{"id":153093,"date":"2023-05-08T15:14:57","date_gmt":"2023-05-08T19:14:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=153093"},"modified":"2023-05-10T15:15:12","modified_gmt":"2023-05-10T19:15:12","slug":"the-beleaguered-birds-of-tantramar-shep-is-good-to-go-but-erin-the-heron-is-in-rough-shape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/the-beleaguered-birds-of-tantramar-shep-is-good-to-go-but-erin-the-heron-is-in-rough-shape\/","title":{"rendered":"The beleaguered birds of Tantramar: Shep is good to go, but Erin the Heron is in rough shape"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Tantramar council passed a resolution in early April instructing staff not to remove Shep the Sandpiper from its perch in Dorchester Village Square, it came with a caveat, that town engineer Jon Eppell would inspect the bird and its installation, to make sure all was safe and sound.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had a quick look out in the field and there\u2019s no immediate safety concerns that I see,\u201d says Eppell, noting that he is due to update council with more information on that matter shortly.<\/p>\n

The reason for Eppell\u2019s inspection was that the Shep installation was done without staff knowledge or participation, by a team of local volunteers who also commissioned the sculpture, paid for it, and transported it from artist Robin Hanson\u2019s studio near Oromocto.<\/p>\n

Erin the Heron, on the other hand, was part of a by-the-book public art commission. Unveiled in 2016, the bronze heron was part of Heron\u2019s Watch, by artist Christian Toth<\/a>, also featuring ducks Gracie Ann and Willy. The three bronze birds sit in a garden bed at the corner of Bridge Street and Weldon in downtown Sackville, but recently the bronze heron has been boarded up.<\/p>\n

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Heron\u2019s Watch at Bridge and Weldon has been boarded up for a few weeks now after sustaining damage to its legs, possibly due to an excessive load placed on its back sometime this spring. Photo: Erica Butler<\/p><\/div><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cIt looks like a significant weight was placed on the back of the bird,\u201d says Eppell. \u201cOne leg is bent and the other one has a crack in it, so it needs to be repaired. So temporarily, we\u2019ve put hoarding around it to protect it from further damage.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Close up of Erin the Heron\u2019s legs, which on careful inspection, shows a small crack. Photo: Erica Butler<\/p><\/div><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

So did someone try to ride Erin the Heron? Eppell says he can\u2019t say what actually happened to the bird to sustain the damage. \u201cAs far as I know, there\u2019s no witness statements to my knowledge that state what actually happened,\u201d says Eppell. \u201cI can just say that it looks like it was overloaded in some way. And the only way I can see that might have happened is some sort of a load on its back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eppell says town staff have made enquiries about potential repairs for the bronze statue. \u201cWe haven\u2019t come up with a repair just yet,\u201d says Eppell. \u201cWe\u2019re still working on that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Tantramar council passed a resolution in early April instructing staff not to remove Shep the Sandpiper from its perch in Dorchester Village Square, it came with a caveat, that town engineer Jon Eppell would inspect the bird and its installation, to make sure all was safe and sound. \u201cI\u2019ve had a quick look out…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":148710,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57],"tags":[25942,19251,9712,25941,20501,1575],"radio":[227],"origine":[274,275,277],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153093"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153093"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153093\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":153097,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153093\/revisions\/153097"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153093"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=153093"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=153093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}