Kirr is an

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

in the

Darss-Zingst Bodden Chain The Darss-Zingst Bodden ChainMüller, Felix et al. (2010). ''Long-Term Ecological Research: Between Theory and Application'', ''Coastal Lagoons - Darss-Zingst Bodden Chain'', Sect. 12.3.3, Springer, Heidelberg, London, New York, p. 173. (german: ...

south of the Zingst Peninsula on the German

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

coast. It is separated from the peninsula by the

Zingster Strom The Zingster Strom is a distinctive, river-like arm of the Barther Bodden lagoon, south of the Zingst peninsula on Germany's Baltic Sea coast. It lies between the island of Kirr and the Zingst and runs from east to west in a semi-circular arc, bot ...

. The island is a

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or ...

within the

Western Pomerania Lagoon Area National Park The Western Pomerania Lagoon Area National Park
at www.naturefund.de. Ac ...

. It was formerly and is sometimes still called Großer Kirr or Große Kirr ("Great Kirr"). This is to distinguish it from the northwestern part of the island, which was still a separate albeit much smaller island in the Zingster Strom in the second half of the 20th century, that used to be called Kleiner Kirr or Kleine Kirr ("Small Kirr").

Geography

The island has a length of 3.5 km, a maximum width of 1.5 km and only rises one metre above sea level. It lies in the lagoon of

Barther Bodden The Barther Bodden (German for ''Barth Lagoon'') is a ''bodden'' water between the Zingst peninsula and the mainland town of Barth. It is a brackish lagoon that is part of the Darss-Zingst Bodden Chain. Its largest inflow is the Barthe stream. ...

on the

coast of north Germany, just a few metres south of the Baltic seaside resort of

Zingst Zingst ( Polabian ''Sgoni'') is the easternmost portion of the three-part Fischland-Darß-Zingst Peninsula, located in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany, between the cities of Rostock and Stralsund on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea. Th ...

. On the east side of the island is the small hamlet of ''Klein Kirr''; in the north are the ruins of an old farmstead.

Flora and fauna

The island is covered by

salt marsh A salt marsh or saltmarsh, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. It is dominated ...

es and dissected by creeks. It is an ideal breeding ground for numerous birds, especially

wader 245px, A flock of Dunlins and Red knots">Red_knot.html" ;"title="Dunlins and Red knot">Dunlins and Red knots Waders or shorebirds are birds of the order Charadriiformes commonly found wikt:wade#Etymology 1, wading along shorelines and mudflat ...

s like

dunlin The dunlin (''Calidris alpina'') is a small wader, formerly sometimes separated with the other "stints" in the genus ''Erolia''. The English name is a dialect form of "dunling", first recorded in 1531–1532. It derives from ''dun'', "dull brown ...

ruff Ruff may refer to: Places *Ruff, Virginia, United States, an unincorporated community *Ruff, Washington, United States, an unincorporated community Other uses *Ruff (bird) (''Calidris pugnax'' or ''Philomachus pugnax''), a bird in the wader fami ...

, redshank,

black-tailed godwit The black-tailed godwit (''Limosa limosa'') is a large, long-legged, long-billed shorebird first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758. It is a member of the godwit genus, ''Limosa''. There are four subspecies, all with orange head, neck and chest ...

oystercatcher The oystercatchers are a group of waders forming the family Haematopodidae, which has a single genus, ''Haematopus''. They are found on coasts worldwide apart from the polar regions and some tropical regions of Africa and South East Asia. The e ...

avocet The four species of avocets are a genus, ''Recurvirostra'', of waders in the same avian family as the stilts. The genus name comes from Latin , 'curved backwards' and , 'bill'. The common name is thought to derive from the Italian ( Ferrarese) w ...

and

lapwing Lapwings (subfamily Vanellinae) are any of various ground-nesting birds (family Charadriidae) akin to plovers and dotterels. They range from in length, and are noted for their slow, irregular wingbeats in flight and a shrill, wailing cry. A gro ...

as well as the

black-headed gull The black-headed gull (''Chroicocephalus ridibundus'') is a small gull that breeds in much of the Palearctic including Europe and also in coastal eastern Canada. Most of the population is migratory and winters further south, but some birds res ...

. In autumn the island acts as a resting place for several thousand crane over several weeks as they migrate south. As a consequence of its natural importance, walking on the island or landing boats there without permission is forbidden.

History

Around 1700, the Kirr had three owners, the ''

Amt Amt is a type of administrative division governing a group of municipalities, today only in Germany, but formerly also common in other countries of Northern Europe. Its size and functions differ by country and the term is roughly equivalent to ...

'' of Barth (331.6 hectares), the town of Barth (219 hectares) and the Horn family from Divitz (20 hectares). The island was managed by a farmstead and was mainly used by several tenants who grazed cattle and raised crops. They were also allowed to fish around the island. Today the Kirr is still used for cattle pasture. In order to get the cows to their grazing fields there is a cattle ferry to the island from the village of ''Müggenburg''. File:Kirr klein-kirr.jpg, Klein Kirr on the island of Kirr File:Kuhfahre kirr.jpg, Cow ferry to the island of Kirr

External links

Website of the national park
{{authority control Zingst Uninhabited islands of Germany German islands in the Baltic Nature reserves in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Darss-Zingst Bodden Chain Islands of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania