The mutant mouth of the Muíños, a river that eats dunes in southern Galicia

I recently told you about America Beach, in Nigrán, and today I'm going to tell you a little more about the river that flows into that sandy area.

America Beach, the great blonde beauty of Nigrán on the southern bank of the Vigo Bay
The mouth of the Miñor River and the sad curse of this beautiful corner of Galicia

The Muíños River (Mills, in Galician) rises in the mountainous area of ​​the interior of the municipality of Nigrán (Pontevedra), at about 360 meters high, next to the parish of Chandebrito. From there it descends towards the parish of Camos, crossing the current Porto do Molle business park, to finally reach the sea on the southern coast of the Ría de Vigo, between the beaches of Panjón and Playa América (in fact, the mouth of this river indicates where one beach begins and the other ends).

The river's name comes from the water mills that once stood along its banks, at a time when they were used to grind grain. There are still some of them in the area. Last Sunday I was at the mouth of the river, which is characterised by its variable nature, as it changes from time to time depending on the force of the water and the storms that hit the coast.

The main victims of the changing nature of the Muíños River are the Panjón dunes, located on the north side of the river mouth. As I mentioned here in 2016, these natural variations at the river mouth have been eroding these dunes, leaving a slope up to 3 metres high. As a result, the river has become a difficult-to-solve threat to the Panjón dune system.

Next to the mouth of the Muíños River there is a wooden walkway that connects Panjón with America Beach. This walkway crosses an area with a lot of vegetation and where there is a very varied fauna.

At the southern end of this wooden walkway there is an ornithological observation hut, from which we can see and take photos of the birds that inhabit this place. This day I was not lucky, since much of this fauna had flown to Panjón to sniff out the large amount of algae that had been brought to the beach by the recent storms.

Among the birds in the area are the yellow-legged gull (Larus michahellis, the most common species in the Vigo Estuary), the black-headed gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus, characterized by the dark color of its head plumage during the summer months), the white wagtail (Motacilla alba), the kingfisher (Alcedo atthis), the meadow pipit (Anthus petrosus), the kentish plover (Charadrius alexandrinus), the kittiwake (Calidris alba), the turnstone (Arenaria interpres), the oystercatcher (Haematopus ostralegus), the little loon (Gavia stellata), the common shag (Phalacrocorax aristotelis), the common scoter (Melanitta nigra) and the grey heron (Ardea cinerea), among other species.

Please note that the mouth of the Muiños River is a no-swimming area, as it is a flora and fauna reserve.

You can see here some more photos of this place that I have uploaded to my Flickr account.