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Description
Porthgwarra has a bit of everything, habitat wise and a full day here can turn up a surprising amount of birds.
The car park has a small wooded copse to its north and this is often a good place to start your day. Britains first muharski peničar was found here years ago and more recent rarirites include samotni cikovtnik! During Autumn migration the wood is good for črnoglavi muhar and sivi muhar, mušja listnica, rdečeglavi kraljiček and possibly something rarer such as mali muhar or zelena listnica.
From here walk up the valley and after the wooden five bar gate take the path to the left and down into the wooded valley known as 60 Foot Cover. On a calm sunny morning take time here to stand/sit and observe the copse. A rumenokljuni kukavec was found by a visiting birder in October 2014. This area is also good for warblers which can include črnoglavka, rjava penica, mlinarček, severni kovaček, vrbji kova ek and vrtna penica.
Go back out of the valley and take the footpath right again onto the moorland. Just before the wall that cuts across the moor is the 'Dried up Pool'. Despite its name its not always dried up, but this is a good place to look for vijeglavka in the Autumn. The moor is a good spot for zlata prosenka in the winter and Pipits and Buntings during the Autumn. laponski ostroglež is a regular Autumn migrant here and kupcar and repaljščica can be found amongst the heather. prosnik are very common too. Keep a look out for birds of prey. sokol selec, pepelasti lunj, rjavi lunj, škrjančar, mali sokol, navadna postovka, Pegasta sova and močvirska uharica have all been seen here.
A walk further towards Lands' End will find you at Trevean Pool. The pool itself is pretty much inaccesible but the surounding woodland is great for spring and autumn scarce migrants and overshoots like rumeni vrtnik, kratkoperuti vrtnik, rjavi srakoper and rjavoglavi srakoper, taščična penica, smrdokavra and rdeca lastovka. Keep a listen out for flyover grilček in Spring too! Anything can turn up here.
Resident birds include planinska vrana, krokar, poljski škrjanec, travniška cipa, stržek, siva pevka, tašcica and obalna vriskarica.
From July through to late September, Porthgwarra becomes one of the UK's top seawatching hotspots. Some of the country's rarest seabirds have been seen from the cliffs at Gwennap Head including falklandski albatros, zelenortski švigavec, Trindade Petrel (yet to be accepted) and antarktični strakoš. When conditions are right (South-westerly gales are best!) there can be thousands of rumenokljuni viharnik, veliki viharnik, črni viharnik, balearski viharnik and atlantski viharnik with a supporting cast of strakoš ledni viharnik, strmoglavec, bodičasta govnačka, dolgorepa govnačka, velika govnačka, lopatasta govnačka, lastovičji galeb, ploskokljuni liskonožec, viharni strakoš and all manor of divers, ducks, auks, terns, gulls and waders flying past!
Details
Access
From the A30 near Land's End take the B3315 to Polgigga, just after the duck pond take the road signposted to Porthgwarra. This is a very narrow road and can be busy during the summer and weekends. Get there early to avoid the crowds! There is a pay and display car park, toilets and a nice cafe that does great coffee, cakes and pasties!