South Binness Island
From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia
South Binness Island is an island in Langstone Harbour.[1] It is 600 metres (660 yd) long and up to 240 metres (260 yd) wide but only rises to 2 metres (7 ft) above Ordnance Datum.[2] Archaeological finds include Bronze Age pottery and an unfinished Plano-convex knife.[2]
In 1978 the island along with the other islands in Langstone harbour was acquired by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds who turned it into a bird sanctuary.[3] Since that time unauthorised landings have been forbidden.[3]
The Island is a nesting site for black-headed gulls and the little tern.[4] In 2008 the island had 4,886 nesting pairs of black-headed gulls and 11 nesting pairs of little terns.[4] None of the little terns managed to raise any young that year something thought to be in part due to the number of black-headed gulls.[4] In 2013 500 tonnes of aggregate was added to a beach on the island in order to raise its height.[5] The hope was that the higher beach would offer little terns more nesting sites high enough to avoid the risk of them being washed away by the tide.[5]
References[edit]
- ^ "Havant Borough Townscape, Landscape and Seascape Character Assessment February 2007" (PDF). Havant Borough Council. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 September 2011. Retrieved 15 March 2011.
- ^ a b Adam, Neil J; Momber, Gary (2000). "South Binness Island". In Allen, Michael J; Gardiner, Julie (eds.). Our Changing Coast a survey of the intertidal archaeology of Langstone Harbour Hampshire. York: Council for British Archaeology. pp. 104–5. ISBN 1-902771-14-1.
- ^ a b Tweed, Ronald (2000). A History of Langstone Harbour and its environs in the County of Hampshire. Dido Publications. pp. 159–160. ISBN 0-9533312-1-0.
- ^ a b c "Rare seabird struggling to breed". BBC News. BBC. 4 September 2008. Retrieved 29 March 2011.
- ^ a b "Hampshire beach built up for the return of little terns". BBC News. 9 May 2013. Retrieved 10 May 2013.