A CHEMICAL company has redesigned an island on its brinefield in an attempt to attract common terns.

Huntsman has carried out the work on a pond in its Number Four brinefield near Greatham Greek, not far from Seal Sands, on Teesside.

The company approached Billingham-based Industry Nature Conservation Association (Inca) which oversaw work to scrape overgrown vegetation from the island.

The island was then covered with gravel donated by construction company Tolent and ridge tiles were added to give the birds cover, said INCA ecologist Jonathan Gibson.

He said it was hoped to attract common terns, some of which already use an island on the nearby saline lagoon created some years ago in a project that included Inca as one of the partners.

Work was completed on the latest project in March and there have already been signs of common terns moving onto the island.

There is a second island in the pond, which has been left vegetated and is used by breeding birds including terns.

Two species of tern, common tern and the more endangered little tern, nest regularly around the Tees Estuary, both are migrants travelling to the tropics and beyond during the UK winter and returning to nest in Britain and Europe in spring.

Published: 05/07/2005