First big shock............

Was the winter of 08/09. We had 13 major snow and ice events. It snowed on New years Day, froze and stayed for 2 months! Lowest temperature was -22c. The hairs in my nostrils froze on my way to the bus stop! It started as fun but as the winter progressed it became a bore. The ground was solid ice, the sea was frozen, you could not walk anywhere. But, the birding was excellent.

Amongst the goodies; varied thrush, snowy owls, ivory gull, red bellied woodpecker (not so scarce), brown thrasher, pine warbler (overwintering in Halifax in continual sub zero temps!!), loads of harlequin ducks, buffleheads, scoters, shore larks etc. We had waxwings feeding in the garden g n divers in the hundreds, thousands of iceland gulls and hundreds of bald eagles.

Hey, you know how it is...................

Well we were up for trying something new. I had lived, worked (Scottish Wildlife Trust) and birded in Scotland for 11 years and Southampton for 10 years. Been birding for 45 years and never been to the New World. Me and the family were a bit bored. I have worked in wildlife conservation for 25 years now so I wanted to carry on in this field.

I was directed to the web site of the Nova Scotia Nature Trust by some friends and work colleagues (from the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust) who were also moving out here. On the web site a job was advertised. I applied, got the interview and got the job. We have been here for 14 months now. I set up this blog to give everyone a flavour of what it is like living, working and birding here.

We sold our house during the recession (lucky or what) and bought a house here in Lower Sackville, about 15 miles outside Halifax where I am based. I bus in every day on a LINK bus that costs me $85 per month.

With 14 months of blog to catch up on, I will include a series of photos from late 2008 to date with some info on the birding as I catch up to date.