooted and a tell-tale feeding trail is left. The female dugong takes up to 17 years to mature and then only produces one young every five years if the conditions are suitable. Dugong are listed as a vulnerable species under the Nature Conservation Act 1992.
Whales:
The humpback whale Megaptera novaeangliae is the fifth largest of the great whales. Adult females grow to 15m, slightly longer than males. A mature humpback can weigh 40t. Humpbacks are generally blackish with white underbellies and sides. They are listed as a vulnerable species under the Nature Conservation Act 1992.
Humpbacks mate and give birth in warmer waters. Each year the east Australian humpback whale population migrates 6000km, from their Antarctic feeding grounds, along the eastern coastline of Australia, to arrive in the lagoons of the Great Barrier Reef in about mid-June. From July, after calving, the humpbacks start to migrate south—back to the Antarctic waters. A proportion of the population stops over in Moreton Bay. Most humpbacks have left Queensland waters by early November.
Other species known to visit Moreton Bay Marine Park throughout the year include killer whales Orcinus orca, southern right whales Eubalaena australis, sperm whales Physeter macrocephalus, melon-headed whales Peponocephala electra and minke whales Balaenoptera acutorostrata.
Dolphins:
Moreton Bay Marine Park has two resident dolphin species, the bottlenose dolphin Tursiops truncatus and the Indo-Pacific hump-backed dolphin Sousa chinensis.
Bottlenose dolphins are the largest of the beaked dolphins and have a short, stout beak (sometimes described as bottle-shaped) marked with a crease where it meets the forehead. Their average size is about 3m and they feed on invertebrates, bottom-dwelling fish and squid, plus the full range of pelagic fish species. In bays they form small groups of about 15 individuals, while groups offshore may number in the hundreds. A single calf is born after a gestation period of about a year. Bottlenose dolphins have a life span of up to 45 years.
Indo-Pacific hump-backed dolphins are a coastal species found in tropical and subtropical waters. In Queensland they are found in Moreton Bay and its adjacent waters and in Tin Can Inlet, Great Sandy Strait. Body colour ranges from white to pinkish to grey, with some individuals being heavily spotted. They grow to a length of about 2.7m and the beak is long and cylindrical. Indo-Pacific hump-backed dolphins feed in shallow waters and have a varied diet of fish, molluscs and crustaceans. Indo-Pacific hump-backed dolphins are listed as rare under the Nature Conservation Act 1992.
Turtles:
The seagrass meadows of Moreton Bay Marine Park provide a vital feeding area for marine turtles. Species commonly seen in Moreton Bay include green turtles Chelonia mydas, loggerhead turtles Caretta caretta and hawksbill turtles Eretmochelys imbricatata. Leatherback turtles Dermochelys coriacea and flatback turtles Natator depressus are also irregular visitors.
Green turtles have an olive-green carapace (shell) and a relatively small head compared with the size of its body. Young green turtles are carnivorous, eating tiny marine animals, yet the adults are thought to be totally herbivorous, feeding on algae, seagrass and mangrove fruits. Females take 30 to 50 years to mature and only breed every two to eight years. Green turtles are listed as vulnerable under the Nature Conservation Act 1992.
Loggerhead turtles are listed as endangered under the Nature Conservation Act 1992. The carapace is dark brown, sometimes irregularly speckled with a darker brown. They occur in coral reefs, bays and estuaries in tropical and warm temperate waters off the coast of Queensland, Northern Territory, Western Australia and New South Wales. Loggerhead turtles are carnivorous, feeding mostly on shellfish, crabs, sea urchins and jellyfish.
Hawksbill turtles occur in tidal and sub-tidal coral and rocky reef habitats through tropical waters, extending into warm temperate areas as far south as northern New South Wales. The carapace is heart-shaped and olive-green to brown, richly variegated with reddish-brown, dark brown and black. Hawksbill turtles are omnivores, feeding on sponges, seagrasses, algae, soft corals and shellfish. Hawksbill turtles are listed as vulnerable under the Nature Conservation Act 1992.
