Common Moorhen, (Gallinula chloropus), standing in snow during winter in Regent's Park, London, United Kingdom
The common moorhen (Gallinula chloropus) ,also known as the waterhen and as the swamp chicken, is a bird species in the family Rallidae. It is distributed across many parts of the Old World. The common moorhen lives around well-vegetated marshes, ponds, canals and other wetlands. The species is not found in the polar regions or many tropical rainforests. Elsewhere it is likely the most common rail species, except for the Eurasian coot in some regions. Beginning on 24 February 2018, the United Kingdom and Ireland were affected by a cold wave, dubbed the Beast from the East by the media, which brought widespread unseasonably low temperatures and heavy snowfall to large areas. The cold wave combined with Storm Emma, part of the 2017–18 UK and Ireland windstorm season, which made landfall in southwest England and southern Ireland on 2 March. In contrast to usual winter storms, Emma was not formed as a normal low pressure area along with the jetstream; the initial event was an arctic outbreak due to a disordered polar vortex into Central Europe, transporting not only cold air from Siberia to Europe, but on the way to the British Islands according to the lake effect sent a lot of snow into areas of Great Britain and Ireland.
Size: 2832px × 4256px
Location: Regents Park, London, UK
Photo credit: © Dominic Robinson / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: avifauna, bird, birdlife, birds, britain, british, chloropus, cities, common, copy, copyspace, gallinula, isles, london, moorhen, nature, park, parks, regents, royal, snow, space, uk, urban, wildlife, winter
