Yesterday, on a warm, sunny afternoon, a trio of white-crowned sparrows visited our Littleton farm. Having wintered at lower elevations (including the Front Range urban corridor), they will soon depart for the mountains to nest and raise their young.
Once in the mountains, they settle down along the edge of meadows, as high as timberline. Indeed, these attractive sparrows are among the relatively few birds that forage on alpine tundra. On an especially warm day in April (75 degrees F) they were surely anxious to return to their cool summer habitat.
Avoiding the heat, yesterday's visitors stayed primarily beneath the shade of our piñon pines or in the shadows of our shrub lines; there they joined our larger and more vocal spotted towhees. Small flocks of white-crowned sparrows will likely visit the farm through mid May, when the last of these mountaineers head for the high country.