Migratory shorebirds:
About 32 species of migratory shorebirds including eastern curlews Numenius madagascariensis, grey-tailed tattlers Heteroscelus brevipes, red-necked stints Calidris ruficollis, ruddy turnstones Arenaria interpres, bar-tailed godwits Limosa lapponica and sandpipers visit Moreton Bay Marine Park each September to April.
Most of the shorebird species which visit Moreton Bay Marine Park's intertidal flats are migratory species listed under the Japan Australia Migratory Bird Agreement (JAMBA) or the China Australia Migratory Bird Agreement (CAMBA).
Most migrate from Arctic or sub-Arctic regions at the end of the breeding season, moving to the southern hemisphere and stopping to rest before the next stage of their long journey. When feeding here, migratory shorebirds are storing energy for their return trip north to breed again.
The migratory shorebirds prefer four main habitats—muddy intertidal flats with and without seagrass, sandy flats and coral rubble on islands in the middle of the bay. Mirapool sandflat, in the south-east of Moreton Island, is considered a vital roosting and feeding site for waders, particularly eastern curlews.
Major roosting and feeding sites for shorebirds include open sandy islands and beaches (mainly on Moreton Island and North Stradbroke Island), saltpans and claypans scattered in and behind the mangrove fringe, freshwater marshes and mangroves.
Resident shorebirds:
Moreton Bay has about 3500 resident shorebirds, representing 10 species. These birds breed in and around Moreton Bay. Some of the most recognisable species include the pied oystercatcher, the bush stone-curlew and the red-capped plover. The beach stone-curlew and the sooty oystercatcher are less common and are of international and national significance because ongoing disturbance has drastically reduced their numbers.
When it is time for resident shorebirds to breed, they build their simple nests just above the high-tide line of beaches and rocky shorelines. For this reason they are vulnerable to damage from vehicles driving above high tide lines and from people camping on undisturbed foredunes. Each year, many young shorebirds and some adults are killed due to beach traffic.
Source: Queensland Government: Parks & Forests (Department of Environment & Science)
. . . in Portugal. Scientist Prof. Miguel N. Bugalho offered an online lecture to our local friends of the botanical garden; I enjoyed 'attending'.
The cork oak plantations and wild populations of Portugal, Spain, and elsewhere in the western Mediterranean are under severe threat from climate change, property development, mis-management, neglect, and a host of causes. Cork trees are 'harvested' of their bark every 8-10 years. The trees can survive for 100s of years. Among other uses, they provide most of the bottle stoppers for the world's wine industry. Many forces are now working to preserve these cork forests.
Corks are recyclable. I collect them for my apartment building and take them to a collection point.
Natural environment:
Moreton Bay Marine Park protects a vast array of marine habitats, plants and animals. Covering more than 3400km2 of open and sheltered waterways and dotted with islands, Moreton Bay Marine Park includes some of Australia's premier wetlands. Extensive mangroves and tidal flats support and shelter fish, birds and other wildlife. Sandflats provide roosting sites for migratory birds and seagrass beds nurture fish, shellfish, dugong and turtles.
Moreton Bay wetlands:
In 1971, in the Iranian city of Ramsar, representatives from 18 nations signed the Convention on Wetlands of International Significance (known as the Ramsar Convention) to stop global loss of wetlands, and to conserve and sustainably manage remaining wetlands. Moreton Bay is one of Australia's largest sites listed under the Ramsar Convention.
The wetlands of Moreton Bay are extremely varied and range from perched freshwater lakes and sedge swamps on the offshore islands, to intertidal mudflats, marshes, sandflats and mangroves adjoining the bay's islands and the mainland. This variety in habitats contributes to the bay's biological diversity. The high diversity is also due to the location and climate of the bay; it supports tropical, subtropical and temperate wildlife species.
There are 11 declared Fish Habitat Areas (FHAs) in Moreton Bay: Pumicestone Channel, Deception Bay, Kippa-Ring, Hay’s Inlet, Moreton Banks, Myora-Amity Banks, Peel Island, Jumpinpin-Broadwater, Pimpama, Coomera, Coombabah. Queensland’s first FHAs were declared in Moreton Bay in 1969. Declared FHAs protect important fish habitats like mangroves, seagrass, saltmarsh and mudflats from the impacts of coastal development, while still allowing legal fishing.
