A quiet unassuming visitor to the shores of Penzance, the purple sandpiper takes the beach at Barbican as its temporary residence over winter. A wader, and feeds on sight of food (winkles and whelks), and does not dig, it follows the tide edge. When the tide is high and in rough weather, they cling to the built cliffs of the seawall. They need shingle beaches to survive. I wonder if these birds have been considered when the proposals to destroy the beach and to cover this wall, and to form the new 'oh so smooth' massive high sea wall were lain out by the architects?
