Glaucous gull at Coverack

There were lots of gulls on the beach this morning ....including this lovely glaucous gull!

Glaucous gull .....

Preening great black -backed gull 

Immature gulls ....

....and a herring gull ...almost forgot to photograph one!

Terence Coventry, sculptures near Coverack.

On returning from our 'muddy' walk ....and finding the correct path (!) we came across what one would have presumed to be a posh Cornish garden. In fact it was a sculpture park - 3 meadows housing a variety of sculptures; with free entrance. The artist,Terence Coventry, was born in Birmingham in 1938. He studied Fine Art at Stourbridge in 1954. He completed his National Service in the RAF in 1959-61 and was subsequently accepted by the Royal College of Art in 1961 to study painting, but left after a year and took up farming in west Cornwall. In 1985 he began to make sculpture his major activity, which was triggered by the vast amount of elm wood on his land that became available for carving as a result of Dutch elm disease. (http://www.sculpture.org.uk/artist/terence-coventry)

Coverack to Black Head and on to Pedn Boar.

This has to be one of the muddiest walks I've done! After last night's rain the path was extremely  muddy - especially the diversion just out of Coverack. The views were ok, but the gorse had been recently burnt. Black Head was described in the middle 19th century as being ' a bare and gloomy promontory, but remarkable for the beauty of its serpentine'. The look out station on Black Head was open and has informative boards inside. It was in use until 1987. We even managed to find some of the 'graffitti' carved into the rocks by the huers as they awaited the next sighting of pilchards.

Black Head look out.

Huers' carvings.

Spring squill - hopefully it'll be fully out by the end of our week - there was certainly a lot on Black Head. 

The state of the path left something to be desired! 

Serpentine at Soap Rock, near Kynance Cove.

Whilst on our walk from Predannack Wollas to Kynance Cove yesterday we passed by the old quarry at Soap Rock - just by Gew-graze; otherwise known as Soapy Cove. The soapstone was apparently mined (https://sites.google.com/site/soaprockcoast/) from Mullion down to the Lizard and the crushed rock was used in the making of soft paste porcelain. This was important as previously  porcelain had to be imported from China, porcelain being the only available material that in the 1700s that was able to withstand the boiling water required for the making of tea and coffee. Metal containers obviously could too, but were too expensive for general usage. In the quarry there were super exposures of serpentine, with which soapstone is associated. A geology blog will be forthcoming at some stage! In the meanwhile here are some pretty pictures of serpentine!

Coastal birding - Predannack Wollas to Kynance

Lovely to see a good range of birds this morning.

Fulmars.......

Peregrines - a pair displaying in the air...

Raven and shag.

Predannack Wollas to Kynance Cove.

The forecast was for rain and winds coming in at 1pm (and it wasn't wrong!), so a shorter walk today parking at Predannack Wollas farm and walking along the coast. A spectacular bit of coastline with good views!

Lizard point - Kynance Cove - Gadgwith - Lizard point.

A dry day, which was a bonus - given what the forecast looked like yesterday! We parked up on the end of the Lizard and then: around to Kynance cove; across Lizard Downs; down to Cadgwith and back along the coast to Lizard point. Quite cool and breezy and the path was distinctly muddy. Cracking views though and fantastic geology (too many serpentine pebbles were brought back - again!) as well as signs of spring. The squill is nearly out!

Shame the lizard decided to sun itself on a discarded poo bag!