Porthgwarra to Pordenack Point heath, and for being of considerable ornithological interest; especially for passage migrants. The southern section, Tol Pedn or Gwennap Head, in particular is favoured by birdwatchers and many travel the length and breadth of Britain to track rare seabirds. The headland is renowned for its relative abundance of passing marine bird species with many common species such as northern gannet ("Morus bassanus"), Manx shearwater ("Puffinus puffinus"), common guillemot, ("Uria aalge"), razorbill ("Alca torda"), northern fulmar ("Fulmarus glacialis"), shag ("Phalacrocorax aristotelis") and cormorant ("Phalacrocorax carbo"). Forty-five breeding species have been recorded including the red-billed choughs ("Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax") which have recently been
Gwennap Head 15 October each year and most of the recording was by volunteers who spent up to twelve hours a day on seawatch. The main targeted species were Balearic shearwater ("Puffinus mauretanicus") and basking shark, along with the ocean sunfish (or common mola). Marine mammals such as whales, dolphins and grey seal ("Halichoerus grypus") were additional main targets. During a seawatch on 28 August 2015 a red-billed tropicbird ("Phaethon aethereus") was seen over the Runnel Stone, a bird that usually frequents tropical areas. Gwennap Head is part of the Land’s End granite massif with shallow, free-draining and acidic soils. The dominant