Here's a random selection of artifacts Parks Canada archaeologist Charles Burke found last summer near the site of the former East Lighthouse on Sable Island. Burke was conducting a baseline survey of archaeological resources to guide preservation and future investigation of artifacts on the newly created Sable Island National Park. Burke will present the results of his survey in a slide show at 7:30 pm, Tuesday, in Burke Theatre A, Saint Mary's University. [The meeting may be moved to accommodate the large crowd expected. I'll update this post if that happens. Nope. The meeting will take place in Burke Theatre A, capacity 160. Come early...

21 March, 2016

As a storm swept through the South Shore Saturday Friday afternoon, Peter Barss headed out to photograph the ominous clouds. It snowed. It rained. It changed back to snow, then pea-sized hail. At Port Medway, the threatening clouds parted briefly, and warm sunlight briefly bathed the shore. Thunder and lightening followed until, just as Peter started packing up his gear, a rainbow appeared. Here's his lyrical description: No dolphins frolicked joyfully in the waves, angels didn't sing to me, no godly voice told me the rainbow was a sign of hope. In fact, the rainbow didn't even mark the end of the storm. I drove home under black...

20 March, 2016

I wrote, as many have written and said before me, "The worst thing about living in Cape Breton, even worse than getting through April, is watching so many young people leave home, knowing most will only return for fleeting visits." Warren Reed disagrees: The best thing about living in Cape Breton, even better than finally getting through April, is watching so many young people leave home to make successes of themselves. We are a small place overflowing with smart and ambitious youth, more than we deserve or can possibly use.  It seems that our best export continues to be talent.  In boardrooms across Canada, in...

20 March, 2016

The worst thing about living in Cape Breton, even worse than getting through April, is watching so many young people leave home, knowing most will only return for fleeting visits. I'm way beyond grateful to have both my sons, and all my grandchildren, close at hand. Among the missing is Hannah MacDonald, a bright, cheerful Caper from Mira who managed education and outreach for ACAP Cape Breton before decamping for Alberta four years ago. She's now in Budapest, Hungary, awaiting a visa that will let her resume work as an environmental project manager. I keep track of Hannah through Seeking a Simple Story, a blog she writes about her life...

19 March, 2016

Here's another follow-up to my post criticizing Halifax journalist Tim Bousquet's sexist personal attack on Laurie Graham, the Cape Breton-raised former journalist who will receive $160,000 a year as principal secretary to Premier Stephen McNeil. Previous instalments here and here. Every government—every government—has a handful of jobs that are political in nature. These are never—never—advertised or filled through open competitions. Contrarian reader Doug Keefe, a former Nova Scotia Deputy Attorney General, explains why: It's fair to argue about the salary but wrong to cry foul over this appointment. [The principal secretary] is not and never has been a civil service position, so no need...

19 March, 2016

On the CBC website, Graham Steele criticized as excessive the salary Laurie Graham will receive as principal secretary to Premier Stephen McNeil ($160,000). He pointed out that cabinet ministers make less ($138,281.41). In the Halifax Examiner, Tim Bousquet used Steele's critique to launch a scathing personal attack on Graham. His objection was brazenly sexist: Graham shouldn't get the job because she is married to Acadian University president Ray Ivany, a man Bousquet detests; Graham doesn't deserve a big salary because Ivany already makes plenty of money. Portraying politicians and their staff as greedy evil-doers rouses the rabble but poisons the body politic. It's Bousquet's ever-luffing mainsail, but the attack on Graham...

19 March, 2016

Our Saturday bird guy, Joshua Barss Donham, caught a pair of American Bald Eagles in flagrante delicto on the barachois at Big Pond last Tuesday: [video link] Here are the same two, moments before their sandbar tryst: This marks the second time Joshua has observed Bald Eagles getting it on this winter. The first time was at a beach near Cow Bay. Here's that pair, making its impressive nest ready for occupancy: ...

18 March, 2016

Graham Steele used his CBC column this week to muse on the frequency of journalists going to work for government. The hook was Premier Stephen McNeil's recent appointments of Chronicle-Herald reporter David Jackson, CTV reporter Jackie Foster, and former CTV Ottawa Deputy Bureau Chief Laurie Graham to various positions in his office. Along the way, Steele paused to raise an eyebrow at Graham's salary of $160,000 as the premier's principal secretary: That's a higher salary than the premier's chief of staff, who is ostensibly her boss — and more than any cabinet minister. What Steele knows perfectly well, but didn't say, is that hundreds of provincial government employees make more than cabinet...

18 March, 2016

"I saw a sign of spring today at Point Pleasant Park," writes Saturday bird guy Joshua Barss Donham. "The Red-breasted Mergansers were performing their courtship display. The male stretches his neck upward and forward, opens his bill, and then drops his body forward dipping his chest and lower neck in the water."     OK, that shows the lovestruck merganser's neck extended, but now watch Joshua's video for the whole display:   [Video link]...

11 March, 2016

If you're ever inclined to doubt the wonders of biology, consider the reproductive policies of freshwater mussels, a subject I learned about Wednesday night when CBU instructor Kellie White spoke to the Cape Breton Naturalists' Society about freshwater mussels, muskrats, and "what they have to say about each other." White has a special interest in the yellow lamp mussel, Lampsilis cariosa, one of 10 freshwater mussels found in Nova Scotia. Until 2014, the Canadian population of Lampsilis cariosa was thought to exist only in the Saint John and Sydney River systems. (It lives along the US East Coast as far south as Georgia.) Its recent discovery in two Cape Breton...

10 March, 2016
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