The Backlands Coalition

From  Nova Scotia Nature Trust*:

“We’re excited to announce six new protected areas across the province that will be secured before the end of 2022, from Cape Breton to the south shore. On the heels of the recent COP15 United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, halting biodiversity loss has never felt more urgent, with world leaders now aligned on a global target to protect 30 per cent of the planet by 2030. This announcement is a timely step toward that ambitious goal…The Nature Trust’s newest protected areas include:

• Little Charles Island at the heart of the 100 Wild Islands archipelago (Eastern Shore)
• An addition to the 4,500 acres of coastal wilderness protected in the Mabou Highlands (Cape Breton)
• New protected urban wilderness in the Purcells Cove backlands (Kjipuktuk-Halifax)
• Critical habitat for endangered plants on Ponhook Lake (Kespukwitk-southwest Nova Scotia)
• More protected habitat for at-risk birds and rare eastern white cedar in the growing Hectanooga conservation land assemblage
• (Kespukwitk-Southwest Nova Scotia)
• And Blanche Island, another important link on the Atlantic migratory flyway, critical for many bird species facing significant population declines (Kespukwitk-Southwest Nova Scotia)”.

Continue reading →

Backlands Birders Joshua Barss Donham and Fulton Lavender prepared presentations on the theme “Birds in the Backlands: Indicators of the Health of the Habitat” for a Backlands Ecology Workshop that we held recently.

In Forest Birds in the Backlands, Joshua looks at how many bird species characteristic of immature, regenerating, and mature (old) forest occur in the Backlands. It turns out they are all well represented, reflecting the mosaic nature of Backlands habitats.

Fulton Lavender looks at two groups of specialist birds: Goatsuckers and Raptors, again, both,  and the former uniquely, represented in the Backlands

So they give us more to celebrate about our Backlands, and incentive for us to work to ensure that the next seven generations can do the same.

Many Thanks,  Joshua & Fulton.

UPDATE: New Loon Documentary. View Loons, A Cry from the Mist. Thx to PH/KS. Some background on the video on Birds Canada
——–
Backlanders Katie S and Martha L passed on this notice about a new documentary on the Common Loon with research supported by a lot of great citizen science work.

On Blue Ant Media:

Hear Their Haunting Calls: Cottage Life’s New Documentary Special, Loons: A Cry From The Mist, Spotlights Canada’s Iconic Bird and the Perils Impacting Their Population
The world broadcast premiere of Loons: A Cry From The Mist airs Friday, November 18 at 8 p.m. ET/PT, exclusively on Cottage Life

Trailer: https://youtu.be/zzfWhVlol24
Continue reading →

The November flowering is pretty unusual. There is lots else that is special about this plant and its setting in the Backlands.

Birdwatcher and Backlands enthusiast Joshua Barss Donham forwarded this pic to me a few days ago, commenting that “Last Sunday, [we] walked out the trail that begins at the end of Princeton Avenue… to see the view from where the path comes out on to the barrens and overlooks the lower MacIntosh Run. While we were out there we came across this flower. I think that it is pine-barren sandwort… Wondered what your thoughts are.”

So here they are, and a bit more about the plant and its setting…

(i) The plant is Mountain Sandwort (Mononeuria groenlandica*, very similar to the Pine Barren Sandwort (Mononeuria carolinana) which is a species of the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens habitat in the northeastern USA. Pine Barren Sandwort is now quite rare (conservation status S1, Critically Imperilled), largely because of development in this habitat.
*Even Scientific names change, pre-2014 Mononeuria groenlandica was Minuartia groenlandica; likewise Mononeuria carolinana was Minuartia carolinana.

Continue reading →