Seals, dolphins, porpoises and basking sharks have all been spotted at different times. Golden plover and lapwing spend their winters in the area, and magnificent buzzards and kestrels are regularly spotted soaring overhead.

The contents of the spoil heaps produced by mining provide rare and valuable glimpses into the formation and development of the planet and some of the mosses, lichens and other plants that thrive here can survive nowhere else. Marine biologists find a great diversity of life in the shallow pools of Porthledden Cove.

"Around mid-March the first migrant passerine birds arrive. Out on the exposed headlands or high moors, where the living at this time of year is anything but easy, look for the species that for me is the truest herald of the beginning of spring. Perched on some prominent feature, a rock or fencepost, the first wheatears pause, totally motionless as a ploy to remain unnoticed, and then dip their bodies in rapid bows as they watch the approaching intruder. A quick flap and they are gone."

"Choose a warm and balmy evening, windless, in late May and June, and walk across the downs to the slopes of some heather-covered hill. Or you can be lazy and try Carn Galver. Park by the Bosigran engine houses. Stop and listen as the dusk falls about you. There! Or is it there? Somewhere up there? Or on the next bit of fragmented moorlans? Ah, there! Chuurrrrr-urrr-urrr-urrr. Nightjars … Magic!"

"Some of the old mining areas are so contaminated with heavy metals and arsenic that few things are able to exist, yet those that do are among the most interesting and colourful for the coarser perennials with deep tap roots needing rich soil and moisture can not survive here. Similarly, it is wind and salt that restrict the growth of broad-leaved competitors on the exposed coasts, resulting in the magnificent displays of thrift, kidney vetch and sea carrot."