[Birdtalk] OT: Sierra migrants

[Colby Neuman]

Hi all,

I just came across these series of photos that some people took while
backcountry skiing in the Sierra Nevada Mtns...

http://telemarktalk.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=22328&sid=f72c8a1c6e4895d9836d411523bbc2d2

The point of this email is that I was surprised to see some photos of dead
birds they found lying on the snow's surface at the top of the Sierra Nevada
Mtns...

These people found three (well that they photographed) different dead birds
(I haven't spent that much time trying to identify the birds but there is a
song? sparrow, OC Warbler?, and a flycatcher/kinglet?)...either way, birds I
would not expect to see well above treeline in April (or any time of year
for that matter)...these birds were clearly migrants that died due to
exhaustion in clear weather or maybe they were caught in a storm (but they
weren't buried in the snow?)...I find it curious that these birds were
migrating along the top of the Sierra Nevada Mtns when they could have been
migrating at lower elevation (where they would be less exposed to the
elements) parallel to the mountain range...

Anyway, I just thought I would pass this along since it pertains to
migration in the western U.S.

Colby
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