Cape Saint Marys Gannet Colony

Above, David Sparks is positioned very close to the peak of a small peninsula carved out if these amazing cliffs. We parked our van at the visitors center and hiked a full mile to where David is sitting. The 2 images below where taken from just past the visitors center, first one with my 18-70, and the second with my 200-400 mm lens. (they were taken at different times!)

I am not sure, but I think the estimated population of this colony is 15,000 birds. We picked a good time to visit, as the chick population was also extensive. A little smelly, a few flies, but the shooting opportunity made up for it in a big way! (3,179 images with my D300 alone!)

We spent about 5 hours here in the morning, and about 4 hours in the evening, sweet and awesome light throughout the day! One could virtually fire frames none stop here for hours.

Thanks to Chris Bridge for hiking up the hill late in the day and locating the ptarmigans!! Awesome!! I will edit a couple of those shots soon. All in all, a great day.

This is the scene at 38mm with my D300, you can see if you look closely, there are 2 people at the location where David is shooting above. Click on the image for the full size.

Here is the scene later in the day @ 400mm with the D300, from just under a mile away. You can see Glenn, Chris, and David at the peninsula.

And a few images to see why we went all this distance! At one point, David, Chris and I shimmied down the cliff face to get a shot of a Muir trying to grab and run with a razorbill chick!!, just down below of where Glenn is shooting on the left side of the group above.