05 Feb A unique outing for birders this Sunday in Cape Breton

One of the many counterintuitive facts about Sydney’s notorious Tar Ponds is that, in their final years, the ponds were a haven for wildlife, especially shore birds and waterfowl. Several factors made this possible.

• The ponds were fenced to keep people out, and keeping people out is a boon to wildlife.
• Until the mid-oughts mid-aughts, the ponds served as dumping ground for much of Sydney’s sanitary sewage. A profusion of lush shrubs, marsh plants, and wild flowers around the ponds’ edges attested to the copious influx of nutrients.
• While the pond sediments contained a huge volume of moderately contaminated industrial waste, the toxins they contained were mostly not water soluble.

Today, the Tar Ponds have been filled in. Parkland and a playground have replaced the eyesore that once scarred the community. The only remaining watercourse is a channelized drainage canal, albeit one that follows an attractive meandering course through the park.

So what has happened to all the birds that once made the Tar Ponds their permanent or seasonal home?

This Sunday, retired Lands and Forests wildlife biologist Dave Harris and Cape Breton University biology professor Dave McCorquodale, two of Nova Scotia’s pre-eminent birders, will lead a two-and-a-half-hour convoy to birding hotspots around Sydney Harbour. The Harbour Hop is a chance to see how aquatic birds have adapted to a habitat changed by industrial cleanup and the advent of sewage treatment. According to the organizers:

We can expect to see Barrow’s goldeneyes, red breasted mergansers, maybe some buffleheads, and more. Plus, there’s always the chance to see the unexpected. Dave and Dave will show us how to differentiate among gulls, and we’ll talk about why wastewater outfalls are so popular amongst the feathered. CBRM Wastewater Operations staff will be there to tell us about where outfalls were, are, and will be, so we can compare bird behaviour over time with our own.

Co-sponsored by ACAP Cape Breton and CBRM’s Wastewater Management Dept., the tour is the brainchild of ACAP project coordinator Jen Cooper, who studied fish in the Tar Ponds a decade ago as a biology student at CBU. Participants should pre-register by calling 902-567-1628, and meet the two Daves at the Walmart parking lot, Sydney River, at 1 p.m., Sunday, February 8. Dress for the weather and bring binoculars if you have them.