Orono Bog boardwalk a paradise for birdwatchers

Last weekend two friends of mine from work, Marguerite Roosen and Mary Vollick, met for an early morning stroll along the Orono Bog boardwalk. I was curious about their experience, for I’d not been out there for some time, and asked for details about what they had seen and thought.

Mary, in particular, was surprised at the length of the boardwalk. At almost a mile long, it covers a small portion of the 616-acre peatland, a mosaic of specialized acid-loving, waterlogged plants and associated upland forests. Many animals utilize this habitat, and for the birdwatcher, there is a rich diversity of birdlife to be found there.

Mary and Marguerite were excited to see a pileated woodpecker during their walk. This impressive-looking bird is hard to miss, especially when compared to the other species of woodpecker that have been found in the bog: downy and hairy woodpeckers, yellow-bellied sapsuckers, northern flickers, and the less common black-backed woodpecker.

Black-backed woodpeckers inhabit northern coniferous forests exclusively. Although the bird is widely distributed across the northern tier of the United States, as well as in Canada, it is not commonly seen because it is more of a specialist than the other woodpeckers. It prefers bark beetles and wood boring beetles.

Although these insects are always present to some extent, black-backed woodpeckers search for areas that are experiencing large outbreaks of these beetles. This most often happens after fire has swept through a forest, creating a perfect breeding ground for them in burned spruce and pine trees. The bird’s name is the most obvious indicator of this relationship. Unlike most other woodpeckers, the black-backed woodpecker has – well – an entirely black back. As it forages on the trunk of a burned tree, it needs only to freeze in place to avoid detection by any sharp-eyed raptors.

However, forest edges or other disturbances seem to be ideal, too; and black-backed woodpeckers can be found exploiting these areas. One was seen in recent months in a section of Orono bog forest called a conifer wooded fen. A “fen” simply means a boggy land containing a plant community. Such a habitat would contain many trees and plants, both living and dying; the dying providing food for insects such as the wood boring and bark beetles, and in turn, the black-backed woodpecker.

Such is the intricate relationship that is present in any habitat, but especially in such a rich environment as a bog.

For more information about the Orono Bog, go to: http://www.oronobogwalk.org/index.htm.

BDN bird columnist Chris Corio can be reached at bdnsports@bangordailynews.net