Bernard Forsythe, 83

Bernard, 83, was born and raised in Nova Scotia. Having worked in nature his entire life, he has discovered rare plants never known to Nova Scotia and has banded over 800 Barred Owls. He did this in his spare time while raising 3 children alongside his late wife, and working full-time as a contractor with no vacation. Bernard devotes his time tirelessly to others, Specifically, he helped many Acadia students with their studies throughout the years. Throughout it all, he’s never asked for anything in return and always carries a smile on his face.

Bernard’s lifelong dream has always been to visit Sable Island. He has a deep-rooted fascination with orchids and has discovered all but 2 of the 40 species. He is interested specifically in the long bracted orchids that are only found in Cape Breton and Sable Island, although he discovered 1 one time on the mainland. Bernard has always been fascinated with nature and birds in particular since he was a teenager. Since that time he became quite interested in the breeding biology of birds by collecting nests, studying them, and keeping records of them. He has submitted over 4000 nests to be studied. To this day he continues to climb very tall trees to check on his owl boxes to band Barred Owls. Although the horses would be nice to see, Bernard’s true fascination is the nature of the island; exploring plants, and seeing the birds.

A true lifelong wish, Bernard happily danced through the beaches of Sable Island, climbing every sand dune he could find to get a better view of the birds through his binoculars.