Seagrasses and mangroves:
The seagrass beds, mudflats and mangroves of Moreton Bay Marine Park provide food and habitat for a wide variety of marine life.
Seagrasses are flowering plants. Their closest relatives are lilies and orchids. Seagrasses need sunlight, clear water and nutrients—often obtained from nearby mangroves—to grow. The seagrasses between Russell Island and North Stradbroke Island and in southern Moreton Bay provide food and habitat for dugong, turtles, fish and crustaceans.
Mangroves provide a nursery for fish, prawns and crabs, which form the basis of an important commercial and recreational fishery. Mangrove communities act as stabilisers, helping to reduce excessive sediment flow and decreasing the threat of erosion caused by currents and stream flow. Seven species of mangroves are found in the marine park.
Dugong:
Dugong, also known as sea cows, can grow to about 3m long and weigh up to 400kg. Adult dugong feed predominantly on seagrass and can consume 30kg per day. As they feed, whole plants are uprooted and a tell-tale feeding trail is left. The female dugong takes up to 17 years to mature and then only produces one young every five years if the conditions are suitable. Dugong are listed as a vulnerable species under the Nature Conservation Act 1992.
Whales:
The humpback whale Megaptera novaeangliae is the fifth largest of the great whales. Adult females grow to 15m, slightly longer than males. A mature humpback can weigh 40t. Humpbacks are generally blackish with white underbellies and sides. They are listed as a vulnerable species under the Nature Conservation Act 1992.
Humpbacks mate and give birth in warmer waters. Each year the east Australian humpback whale population migrates 6000km, from their Antarctic feeding grounds, along the eastern coastline of Australia, to arrive in the lagoons of the Great Barrier Reef in about mid-June. From July, after calving, the humpbacks start to migrate south—back to the Antarctic waters. A proportion of the population stops over in Moreton Bay. Most humpbacks have left Queensland waters by early November.
Other species known to visit Moreton Bay Marine Park throughout the year include killer whales Orcinus orca, southern right whales Eubalaena australis, sperm whales Physeter macrocephalus, melon-headed whales Peponocephala electra and minke whales Balaenoptera acutorostrata.
Dolphins:
Moreton Bay Marine Park has two resident dolphin species, the bottlenose dolphin Tursiops truncatus and the Indo-Pacific hump-backed dolphin Sousa chinensis.
Bottlenose dolphins are the largest of the beaked dolphins and have a short, stout beak (sometimes described as bottle-shaped) marked with a crease where it meets the forehead. Their average size is about 3m and they feed on invertebrates, bottom-dwelling fish and squid, plus the full range of pelagic fish species. In bays they form small groups of about 15 individuals, while groups offshore may number in the hundreds. A single calf is born after a gestation period of about a year. Bottlenose dolphins have a life span of up to 45 years.
Indo-Pacific hump-backed dolphins are a coastal species found in tropical and subtropical waters. In Queensland they are found in Moreton Bay and its adjacent waters and in Tin Can Inlet, Great Sandy Strait. Body colour ranges from white to pinkish to grey, with some individuals being heavily spotted. They grow to a length of about 2.7m and the beak is long and cylindrical. Indo-Pacific hump-backed dolphins feed in shallow waters and have a varied diet of fish, molluscs and crustaceans. Indo-Pacific hump-backed dolphins are listed as rare under the Nature Conservation Act 1992.
Turtles:
The seagrass meadows of Moreton Bay Marine Park provide a vital feeding area for marine turtles. Species commonly seen in Moreton Bay include green turtles Chelonia mydas, loggerhead turtles Caretta caretta and hawksbill turtles Eretmochelys imbricatata. Leatherback turtles Dermochelys coriacea and flatback turtles Natator depressus are also irregular visitors.
Green turtles have an olive-green carapace (shell) and a relatively small head compared with the size of its body. Young green turtles are carnivorous, eating tiny marine animals, yet the adults are thought to be totally herbivorous, feeding on algae, seagrass and mangrove fruits. Females take 30 to 50 years to mature and only breed every two to eight years. Green turtles are listed as vulnerable under the Nature Conservation Act 1992.
