Ham Wall is an English wetland and National Nature Reserve located 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) west of Glastonbury on the Somerset Levels. It is managed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, which helps coordinate conservation issues across the Somerset Levels as part of the Avalon Marshes Partnership. The reserve was constructed originally to provide reed bed habitat for the bittern, which in 1997 was at a low population level in the UK. The site is divided into sections with independently controllable water levels, and machinery and cattle are used to maintain the quality of the reed beds. The reserve hosts important breeding populations of the rare little bittern and great white egret, and has other uncommon animals and plants. Potential future threats may include heavy summer rains and extensive flooding. Sea level rise may make drainage more difficult, and current water pumping facilities may become inadequate.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ham_Wall

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1909:

Ernest Shackleton, leading the Nimrod Expedition, planted the British flag 97.5 nautical miles (180.6 km; 112.2 mi) from the South Pole, the farthest south explorers had reached at the time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farthest_South

1972:

Seawise University, formerly RMS Queen Elizabeth, an ocean liner that sailed the Atlantic for Cunard Line, caught fire in Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Queen_Elizabeth

1991:

Representatives from the United States and Iraq met at the Geneva Peace Conference to find a peaceful resolution to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva_Peace_Conference_%281991%29

2015:

Contaminated beer served at a funeral in Tete Province, Mozambique, killed 75 people and made at least 230 others ill. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozambique_funeral_beer_poisoning

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

cryptodepression: (geography, limnology) The portion of a lake which lies below sea level. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cryptodepression

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Together with the rest of the world, let us resolve to move forward from the beginnings we have made. Let us continue to bring down the walls of hostility which have divided the world for too long, and to build in their place bridges of understanding — so that despite profound differences between systems of government, the people of the world can be friends. Let us build a structure of peace in the world in which the weak are as safe as the strong — in which each respects the right of the other to live by a different system — in which those who would influence others will do so by the strength of their ideas, and not by the force of their arms. Let us accept that high responsibility not as a burden, but gladly — gladly because the chance to build such a peace is the noblest endeavor in which a nation can engage; gladly, also, because only if we act greatly in meeting our responsibilities abroad will we remain a great Nation, and only if we remain a great Nation will we act greatly in meeting our challenges at home.   --Richard Nixon https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Nixon