The Holkham National Nature Reserve is the largest such reserve in
England. It is on the Norfolk coast between Burnham Overy Staithe and
Blakeney, and is managed by Natural England with the cooperation of the
Holkham Estate. Its 3,900 hectares (9,600 acres) include a wide range of
habitats, such as grazing marsh, woodland, salt marsh, sand dunes and
foreshore. The reserve is part of the North Norfolk Coast Site of
Special Scientific Interest, additionally protected through Natura 2000,
Special Protection Area and Ramsar listings, and is part of both an Area
of Outstanding Natural Beauty and a World Biosphere Reserve. Holkham is
important for wintering wildfowl, especially pink-footed geese, Eurasian
wigeons and brent geese, but it also has breeding waders, and attracts
many migrating birds in autumn. A number of scarce invertebrates and
plants can be found in the dunes, and the reserve is one of only two
sites in the UK with an antlion colony. The Vikings navigated the creeks
to establish Holkham village. The reserve was created in 1967 mostly
from the Holkham estate, owned since the 17th century by the Earls of
Leicester, and attracts over 100,000 visitors a year, including
birdwatchers, horse riders and naturists.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holkham_National_Nature_Reserve>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1301:
The Árpád dynasty, which had ruled Hungary since the late 9th
century, ended with the death of King Andrew III.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%81rp%C3%A1d_dynasty>
1724:
Philip V, the first Bourbon ruler of Spain, abdicated in favor
of his eldest son Louis.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_V_of_Spain>
1900:
Giacomo Puccini's opera Tosca, based on the play La Tosca by
French dramatist Victorien Sardou, premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in
Rome.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tosca>
1953:
Josip Broz Tito was inaugurated as the first President of
Yugoslavia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josip_Broz_Tito>
1975:
British teenage heiress Lesley Whittle was kidnapped by Donald
Neilson and subsequently murdered during a failed ransom collection
attempt.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Lesley_Whittle>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
orgulous:
Proud; haughty; disdainful.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/orgulous>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Not less strong than the will to truth must be the will
to sincerity. Only an age, which can show the courage of sincerity, can
possess truth, which works as a spiritual force within it.
--Albert Schweitzer
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Albert_Schweitzer>