Loggerhead turtles are listed as endangered under the Nature Conservation Act 1992. The carapace is dark brown, sometimes irregularly speckled with a darker brown. They occur in coral reefs, bays and estuaries in tropical and warm temperate waters off the coast of Queensland, Northern Territory, Western Australia and New South Wales. Loggerhead turtles are carnivorous, feeding mostly on shellfish, crabs, sea urchins and jellyfish.
Hawksbill turtles occur in tidal and sub-tidal coral and rocky reef habitats through tropical waters, extending into warm temperate areas as far south as northern New South Wales. The carapace is heart-shaped and olive-green to brown, richly variegated with reddish-brown, dark brown and black. Hawksbill turtles are omnivores, feeding on sponges, seagrasses, algae, soft corals and shellfish. Hawksbill turtles are listed as vulnerable under the Nature Conservation Act 1992.
Migratory shorebirds:
About 32 species of migratory shorebirds including eastern curlews Numenius madagascariensis, grey-tailed tattlers Heteroscelus brevipes, red-necked stints Calidris ruficollis, ruddy turnstones Arenaria interpres, bar-tailed godwits Limosa lapponica and sandpipers visit Moreton Bay Marine Park each September to April.
Most of the shorebird species which visit Moreton Bay Marine Park's intertidal flats are migratory species listed under the Japan Australia Migratory Bird Agreement (JAMBA) or the China Australia Migratory Bird Agreement (CAMBA).
Most migrate from Arctic or sub-Arctic regions at the end of the breeding season, moving to the southern hemisphere and stopping to rest before the next stage of their long journey. When feeding here, migratory shorebirds are storing energy for their return trip north to breed again.
The migratory shorebirds prefer four main habitats—muddy intertidal flats with and without seagrass, sandy flats and coral rubble on islands in the middle of the bay. Mirapool sandflat, in the south-east of Moreton Island, is considered a vital roosting and feeding site for waders, particularly eastern curlews.
Major roosting and feeding sites for shorebirds include open sandy islands and beaches (mainly on Moreton Island and North Stradbroke Island), saltpans and claypans scattered in and behind the mangrove fringe, freshwater marshes and mangroves.
Resident shorebirds:
Moreton Bay has about 3500 resident shorebirds, representing 10 species. These birds breed in and around Moreton Bay. Some of the most recognisable species include the pied oystercatcher, the bush stone-curlew and the red-capped plover. The beach stone-curlew and the sooty oystercatcher are less common and are of international and national significance because ongoing disturbance has drastically reduced their numbers.
When it is time for resident shorebirds to breed, they build their simple nests just above the high-tide line of beaches and rocky shorelines. For this reason they are vulnerable to damage from vehicles driving above high tide lines and from people camping on undisturbed foredunes. Each year, many young shorebirds and some adults are killed due to beach traffic.
Source: Queensland Government: Parks & Forests (Department of Environment & Science)
The conserved and consolidated remains of The Tally House where narrow gauge wagons of limestone were weighed after it descended the English Incline before proceeding to the Lime Works or Canal Wharf or standard gauge trans-shipment wharf.
The quarrymen being paid according to the amount of rock they extracted and sent down the incline.
For more photographs of the Llanymynech Quarries, Lime Works and the narrow gauge railway which served them please click here: www.jhluxton.com/Industrial-Archaeology/Limestone-Quarryi...
Founded in 1906, Mesa Verde National Park was created to conserve and protect the Ancestral Puebloan archaeological sites and cliff dwellings within the present-day park on the sides and top of a large tree-covered cuesta, known as Mesa Verde, that rises approximately 1,500 feet (785 meters) above the surrounding canyons and valleys, with rugged canyons cutting through the cuesta, lined with sandstone cliffs and ledges.
