Holiday in Pembrokeshire: To Ramsey Island and beyond

Today I went to Ramsey Island, an RSPB reserve. It was bought (not that long ago)
through public donations with the aim of managing the island for choughs, approximately jackdaw sized crow family members with thin red beaks and red legs (a smart little bird!)

take a look at someone else's video of a chough here

They need grassland that is near the coast but very cropped very short, so that they can find their food items. This is why sheep are grazed here, and it was whilst awaiting a chough to photograph (I failed with this) that I snapped these relaxed looking lambs .... via my telescope!

Progressing on my way around the island, weighed down with an exess of baggage
and under a hot sun (there was NO SHADE!!!) I enjoyed views of sea birds on the cliffs, seals
in the water and wild flowers such as spring squill and blue bells around about me
....as well as scenic cliffs and rocky outcrops.From the top of the highest of the two island hills I had a grand view over the whole island, spotting the herd of red deer that also grace the island as they enjoyed a paddle in a distant (freshwater) pool. I also had a fine view across Ramsey Sound to the St. David's Pensinsula, with a further sweep around St. Bride's Bay towards the Marloes peninular and Skomer. Thus the following video, made at this point, gave an (almost complete) overview for the locations of my Pembrokeshire holiday!!

I was also able to see and photograph St. David's cathedral from an unaccustomed angle...

After returning to the mainland and a quick visit to my holiday accomodation I returned to St. Justinians for an evening boat expedition. This took us out across Ramsey Sound once again, spotting a pod of porpoises fishing in the strong tidal stream:

..then around the southern end of Ramsey, enjoying even better views of the guillemots, razorbills, kittiwakes on the cliffs, of 100 or so grey seals relaxing on a beach, and some interesting sea caves and other geological features

before heading further out to sea towards the Bishop Islands, where we hoped to see some puffins. We saw two, at a distance....

The final objective of this excursion, however, was to watch out for manx shearwaters (latin name, ironically being "puffinus puffinus"!!) returning to their nests on Skomer and Skokholm after a day out feeding in the Irish sea. Later in the season we could hope to see thousands passing the boat in the course of an hour. Today we saw only a couple of dozen. But we DID see them, flying gracefully and low over the sea like little black and white albatrosses, and that was quite a treat!!

This most enjoyable boat trip ended with beautiful backward views to the Bishop Islands

and an interestingly abrupt increase in air temperature as we neared the mainland!