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]