The area was inhabited by indigenous people for thousands of years prior to the rise of the Ancestral Puebloan culture, whom developed villages and farmsteads within what is today Mesa Verde National Park beginning around the year 750, with the structures built by the Ancestral Puebloans growing in complexity and durability, especially due to contact with the nearby culture centered around Chaco Canyon. The famous cliff dwellings for which the area is famous, however, were built between approximately 1020 and 1260, especially after a major drought in the region between 1130 and 1180, which led to a major migration of people from Chaco Canyon to Mesa Verde. The people of Chaco Canyon brought their culture, construction techniques, and goods with them, which is evident at archaeological sites on the cuesta.
The area began to depopulate between 1260 and 1285 due to environmental conditions becoming less favorable, with the people of Mesa Verde moving to the lowlands of what is today New Mexico and Arizona, with many founding or joining Pueblo settlements in these regions that still exist today. The stone houses were left to the elements, and were left uninhabited, only remembered by the descendants of the Ancestral Puebloans and the other indigenous groups who called the area home, most notably the Utes.
The ancient ruins were discovered by European-Americans in 1873, and were documented between 1875 and 1888, with various cliff dwellings and archaeological sites being relatively well-preserved and recognizable to explorers, archaeologists, and scientists whom visited the modern-day park. However, the removal of artifacts from the cuesta became a major concern, and efforts began in 1889 to protect the area as a National Park.
The park covers an area of 82 square miles (212 square kilometers), and features multiple Ancestral Puebloan and other indigenous archaeological sites, and was taken from the Ute people, with land being taken from the Utes after the establishment of the park to expand its borders. The park long struggled with proper interpretation and inclusion of the voices of the Puebloan people, whose ancestors built the ancient dwellings and lived at what are today archaeological sites, with work presently ongoing to redress these issues.
The ruins at the park underwent reconstitution and stabilization between 1908 and 1922, with extensive work being done on Spruce Tree House, Cliff Palace, and Sun Temple. Further work was carried out by the New Deal-era Civilian Conservation Corps starting in 1932 and extending through World War II, which included the construction of various park facilities for visitors and staff, and constructing roads atop the cuesta. The Wetherill Mesa ruins, meanwhile, were stabilized with work being carried out between 1958 and 1965, coinciding with the construction of the Far View accommodations atop the cuesta to the east.
The park today features a modern entrance road from US Highway 160, which climbs up the rugged slopes at the north end of the park to the top of the cuesta, stretching across the top of the cuesta to the south, where it connects to various roads that allow visitors to access the overlooks and trails for various cliff dwellings and archaeological sites on Chapin Mesa and Wetherill Mesa. Two areas of tourist accommodation also exist at Far View in the northern section of the park, and the administrative district at Spruce Tree Point at the southern end of the park.
The park was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966, and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978. Today, the park sees over half a million visitors annually, and continues to preserve and maintain the ancient structures built by the Ancestral Puebloans.
Without any visible railhead treatment, DRS 37422 'Victorious', with 37419 'Driver Tony Kay 1974-2019' at the rear near Seamer, working the 40 minutes late running 3J51 09:50 York Thrall Works - York via Scarborough, Hull & Selby Rail Head Treatment Train on Monday 2nd October 2022.
© Gordon Edgar - All rights reserved. Please do not use my images without my explicit permission
The Wynnum/Manly/Lota Foreshores is part of the Bayside Parklands which is a 16 kilometre green ribbon of connected parks on Brisbane’s south western edge of Moreton Bay.
The parklands stretch from Whyte Island in the north, fringe the Wynnum/Manly/Lota Foreshores and include bushlands around Tingalpa and Lota Creeks in the south.
These parklands conserve the remaining tidal wetland and bushland habitats in the area and shelter many wild life species. The foreshore parks overlook the tidal flats of Moreton Bay Marine Park, an important feeding and resting ground for migratory wading birds.
The Wynnum/Manly/Lota Foreshores extends from the mangrove edge of Elanora Park in Wynnum, south to the tidal mangrove swamp at the mouth of Lota Creek. Notable features along the foreshore include Elanora Park, Oyster Point, Greene Park, Pandanus Beach, Wynnum Jetty, Wynnum Wading Pool, Darling Point, Manly Beach, Norfolk Point, Manly Boat Harbour and Fig Tree Point. A ribbon of small parks runs along most of the length of the foreshore interrupted only by the Manly Boat Harbour.
