White Whale, Black Back

Black-backed Woodpecker Picoides arcticus

Black-backed Woodpecker Picoides arcticus

Black-backed Woodpecker Picoides arcticus

Black-backed Woodpecker Picoides arcticus - note the tridactyl foot (three toes)

Legit Black-backed Woodpecker damage

Dark-eyed Junco Junco hyemalis

White-throated Sparrow Zonotrichia albicollis

American Toad Anaxyrus americanus (tiny toadlet - smaller than a pea)

  If you’ve followed this blog over the years (as I’m confident all four of you do), you’ll know I’ve been chasing ghosts for a while when it comes to Black-backed Woodpeckers. White whales, even (http://snowyowllost.blogspot.ca/search/label/Black-backed%20Woodpecker). The rare and reclusive species always seemed to be one step ahead of me: “...pulling me back into the field with the siren-like allure of its maddening absence...” yada-yada-yada. 

  That all changed today when I visited Mont-Tremblant National Park with Kris and Scott. I checked online and saw some patchy records of Black-backed Woodpecker in the park in past years, but nothing too recent to raise my hopes.

  An hour into the hike, a woodpecker fluttered across the path, and it looked to be the right size. A quick jittery stalk up to it, and...Hairy Woodpecker. Humbug. Three minutes further down the trail, and the same scene played out. I crept up towards the bird, with less of an enthusiastic bounce to my step...black. This one had a black back and yellow cap. My testicles rocketed clean through my body cavity and hit the top of my skull with an audible thup. Then I did backflips. Then I got a bit closer and awe-gawked for a while before I remembered the camera hanging off my shoulder. The light was gloomy, and the bird was moving around a lot, but I managed to snap off a few passable shots.

  On the way back through, a second bird (possible juvie) was spotted nearby, with the first. It’s a big bloody park, so I’m feeling smug and lucky to have bumbled into a small pocket of apparent breeding habitat for this marvellous (if coy) species.

  Wood-warblers, raptors, waterfowl, tyrant flycatchers, and icterids were notable in their absence - but have I mentioned the Black-backed Woodpeckers?

Mont-Tremblant National Park, July 31, 2017

Hairy Woodpecker-3

Black-backed Woodpecker-2

Red-eyed Vireo-2 heard

Blue Jay-2 heard

American Crow-3

Black-capped Chickadee-10+

Boreal Chickadee-1 heard

Red-breasted Nuthatch-4 heard

Golden-crowned Kinglet-6+

Swainson’s Thrush-3

Hermit Thrush-2

American Robin-3

White-throated Sparrow-3

Dark-eyed Junco-8+

Common Grackle-1 on the way out

American Goldfinch-1 or 2 possibly heard mixed in with the Pine Siskins – only Nial Moores could have been certain (“And one of them has a headache.”)

Pine Siskin-12+ moving high around the periphery of swampy areas

White-winged Crossbill-1 possibly seen at a distance