Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?
Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of GraphSearch.
Concept
Great Gull Island
Summary
Great Gull Island is a island separating the Long Island and Block Island sounds, located approximately southwest of Little Gull Island. Both islands are located in the town of Southold in Suffolk County, New York, and lie roughly midway between Plum Island and Fishers Island. The island is the location of former military fortifications, but is now owned by the American Museum of Natural History which is working to restore its ecosystem. It hosts many nesting Common and Roseate terns.
Gull Island is a major stopover for birds following the Atlantic Flyway and was the home of large colonies of nesting terns up until the end of the 19th century, when many birds were killed as a result of the millinery trade and the construction of military fortifications on the island. In 1897, Fort Michie was constructed on Great Gull Island as part of the Coast Defenses of Long Island Sound. The military base was operational from the Spanish–American War through World War II. It included one of the largest gun installations in the United States, an emplacement for a 16-inch gun on a disappearing carriage.
Great Gull Island was acquired by the American Museum of Natural History on March 31, 1949. It marked the beginning of the Great Gull Island Project, a long-term effort by staff from the museum and other volunteers to restore the island's ecosystem. Gradually, terns began returning to the island to nest, and the population grew into one of the largest colonies in the world for two species of terns.
In 2021 a documentary was produced about the island and its researchers called “Full Circle”.
The dominant faunal feature of the island during the summer months is the active Common Tern (Sterna hirundo) colony spread across the flatter areas of the island that are not taken over by bittersweet (Celastrus) or common reed (Phragmites australis). A tentative estimation of the S. hirundo mating pairs present on the island estimates their number at 9,500.
The other major avian on Great Gull Island is the Roseate Tern (Sterna dougallii), which mostly inhabit the ring of boulders that cover the edges of the island.
Official source
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.