Expansive views of Moreton Bay and its islands are afforded from most locations along the foreshore. Views extend from the Port of Brisbane at Fisherman’s Island, around to St Helena Island, the sandhills of Moreton Island, to Green Island and Stradbroke Island. The Wynnum/Manly/Lota Foreshores is popular for picnics and promenading, walking, cycling, fishing, boating, informal sports and games, swimming, windsurfing and birdwatching.
Elanora Park accommodates facilities and a large area of sporting fields for a number of sporting groups including Wynnum Rugby Union and the Wynnum Manly Bowls Club. The Wynnum Rugby fields are distinguished by a prominent timber clubhouse which was relocated from the Lytton Quarantine Station. A mangrove circuit boardwalk commences in Elanora Park and extends north through the mangrove swamp fringing the Park
A thin open grassed park clings to the foreshore between Elanora Park and the mouth of Wynnum Creek. The parkland north of the creek is distinguished by exuberant Moreton Bay Fig Trees. A concrete and stone slipway stands just north of the creek mouth and breakwater groins extend east to the north and south of the creek mouth. The Wynnum Fish Depot is accommodated just within the creek entrance and boats, including the Wynnum fishing fleet, are moored along the creek edges. Greene Park lies on the north bank of Wynnum Creek and is bounded by Fox Street,
Wynnum Creek and Moreton Bay and accommodates picnic tables and shade trees. Further south at the commencement of Wynnum Esplanade the Wynnum Jetty is a notable feature. A stone sea-wall supporting a fenced walkway, the jetty has allowed the flats to be reclaimed and a sandy beach, Pandanus Beach, has been formed to the north of the jetty with sand imported from Stradbroke Island. A tidal wading pool, Wynnum Wading Pool, stands within the park to the south of Wynnum Jetty.
The pool fills at high tide and seawater is retained by closing valves along the sea-wall.
A large sandstone monument accommodating three drinking fountains stands west of the Jetty. The monument is a memorial to W.H. Barnes, M.L.A., a former State Treasurer who represented the Bulimba and Wynnum electorates from 1901 to 1933.
Darling Point protects the small bay formed by the north breakwater of Manly Boat Harbour and affords views across Moreton Bay.
West of Darling Point, a finger of parkland is trapped between Lower and Upper Esplanade and accommodates a bandstand, picnic tables and shelters, BBQ facilities and a toilet block.
Manly Boat Harbour, the largest small-craft harbour in Queensland, was formed by reclamation activities and has developed into a safe harbour for boats. The Harbour accommodates marinas, docks and facilities for a number of clubs and organisations including the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron, Wynnum Manly Yacht Club and the Coast Guard. The eastern point of the northern wave break of Manly Boat Harbour is known as Norfolk Point.
The foreshore from the mouth of Lota Creek to Manly Boat Harbour accommodates grassed open parkland with picnic tables, BBQ equipment and play areas. Fig Tree Point projects into Moreton Bay north of the mouth of Lota Creek and features a small elevated timber lookout platform affording extensive views across Moreton Bay. A concrete path commences north of the lookout at Fig Tree Point and continues along the foreshore edge diverting to follow the footpath west of Manly Boat Harbour and connecting back with the foreshore path beyond the Harbour and continuing north along the foreshore edge to Elanora Park.
A concrete slipway and a set of stone stairs immediately north of the creek mouth allows boat and pedestrian access to edge of the foreshore.
The mouth of Lota Creek accommodates areas of extensive mangrove swamps. Fragile narrow timber jetties jut out into the swamp from the north grassed edge of the creek. Mangrove swamp lines the foreshore north from the mouth of Lota Creek stopping a short distance south of the Manly Boat Harbour.
A number of concrete and stone groins of varying lengths and widths extend out into the flats along the length of the foreshore. A low stone retaining wall runs along most of the foreshore edge. The Manly Boat Harbour is sheltered to the south by breakwaters edged with a battered bank of loose rough hewn stones.
Source: Brisbane City Council Heritage Register.