Mountain Birding

As my list of birds seen gets longer, it gets predictably harder to add new species to the list. However, there is one habitat type that I have not spent much time birding yet this year, and which potentially holds a dozen or so species that are probably present right now waiting for me to add them to my list. That habitat is the high mountians, and last weekend I spent a bit of time on both Saturday and Sunday birding in this habitat. On Saturday, Craig and I birded around Tony Grove. Although we missed some must-have species in the area like Three-toed Woodpecker and Purple Martin, I did pick up several new species for the year, including Clark's Nutcracker, Red-naped Sapsucker, and Williamson's Sapsucker (photo at right). On Sunday Stephanie and I returned to some hummingbird feeders in the area, trying to track down the Rufous Hummingbird that had been reported there. We didn't see the Rufous, but we did get great looks at Black-chinned Hummingbirds and Broad-tailed Hummingbirds, both of which I'd seen earlier in the year.