Ramsey Island 4 August 2014

Yellow centaury Cove, S Ramsey

We caught the ferry (Thousand Islands Expeditions) from St. Justinian’s, west of St. David’s, to the RSPB reserve of Ramsey Island, only 5 minutes off the coast.  In the sea we saw compass jellyfish.  After a brief talk by the warden we set off around the island, although we were confined to set trails.  We particularly wanted to visit the large pools in the centre of the island but these for some reason were off limits, although they were said to have many of the more interesting plants.  The island is largely acid heathland and species poor – dominated by bracken, heather, bell heather and western gorse.  The interesting plants were mainly just south of the harbour in the vicinity of wet flushes or along the paths.  The latter had chamomile, mats of sea storksbill, balm-leaved figwort, tiny clusters of allseed, and the eyebrights Euphrasia confusa and E. tetraquetra.  The boggy areas had marsh St. John’s-wort, marsh bedstraw, bog pimpernel, lesser marshwort, parsley water-dropwort, and lesser spearwort, while small pools had bog pondweed and three-lobed water-crowfoot.  We found just one plant of yellow centaury with one open flower, tiny (3-4mm across) and 4-petalled, on a slender long stalk above equally slender leaves.  Without an open flower the plant would be almost impossible to spot.  Spring squill seed-heads were abundant in many places all around the island.  We saw one small group of lesser skullcap.  The larger land-birds were dominated by large groups of choughs, although we also saw some ravens and carrion crows.  Smaller birds included lots of wheatear, linnets and stonechats, plus yellowhammer, goldfinch and blackbird.  The seabird colonies had mainly gone, apart from a few fulmar still feeding young.  Grey seals were frequent in the sea in the southern and western coves, but they were not yet coming onto the beaches to deliver young.  There were only a few butterflies around, mostly hedge brown and grayling, some dragonflies that eluded a close look, and a prettily-marked green-eyed horsefly (twin-lobed deerfly) that tried to bite my arm.  The island is obviously formed from volcanic rocks, lavas and tuffs, as they break away irregularly, and some, at the heads of the coves, are very fissile.  In mid-Ordovician times it was the centre of volcanic activity in the area. Euphrasia tetraquetra

Aber Mawr, N Ramsey Chamomile Lesser skullcap

Ramsey Island from St Justinian's

Balm-leaved figwort

Marsh St John's-wort

Sea storksbill