North Sydney native here. Ok, here's a bit of an info dump answering some of your questions and providing more clarity. First off, the bird was a heron (or more precisely, a Great Blue Heron). There's a lot of them at ally of the water areas in Cape Breton, though they are solitary fishers. Next up, the old warf was just that, a warf. Most people don't realize it but the Sydney/North Sydney harbor, collectively, was one of the most used harbors in North America. There are pictures that show so many boats in the harbor that you could cross from one side to the other by the boats alone, and that was there to allow for more docking. More recently though, the viewing platform that you showed earlier in the video, the square one sitting in the grass? That used to be at the end of the rocks. It was moved because the seaguls ended up using it as a rest area/bathroom and it basically was too dirty for anyone to use, no matter how many times it was cleaned. There also used to be a flag pole on it. Once it was removed, a chain and sign were posted to keep people from going down there, but it keeps getting removed so I think the town has just stopped bothering. There are actually several gun placements along the cost there, and one spot is even (barely) visible in your video. If you drive up the road from the hospital, you'll see a stone monolith in a circular trench. It's an old barracks. Go to the cliff side (carefully) and you'll see the large cement boxes that used to hold the guns. There are two on that side. Unfortunately, due to errosion, they're likely to collapse into the harbor in the next 5-10 years. On the pointedward side (which you can see in your part on the new ferry) if you look in the background on the left hand side right at the water you can see one of the stone monitoring posts. There are three on point edward and they even have tunnels that run between them. Not that I advise anyone try to go through them as I don't know if the tunnels are safe or even still intact. As for the water quality issue, I doubt there's much of a water quality issue there anymore, but its reputation precedes it and its history has made most locals wary of it. As you can see in many of your background shots, that large blue building is the North Sydney Hospital. A long time ago, before we started treating sewage and incinerating medical waste, they used to dump their sewage right into the harbor, and as you can see, that wasn't far from the beach. While that was decades ago, that history has left most people unwilling to tempt fate. Last I heard the tests were done in 2021 that showed the water was safe. Another fun fact, but once upon a time there used to be a restaurant located at the entrance to the park. The platform it was on is still there and you can still see where it was just as you turn off Purves street to drive into the park. It's private property now though.
Wow! This comment made my evening! Thanks so much. Definitely appreciate the info dump. If you haven’t already - I suspect you might enjoy my videos on Lockman’s Beach in Sydney Mines, and Polar Bear Beach in South Bar.
lol I was going to write on here about the polluted water , it was kind of a local known fact not to swim here but I can’t recall ever seeing a water quality report it was just word of mouth. It’s to bad they destroyed the boat park at the boardwalk , I loved that as a kid and a good hang out as a teen
Thanks! My favourite discovery at that beach was learning about those concrete blocks for anchoring down the anti-submarine net. I’m learning all kinds of stuff.
Further down the shore and across the water in both South Bar and Point Edward there are still old gun emplacements that were meant to defend against German u-boats. Sadly they were of little help to the many ships that were taken in the strait, including the original SS Caribou on a trip to Port aux Basques from Sydney in 1942.
Thanks for leaving me a comment. I always enjoy hearing the tidbits of information people can add. There is so much history linked to our harbour! If you haven’t already, you might enjoy watching my video about Lockmans Beach in Sydney Mines. Thanks for watching. :)
Yes there were 36 Field Batteries placed strategically around Sydney Harbour along with a Stainless Steel Gate at the mouth of Harbour that would be opened for friendlies are remain closed for German U boats , great channel 🎉
Hi Wayne… thank you! The bird is still a mystery. I have a friend in New Brunswick who is a birder, so I’ll probably send him an email at the end of the summer.
Great video and information on the beach. I was curious about the bird in the water also. I knew it was a Heron and researching it, I found out it it is a Great Blue Heron.
Also, I thought I should mention… at the end of the season I plan on doing a video with subscribers’ answers to some of the questions I’ve been asking. So - thanks again :)
Whom? Listen I’m not an authority on the subject, that’s for sure! But I’m under the big impression that First Nations people don’t love this term. Am I wrong? Enlighten me. I’m all ears.
