The Backlands Coalition

By The Bird Team: Joshua Barss Donham. Fulton Lavender, Cathy Smalley, Katie Studholme

Black-and-white Warbler, near West Pine Island Pond on  May 18, 2023. View short Video 1 & short Video 2 Videos by Joshua Barss Donham

Have you heard a thin, high-pitched rocking sound like a squeaky wheel in the woods lately? The Black-and-white Warblers are back in town! Another ground nesting bird who kindly asks you to keep your feet on the trails for the summer.

These boldly striped warblers, sometimes nicknamed zebra warblers, are back from wintering in northern South America, Central America, and the southeastern US.

These are one of our earliest migrant warblers, typically arriving mid-May. Unlike other wood warblers, Black-and-white Warblers eat insects and spiders they find in the crevices of tree bark, so they don’t mind the lack of leaves on the trees. Black-and-white Warblers are uniquely adapted to these feeding habits, with an extra long rear toe and thicker legs that help them work their way up and down tree trunks and branches like a nuthatch or a creeper.

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By Joshua Barss Donham, Apr 21, 2024.

Hooded Warbler at Sandy Cove, Apr 21

April is such a wonderful time of year with the broom crowberry and Mayflowers in bloom, the spring peepers calling, and migrant birds returning from the south (should see Yellow-rumped Warblers, Palm warblers, and Hermit Thrush return any day now). Thought I would share a little what I’ve been seeing and hearing, and what Fulton and I have been doing, in the Backlands.

Fulton and I have done several ‘pre-hawk watches’ in preparation for an actual hawk-watch which Fulton is hoping to do soon. A hawk watch involves standing/sitting on the ‘hawk rock’, a long whaleback a few metres south of the cul-de-sac at the end of Alabaster Way, and scanning the horizon for what Fulton calls “little black dots”, raptors passing through the Backlands or those returning to the Backlands from the south. Continue reading →