Lengthy article by Suzanne Rent in Morning File (Hfx Examiner) highlights Backlands, Common Nighthawks, bird-watching, impacts of fire 8Aug, 2025

On July 7, I wrote this Morning File about my first search for common nighthawks, which aren’t common nor nighthawks. Instead, these birds are in the Caprimulgidae family of birds and are crepuscular, meaning they are more active at twilight.

Common nighthawks are also a species at risk, and their numbers are declining, including in Nova Scotia where they breed each summer.

Joshua Barss Dunham, an avid birder and photographer, read that essay I wrote. At the end of July, he sent me an email inviting me to join him and Rebecca Florean, a student at Dalhousie University, on a survey of common nighthawks in the Purcell’s Cove Backlands.

The original plan for Wednesday was to meet at the Spar Trailhead on Mica Crescent and then hike into the backlands for about half an hour to see the common nighthawks, watching them from atop one of the many roches moutonnées (also called whale back rocks) that pepper the backlands. I was quite excited about the prospect of seeing common nighthawks fly overhead.

But our plans changed on Tuesday when the province announced a ban on going into the woods. So, Barss Donham said we’d all meet at the entrance of the Spar Trailhead in a field between homes and on the edge of the backlands…Joining us was Fulton Lavender, who as he got out of Barss Donham’s car told me that he’s been birding since 1979. Lavender has been conducting many other bird surveys, including on owls, for the Williams Lake Conservation Company for more than a decade.

Common nighthawks remain quite a mystery, even for the experts. During the surveys, Florean, Lavender, and Barss Donham record data on the nighthawks, including the conditions of the evening, as well as the birds’ behaviours and the habitat. Lavender said this work is used to find out what common nighthawks need to survive and thrive…

The Backlands Coalition and the Williams Lake Conservation Company are working to save what’s left from development and therefore save the common nighthawks.

“At some point, you’ll hit a point where they’re not that critical mass where there’s not enough insects, not enough habitat to support them,” Barss Donham said.

Lavender said common nighthawks like open forests, even forests that were destroyed from clear cutting. But, he said, if that forest is sprayed with insecticide after a clear cut, that kills the aerial insects common nighthawks feed on…

I asked them all for their perspective on the current ban on going into the woods, the threat of wildfires, and the common nighthawks. There was a wildfire in the backlands in the spring of 2009. That was before the common nighthawks arrived for the season. Lavender said the birds headed inland that year after the backlands burned.

As the backlands grew back, the common nighthawks returned. But the threat of fires later in the season is different.

“If you get one of these fires they’re having in Newfoundland in places like that…it’s wiping nighthawks out,” Lavender said. “Places that get burned over will lose their nighthawks.”

Barss Donham said some burning is good for nighthawks because it establishes habitats the birds prefer. But those are natural fires from lightning strikes, he said.

“What we’re seeing now is something completely different,” Barss Donham said.

When the wildfire burned in Shelburne in the spring of 2023, many birds, including tiny warblers, were just arriving in the province. It’s hard to know how many species of birds were killed that year.

“The earth is becoming more of a desert,” Lavender said. “Too cold or too hot.”