03/13/2026
The Spring 2025 issue of the Nova Scotia Bird Society magazine, 'Nova Scotia Birds', is available online. For those that are paid members of the society, you can download it at the link below.
https://www.nsbirdsociety.ca/library/library-introduction/recent-publications
For those that aren't yet paid members, you can join here:
https://www.nsbirdsociety.ca/join
This post contains images of select pages from this issue.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Here is the Editor's Foreword for this latest issue:
By Alix Arthur d'Entremont
Some of this season’s birds posed significant identification challenges. A small white goose in Cumberland County was eventually identified as a Snow x Ross’s Goose. Perhaps a bit more straightforward were cases like the pinning down subspecies of a dark-bellied Brant in Yarmouth County that best fits Black Brant, or a Guysborough County Cliff Swallow of the southwestern-breeding subspecies with a dark forehead (similar to Cave Swallow). Thankfully, many were able to add pure Ross’s Goose to their lists when one was found in Cape Breton, representing only the fourth record of the species for the province. Other highlights included two Golden Eagles, a Harris’s Sparrow and a Western Tanager continuing from winter.
We are again delighted to be able to share some of Joan Czapalay's (Cormier) stories about her birding past. This issue’s installment, Chapter 2: A Penny for the Boatmen, invites readers to hop aboard various boats and get to know the men who ran them, and the islands that were the destinations of most trips. Gisele d’Entremont’s tribute to Judy O’Brien is a touching read and will show you how the important the friendships that we forge through the mutual love of birds often are foundational in our lives. Judy cherished the time she spent with friends on birding trips from Pictou County to Spain and beyond. This issue’s Behind the Oculars interview is with Andrew Bates, an Annapolis Valley birder who caught the bug in 2022. A recent Mechanical Engineering graduate, Andrew returned to school to earn a Bachelor of Science with the hopes of landing an ornithology job.
It has come time for our long-time Seasonal Summary contributors Ken McKenna and Ross Hall to pass the baton on to someone else. Ken has been writing the Warblers section since 2000 and Ross has been covering Waterfowl since 2013 and briefly Loons and Grebes until those species were moved to another section. Thank you very much to both of these volunteers for their service. Next issue you’ll see Ken and Ross’s names replaced by Kyle d’Entremont who is taking on their sections. Since 2015, Keith Lowe has been requesting, processing and exporting the eBird data that forms the backbone of the Seasonal Summary for Nova Scotia Birds. This issue is Keith’s last for handling these tasks. The work that he has done over the last 11 years has been invaluable. Thank you, Keith! This is quite technical work so a replacement isn’t easy to find; however, we are thrilled that Jason Dain has stepped up and will begin handling the eBird data starting with the summer 2025 issue.
You’ll see that we’ve added a few more names under the Editorial team at left on this page. For a few years now, Kathleen MacAulay and Mark Dennis have been reviewing near-final versions of Nova Scotia Birds before it goes on to publishing online and printing. It is very helpful to have people with fresh eyes to catch things that the core team may have missed. We also welcome Angela MacDonald who has just started helping with reviewing the magazine at this near-final stage. Starting at the spring 2024 issue, Darlene Pye replaced Diane LeBlanc and Dawn LeBlanc who had been taking care of the printing and mailing of the magazine for the last few years. Thank you Diane and Dawn for your help and welcome Darlene!
Happy reading!
