Look Away - Cedar Waxwings

'Tis the Season
The season is upon us – no not just the holiday season, the Christmas Bird Count season.
Every year since 1900, the Audubon Society, now joined by groups like Birds Canada have held the annual Christmas Bird Count which occurs between December 14 to January 5.
The Yarmouth, NS bird count will be this Sunday, 18 December and the count circle has been divided up into “slices” and we have a group of birders ready to go see what we can see.
The idea is to count each individual bird and the number of species, which becomes a useful tool for monitoring a bunch of things – mostly bird numbers and the impact of things like climate change and human actions on the bird populations.
I’ve been part of this effort first in Wolfville in 1970, and then later in Lockeport and now in Yarmouth, so it’s a family tradition with us to go looking, as Norma (and now Sam) will join me; and it’s something I’ve been doing for the last 52 years.
The image this week is one I have been working on very recently – it’s entitled Look Away and it’s of a flock of Cedar Waxwings.
The image is now hanging as part of the collection at the Teichert Gallery at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in Halifax, where you can view it, rent it or buy it.
If you see slightly obsessed folks wandering around in drab clothes with binoculars and a notebook this weekend, give us a wave. We’re out bird counting!










Blog Feb 4