For peat's sake: where 36 warblers are headed
Many are en route to the untouched reaches of Canada's Boreal Forest, North America's Bird Nursery.
Today’s post re-visits a TWiB entry from Spring 2021.
The New York Times featured birding prominently in a piece in 2021 about spring migration, “Birds by the Billions: A Guide to Spring’s Parade.” The Times included a comment from Chicago birder Geoff Williamson.
“The epitome of spring birding for me is the passage of wood-warblers,” Mr. Williamson said. “On really good days in May, you can see 25 species of them in Chicago.”
The wood-warblers are here now, and a total of 36 species have a chance to appear in the next few weeks before spring migration wanes. Any of Chicago’s top six migratory hotspots are good places to look for them, though their presence is highly dependent on having just the right weather conditions.
Most warblers travel from tropical climes, from as far as South America. They’re with us so briefly and yet the stars of the show at so many locales. One of the things that’s fascinating is just where are all these birds going?
Some Yellow-rumped Warblers aren’t headed too far away, breeding as close as northern Wisconsin and northern Michigan, while others travel thousands of miles farther, to Alaska, Yukon, and the Northwest Territories in the Boreal Forest. Many other species are also headed north to the Boreal Forest. Take the Palm Warbler, which is fairly common in Chicago throughout migration. Palm Warblers are headed to bogs and peatlands around icy James Bay, despite their tropical-sounding name. As a side note, the last time I saw a Palm Warbler was last month when I was near the 25th parallel in the tropics.
There’s this wide swath of Canada where so many warbler species breed. So much so it’s become known as “North America’s Bird Nursery.” The Boreal Forest is one of the world’s last remaining untouched wildernesses, alongside the Amazon and a handful of others.
The Mushkegowuk Council, headquartered in Moose Factory, Ontario, is the senior representative for seven First Nations in the western James Bay and Hudson Bay. The council has endorsed a plan to create a national marine conservation area to protect coastal ecosystems.
“The James Bay peatlands are one of the largest carbon deposits in the world, a place where warblers love,” said Jeff Wells, Vice President of Boreal Conservation for the National Audubon Society. “[The Council members] are essentially stewards of the Palm Warblers of the world.”
As much as the boreal breeding habitat is critical, so is the migratory habitat in places like Chicago.
“You can contribute right there in Chicagoland,” Wells told TWiB in 2021. “The more healthy places we can provide for birds to stop over for food, water and safety, the more of them that will survive and we’ll start reversing these massive declines of birds.”
In the meantime, this is a season to appreciate the avifauna we do have. For a few weeks every spring, we’re in the thrall of these tiny travelers as they stir our imaginations with their fleeting presence.