Back in the summer we went on a boat trip out to Grassholm with Falcon Boats. This is one of the longer trips you can do from Pembrokeshire as Grassholm is quite a way offshore and lies on the other side of St Brides Bay. Leaving from the slipway at St Justinians and motoring South beyond Ramsey, we kept an eye out for wildlife on the way and were lucky enough to see common dolphins and porpoise. Motoring slowly gives a good chance to get close to the dolphins as they like to interact with the boats but on this occasion they weren’t too interested so we headed on to Grassholm. The island is home to one of the largest Gannet colonies in the Northern hemisphere and we were able to slowly motor around the island to get a good look at the various groups perched on the rock or leaving and returning from hunting excursions. We then motored out towards the Smalls lighthouse which sits on rocks that are even further offshore. We had a good glimpse of some Rissos dolphins which are not a common sighting and lovely to see. They are less inclined to come and investigate a boat so our glimpse was short lived. It was interesting to get close to the lighthouse as it’s a sight that has only ever appeared to me as a tiny feature on the horizon despite being fascinated by its history.
The trip was a good chance to have a go with a long lens I’d recently bought second hand. The Sigma 150-600mm F5-6.3 DG. The lens is much bigger and heavier than my usual lens and it’s tricky to get used to holding such a big lens whilst on a moving boat so a lot of my shots weren’t up to much but here’s a few that were of reasonable quality. I think a lot more practice might be required to get some of the amazing wildlife shots that are possible with such a lens!
