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South Walney

Bird observatories in EnglandBirdwatching sites in EnglandGeology of CumbriaIUCN Category IVNature reserves of the Cumbria Wildlife Trust
Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Cumbria
The beach at South Walney nature reserve geograph.org.uk 1453817
The beach at South Walney nature reserve geograph.org.uk 1453817

South Walney is one of two nature reserves on Walney Island, England. The nature reserve has an area of 130 ha leased from Holker estates. It has been managed by the Cumbria Wildlife Trust since 1963. The reserve is notable for: Gulls. There are lesser black backed gulls and herring gulls. Numbers have declined considerably since the 1970s. Seals. It is the only grey seal colony in Cumbria. Numbers have increased since the 1970s. Until recently South Walney was classed as a haul-out site rather than a breeding colony, but two pups were born there in 2015, and five the following year.The reserve is the home of the Walney Bird Observatory which collates bird records from across the island. Around 300 species of bird have been recorded on Walney Island since the foundation of the bird observatory in 1964.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article South Walney (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

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Latitude Longitude
N 54.048575 ° E -3.199547 °
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LA14 3YQ
England, United Kingdom
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The beach at South Walney nature reserve geograph.org.uk 1453817
The beach at South Walney nature reserve geograph.org.uk 1453817
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Walney Lighthouse
Walney Lighthouse

Walney Lighthouse is a functioning lighthouse located on Walney Island in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England. The current building dates to the early 19th-century and is Grade II* listed as well as being the southernmost man-made structure in Cumbria.Completed in 1804, the stone lighthouse and its attached cottages actually predate Barrow and its port. The structure was built to replace a smaller wooden lighthouse that was constructed by the Lancaster Quay Commissioners in 1790 to aid in navigation towards the docks at Glasson close to Lancaster and the River Lune. It contained three 3-foot (0.91 m) reflectors mounted on a slowly-revolving shaft; the reflectors consisted of a concave wooden frame covered with small pieces of mirrored glass.The original lighthouse was destroyed by fire in 1803 and was swiftly replaced by the lighthouse of today. The lighthouse was designed by engineer E. Dawson. The optical system (as renewed in 1846) was a clockwork-driven rotating array of four Argand lamps backed by parabolic reflectors, which gave a white flash once a minute.The lighthouse saw little change until 1909, when an acetylene gaslight system was installed, this was again changed in 1953 to a 'manned' electric light and rotation system (still with the four reflectors), flashing once every fifteen seconds. In 2003, when it was finally automated, Walney was the last manned lighthouse in England. It was also the last to be using a catoptric apparatus; that year the reflectors were replaced by a modern electric light unit.