Nova Scotia is a wonderful place to go birding, with superb scenery, good travel infrastructure, and discoveries around every curve of the road and cove of the shoreline. But what is it that particularly appeals to visiting birders? The province’s birding attractions are linked to spectacles, spaces, and species.

Spectacles
Everyone, even non-birders, can appreciate a good natural history spectacle, an important consideration when birders travel with non-addicted family members or friends. The finest avian display is arguably the southward migration of Arctic-nesting shorebirds through the Bay of Fundy.

Millions of diminutive sandpipers refuel in the rich mudflats exposed by the world’s highest tides, and when the twice-daily high tides cover the mud, the birds (primarily Semipalmated Sandpipers) usually concentrate in enormous flocks wherever the mud remains uncovered the longest. This migration period extends from mid-July through early October, but the largest flocks, sometimes in excess of half a million birds; typically occur in the second and third weeks of August.

Good viewing locations include the Causeway behind the Information Centre in Windsor, Grand Pré beach in Kings County, and the picnic site beside Route #215 at Cheverie, in Hants County. Along the Atlantic coast shorebird flocks are smaller, but contain more species. Good vantage points include the Salt Marsh trail in Cole Harbour near Halifax, and off the south end of Cape Sable Island (linked by a causeway to the mainland).

Nova Scotia, in common with other areas of Atlantic Canada, does have seabird colonies, and while they are generally smaller than those found in Newfoundland or Quebec, they are less remote and more accessible. Atlantic Puffins, Razorbills, Great Cormorants, and Black-legged Kittiwakes reign over the Bird Islands off Big Bras d’Or in Cape Breton, but tolerate thrice-daily visits by Bird Islands Boat Tours, and visitors to famous Peggy’s Cove or Lunenburg enjoy half-day boat excursions to nearby Pearl Island to view a small puffin colony there. Gulls and terns nest in dozens of colonies along the length of the province’s Atlantic coast, and Canada’s largest Roseate Tern colony lies on The Brothers, off the village of Lower West Pubnico in Yarmouth County.

Winter offers its own spectacle, when nearly a thousand Bald Eagles descend on the Annapolis Valley in Kings County, feeding on the largesse of a thriving poultry industry. Sheffield Mills hosts the annual winter Eagle Watch Celebration.

Spaces
Nova Scotia’s scenery is renowned, and with such a backdrop even a quiet day’s birding is a pleasure. Two of Canada’s finest national parks bracket the province, Kejimkujik in the south and Cape Breton Highlands in the north, both with extensive trail systems, visitor facilities, and informed staff. Elsewhere there are dozens of smaller provincial parks, picnic sites, and beaches. In addition the man-made freshwater marshes at Belleisle, Robert’s Island, and Amherst, provide a fine contrast with the natural salt marshes that still frame so much of Nova Scotia’s shoreline.