The Wildlife Watchpoint

Volunteers show visitors the local wildlife from the watchpoint at Lizard Point, Cornwall | © National Trust Images/Chris Lacey

Sitting at the tip of Lizard Point is the wildlife watchpoint, run by a spirited team of volunteers keen to show visitors the abundance of wildlife making itself at home nearby.

The Wildlife Watchpoint

Lizard Point is the most southerly point of mainland Britain, where the Atlantic meets the English Channel. It is famous for historic shipwrecks and is abundant in wildlife.

Visitors can borrow binoculars and scopes from the rustic hut, chat with the volunteer team about what’s been spotted that day and see what wildlife waits to be discovered. One of the most popular daily highlights are the Atlantic grey seals which can be seeing lounging on rocks just offshore or ‘bottling’ (sleeping) in the water close by. Throughout summer dolphins, porpoise, sunfish and the occasional whale and basking shark can also be seen.

Bird watching

The watchpoint is also one of the best places to see seabirds in the UK with species such as gannets, puffins, terns, guillemots, razorbills, swallows, oystercatchers, turnstones, whimbrels, various skuas and shearwaters regularly identified. It is also home to Cornish choughs, easily spotted with their black body and distinctive red bill and legs.

Chough at Godrevy, Cornwall — Cornish chough | © National Trust Images/Aaron Claxton

Cornish choughs

Chough numbers began to decline in the later part of the 18th century and by the mid-20thcentury they had disappeared altogether. In 2001, wild choughs were sighted at Lizard Point for the first time in over 50 years, thanks to decades of work to reintroduce traditional grazing and scrub management to the clifftops and coastal fields which recreated the choughs' natural habitat.

Two of the birds began to nest, chicks were born and thanks to a huge collective effort from local people, including all-night vigils against egg thieves, the chough family grew. You can now spot choughs in numerous locations around Cornwall, including at Lizard Point.