Leighton (2025)

Author Information

Frederick Leighton

I monitor the general populations and breeding success of colonial-nesting birds of Bear Island, Nova Scotia, one of two islands in the Annapolis Basin, a tidal bay off the Bay of Fundy. The island is maintained as a nature reserve by its Trustees, the Town and the Board of Trade of Digby, Nova Scotia. The island is uninhabited. 

There are on the order of 300 nesting pairs of Herring Gull (Larus smithsonianus), 300 of Great Black-backed Gull (Larus marinus), 200 of Double-crested Cormorant (Nannopterum auritum), 40 of Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) and 100 burrows of Bank Swallow (Riparia riparia). There may be 10 nesting pairs of Canada Goose (Branta canadensis). These populations have remained stable over the past decade, although gull reproduction failed completely in 2018. 

A recent book I co-authored with my late father includes a chapter about Bear Island, “The Emerald Isle” in: People of Cove and Woodlot, Stories Across 100 Years of Memories, by Ted Leighton and Alexander Leighton, March 2025, Moose House Publications, ISBN: 978-1-998149-62-9.