Cape St. Mary’s Ecological Reserve

                     At the southwest tip of the Avalon Peninsula lies Cape St. Mary’s--

 --home of one of the most spectacular and most accessible seabird colonies in North America--

  

                   -- and one of the best places in the world to see nesting seabirds. 

The air is full of the sight, sound and smell of tens of thousands of birds.

 The main cliff-top viewing area faces a nest-covered sea stack.

  Bird rock and adjacent cliffs are like avian high rise apartment towers.

 
The ledges, outcrops, overhangs and plateaus offer a variety of accommodations for a variety of birds species. 

    It was foggy and wet today but we had no problem seeing the 11,000 plus nesting pairs of Northern Gannets--

                                        -- 10,000 pairs of Common Murres--

                           -- and 10,000 pairs of black-legged Kittiwake.

                               The path to the cliffs was lined with many meadow flowers.