John James Audubon was aboard Ripley when she sailed into the harbor of the Little Mecattina / “Macatina Harbour” (Petit Mécatina/Île du Petit Mécatina/Little Mecattina Cove) on the coast of Québec in the late afternoon of July 14, 1833. The harbor is the “very representation of the bottom of a large bowl … surrounded by rocks fully a thousand feet high, and the wildest-looking place I ever was in.” Only a pair of Ravens seen perching on the rocks and heard squawking and “graak“-ing could better complete the wildest scene.
Also spotted flying in and around the scraggly alders and spruce trees sprouting up in between the rocks and ravines of Little Mecattina Cove was the Blackpoll warbler. “I felt as if the enormous expense of our voyage had been refunded.” Audubon had encountered the Blackpoll warbler on many other occasions during their migrations. Although, to find a nest of the Blackpoll warbler at the Little Mecattina Cove was yet another opportunity for Audubon to document how far birds are capable of traveling for nesting and wintering. It is known today that the Blackpoll warbler, a bird about the size of and as fragile as a wine glass, can fly without stopping for as long as 72 hours in its rush to head south for the winter.