Hi folks, Not a rare species to report, but something I found surprising nonetheless. This morning while doing a bird survey in the San Juan National Forest near Coal Bank Pass just off US 550 between Durango and Silverton, I encountered White-breasted Nuthatches at the highest elevation I've ever seen them at -- 11,300 feet, just a few hundred feet below treeline (at least on the mountain I was on) and in spruce-fir forest.
I've had WBNU on a couple other relatively high-elevation surveys, but this was over a thousand feet higher than those. I know that birds don't really pay attention to altimeters as much as they do viable habitat, but still I found this interesting, and was curious about other surprising high-altitude finds people have made this year. For example, yesterday in a very meadowy transect near Rico, CO just off Dunton Rd (Dolores County) I had several Savannah Sparrows at around 10,400 feet. One of them (presumably a female) even performed a distraction display for me when I apparently got close to the nest, although I was not able to actually find the nest. To be sure, I didn't have much time to look, as my surveys are not nest surveys. Thanks, Eric -- Eric DeFonso Boulder, CO (currently in Durango) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/CAFjVA_Z_J799XE8AKqAZ-o-ErT1dJvk2WzQQ98pW9LuA%2B3gzmQ%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
