South Binness Island

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
  1. "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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. "Rare seabird struggling to breed". BBC News. BBC. 4 September 2008. Retrieved 29 March 2011.
  5. "Hampshire beach built up for the return of little terns". BBC News. 9 May 2013. Retrieved 10 May 2013.

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