I awoke to thick fog at 6.00am and thought that our planned cruise along the bird cliffs was a 'goner' but by 8.45am, as we boarded the Zodiacs, the fog had dissipated and the sun was beginning to show through the light cloud cover and what a magnificent sight greeted our eyes with millions of Brunnings Guillemots in the skies, bobbing on the water in small social gatherings and thousands and thousands more looking on from the rocky ledges of these 300 metre high cliffs where they are incubating this year's eggs.
These cliffs were just teeming with healthy life and as the Expedition Leader told us at the Recap yesterday evening in the fog at 4.00am the ships radar was covered with images of Guillemots.
So, first where are we? For a map and more you can visit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Wolstenholme
Cape Wolstenholme is a cape at the extreme northernmost point of the province of Quebec, Canada and located on the Hudson Strait, about 28 kilometres (17 mi) north-east of Quebec's northernmost settlement of Ivujivik.
Its 300 metre (980 ft) high rocky cliffs dominate the surroundings and mark the entrance to Digges Sound, an arm of Hudson Bay where the strong currents of the bay meet the Hudson Strait. The Digges Islands are two islands of the Arctic Archipelago of the Nunavut territory.
On Henry Hudson's last mission in 1610, he mapped this coast and named the cape "Wolstenholme" to honour Sir John Wolstenholme (1562-1639), an English merchant who sponsored the expedition and was interested in finding the Northwest Passage. Shortly after, mutineers from Hudson's expedition clashed with local Inuit on the nearby Digges Islands, the second recorded encounter between Europeans and Inuit. In 1697, Captain Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville and his crew, in search of commercial opportunities in Hudson Bay, conducted the first commercial trades with Inuit at Cape Wolstenholme – more about the Hudsons Bay Company when I post about our afternoon shore tour to Erik Cove.
Hudson renamed Saaqqayaaq-Qikirtasiit, the original name of the island, after his friend, a member of the English Parliament, Sir Dudley Digges.
So much about the place what about the seabirds? The cape is the nesting place of one of the world's largest colonies of Thick Billed Murre, the American name for Brunnings Guillemots.
Inevitably I took over a hundred photos at this wondrous wildlife site so I will attach a few here and more in the next post when the Guillemots will take centre stage.
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