Day 22: Cape St. Mary's and leaving for home

Today unfortunately we had to pack up and say our goodbyes to Patrick.  We enjoyed our time with Patrick at the cabin immensely so we really didn't want to leave.  Leaving Patrick's cabin meant we were at the start of our long trip back home and the end of our vacation.  Our agenda for the day was to head out to Cape St. Mary's.  The bird sanctuary at Cape St. Mary's is the 2nd largest colony of Northern Gannets in North America.  On our last visit to Newfoundland we tried visiting the site but it was raining quite heavily so we never did see the birds.  We crossed our fingers that this time we'd have better luck.  After visiting the bird sanctuary at Cape St. Mary's we'd travel on to Argentia to take the evening ferry back to the mainland.

I really didn't know what to expect we arrived at the bird sanctuary.  From the visitor's center you need to walk about 1 km to the site of the bird colony.  The colony is situated on some coastal cliffs which tower about 300 meters above the sea.  As we walked to the site I noticed that the cliffs appeared to be white on top and there were what appeared to be flies nearby.  As we got closer it became apparent that what I saw were birds - thousands of them.  As we got even closer there was a load humm which was the collective noise from the thousands of birds that were nesting on the cliff!  It was quite an amazing site to behold and something that I had never seen or experienced before.  We spent a few hours at the bird colony taking pictures and enjoying the view from the clifftop.

Atty and Patrick at the cabin

Me and Atty at Patrick's cabin

The view from Patrick's cabin

On the way to the birds at Cape St. Mary's

A closer look at the Northern Gannet rookery

Another view of the bird colony

Yes that's Atty near the edge of a cliff taking pictures

This gives you an idea of the numbers present

A Northern Gannet in flight

If you look closely you'll see the chicks.

Another shot of the birds in flight

A view of the cliff (about 300 meters above the sea) by the bird colony