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Greetings, all! I have visited South Side beach many many times since 1970, so read with interest about the changes to the beach and increased access. I am not certain, but tend to believe that these improvements will help, even though my long term expectations for PIPL survival there are not optimistic. We must do the best we can while we can. Last summer Aileen Smith and I found a Piping Plover scrape on the beach right in front of one of the access paths through the dunes. I think the nest was successful (at least initially), but will wait to hear what Sue Abbott thinks about this. We did find people stayed near the water, and dogs were on leashes that day. I have seen a great improvement in people's attitudes towards birds. A lot of credit to our SW Birders like Johnny and Sandra, Murray, Clyde, Terry and others who walk the beaches and talk to people about them. People also notice that birding has brought a lot of extra income to the area. When we buy gas or go into a shop, let's make a point to wear our binoculars and let local citizens know why we are there. In 1972 our family found a couple shooting Common and Arctic Terns on a beach at the Ponds (in Villagedale). We picked up an Arctic Tern and took it to the RCMP and pressed charges. The shooters lost their guns and their truck was impounded and they were fined. Birds are not much used for target practice anymore, but more reporting and enforcement is needed in regards to illegal activity (such as the use of ATVs) on the beaches everywhere in Nova Scotia. The parking lot will make the road safer there at the corner. The interpretive signs are educational, and a board walk (properly done and removable in winter) will protect the Dunes. Tourists are generally appreciative of environmental initiatives to protect species and habitat. Best wishes, Joan ---- Don MacNeill <donmacneill@eastlink.ca> wrote: > My reaction when I read the article was the same as yours, Fritz. I wondered if increased access to the beach could be bad for the Piping Plovers. > > Don > > Don MacNeill > donmacneill@eastlink.ca > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Fritz McEvoy > To: NS NATURE > Sent: Sunday, December 26, 2010 9:18 AM > Subject: RE: [NatureNS] CSI Important birding area get funding > > > Hi All, > Not to be curmudgeonly in the Christmas season but the money allocated to improvements of CSI's South Side Beach seems to have little or nothing to do with improving bird habitat and protection and lots to do with improving tourism infrastructure and access to the beach. > If the money had been spent on PIPL monitors, on ways to keep people's dogs on leashes and/or keeping ATVs off the beach then that would be money more constructively spent in helping the CSI IBA. It seems to me these expenditures will actually make the PIPL and other birds situation worse not better. > I'll be very happy if someone can prove me wrong. All the best. > Fritz McEvoy > Sunrise Valley, CB > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > From: edoull@ns.sympatico.ca > To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca > Subject: [NatureNS] CSI Important birding area get funding > Date: Sun, 26 Dec 2010 04:36:57 -0400 > > > > Popular birding beach receives $22,500 in improvements > By BRIAN MEDEL > Yarmouth Bureau > December 26, 2010 Chronicle Herald > > > A Nova Scotia beach designated as an important birding area will be even more accessible in 2011 following $22,500 in improvements. > > The South Side Beach on Shelburne County’s Cape Sable Island is a recognized bird area. > > Five migratory species, including the endangered piping plover, spend time there each year. > > In the nearby town of Clarks Harbour, tourists often ask staff at the town’s visitor information centre how to get to Cape Sable Island’s various beaches, said Mayor Leigh Stoddart. > > The South Side Beach “didn’t have really good access," Stoddard said. But “now with the addition of the boardwalk to the beach, along with the picnic area and the parking lot . . . it has made a huge difference." > > Because of the just-finished improvements, people can get to the white sandy beach easily using the boardwalk, which also allows people who use wheelchairs to visit, the mayor said. > > Parking will also be easier because the upgraded parking lot can accommodate about 30 cars. > > The parking lot improvements, washroom upgrades, improved signage, picnic tables and boardwalk were accomplished with an $11,000 federal grant and $6,000 from the Cape Sable Important Bird Area, an international conservation organization, said a government news release. > > Sable Fish Packers Ltd. owns the beach and leases it to the South Side Beach Association. It gave $2,000 to the project while just over $3,500 was given by the Municipality of the District of Barrington and the town of Clarks Harbour, said the release. > > Citizens and municipal councils are lobbying Ottawa to have the shabby lighthouse painted, something Stoddart has been working on for five years. Federal Fisheries and Oceans minister Gail Shea has indicated the lighthouse would be painted in 2011.
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