The types of plants and animals that live on seashores in temperate regions are similar around the globe, but many of the individual species in south-eastern Australia are found only in this region. Field Guide to the Seashores of South-Eastern Australia features colour photographs, descriptions and ecological notes for around 240 species of the more common plants and animals found on rocky, sandy and muddy shores along the coastline from Port Lincoln, South Australia, to the Hawkesbury River, New South Wales, and Tasmania. This guide will allow beachgoers to learn interesting details about the plants and animals they come across, while also having sufficient scientific detail for natural history enthusiasts and biology students to develop their understanding of these shore ecosystems.

On holidays? Walking? Just visiting the coast for a short outing? This book will enrich your appreciation of what you see. Common coastal animals and plants - with lots of photos Landforms - how they are influenced by geology Local history How to get to lesser-known spots

This book is a guide for readers who are curious about what they see along the coast. What are the animals and plants that live along the shore? How were the rock layers in the cliffs formed? What was this place like 150 years ago? Who used this decrepit jetty? The core of the book takes a journey around the coast near Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, beginning on Mornington Peninsula’s ocean shore at Point Nepean then heading east towards Flinders. It covers all of the Western Port coast around to San Remo as well as the shores of Phillip Island and French Island. This 320 kilometre shoreline offers a variety of scenery, from the magnificent cliffs of Cape Schanck and Cape Woolamai to the quiet backwaters at the top of Western Port. Just seventy kilometres from Melbourne, French Island can feel almost as remote as the outback, while nearby Cowes on Phillip Island is abuzz in the summer. An introductory chapter gives a brief overview of early history relating to the coast. There are traces of thousands of years of Aboriginal occupation of the area. You can tread in the footsteps of explorers like George Bass and early French navigators, and see the site of Victoria’s second prison settlement at Corinella. You may be interested in remnants of early industries including salt making and granite quarrying, and tourism hot spots of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries like Sorrento and Flinders. Most of the rock outcrops around Western Port are geologically young, but Cape Woolamai is formed from Devonian granite around 370 million years old. The chapter on landforms will point out these granites, as well as the solidified lava of volcanoes and sedimentary rocks deposited by ancient rivers and seas. Western Port is renowned for its wildlife and there are wonderful places where nature thrives. Visitors come to Phillip Island especially to see little penguins, seals and thousands of nesting short-tailed shearwaters. Almost all of the waters of Western Port are protected for migratory wading birds which feed on its vast mud flats. Mushroom Reef Marine Sanctuary, and French Island, Yaringa, Churchill Island and Port Phillip Heads Marine National Parks protect many kinds of sea and shore creatures. Belts of mangroves and wide saltmarshes may seem unappealing at first, but they will reward any efforts you make to appreciate them. The pictures in the chapter on animals and plants will help you to identify the species you are most likely to see.

A guide to the marine and plant life of Australia on the beach, on rocky and sheltered shores and in the water all year round.

This is the first single volume guide ever devoted to the eastern Asian avifauna. The eastern Asian region, centring especially on the major islands off the continental coast (including Japan and Taiwan) and the immediately adjacent areas of the Asian continent from Kamchatka in the north and including the Korean Peninsula are an important centre of endemism. Birds endemic to this region include representatives of many of the major families, from the world's largest eagle - Steller's Sea Eagle - to the tiny Formosan Firecrest. The east Asian continental coast and the offshore islands also form one of the world's major international bird migration routes, especially for waterfowl, shorebirds and raptors, while the east Asian continental mainland itself is home to a wide range of species little known to western ornithologists such as Scaly-sided Merganser, Oriental Stork and Mugimaki Flycatcher. The guide features the most up-to-date text available, which, in conjunction with extensive colour plates throughout, facilitates the field identification of all of the species known from the region. Colour distribution maps enhance the text by providing a visual analysis of the summer, winter and migratory ranges of all species.

For over two decades Two Oceans has been the pre-eminent book to which scientists, students, divers and beachcombers turn to identify and learn about marine life, from sponges to whales and seaweeds to dune forests. In this exuberantly colourful, fully revised fourth edition, over 2 000 species are now covered, names and other details have been updated to refl ect the latest taxonomy and many new photographs have been added.

Coastal Fishes of South-Eastern Australia is the first book to cover almost all the unknown fish species from the coastal waters of eastern Australia, ranging from northern New South Wales to western Victoria. It comprises 142 families and 855 species, all illustrated with at least one colour photograph, but including juvenile stages, different male-female forms, and colour variants of the same species where appropriate. The great majority of the species were photographed in their natural environment. The primary purpose of the book is to identify fishes living in the area covered, and it has been designed to accommodate fishermen, divers, students and scientists. The fishes are arranged scientifically from the highest class down to the species, based on the latest revisions. Scientific keys are provided down to the family level, and similar or closely related species are placed near each other. In addition, a pictorial key to the families is provided. Each level of classification has an introduction, and each species has a general description, mostly based on external features. The species description is followed by information on distribution in Australia and elsewhere, habitat, interesting behaviour, and size. Great importance has been placed on the use of common names, and on uniformity throughout the entire book.