SeEtta, COBirds, I agree with your opening disclaimer and I should say that my post was simply an observation I thought some people may find interesting, as I did. To further clarify, my mention of the highest previous elevation I had seen this species at was purely anecdotal and did not involve searching through RMBO's or anyone else's data. That being said, your question, and the paper you linked to, bring up some interesting points. Habitats do grow, shrink and shift their distribution over time and this will affect birds' distributions.
Because habitats are not static is one reason RMBO, together with CDOW and the USFS, developed a new study design for long-term monitoring of avian populations. Previously, we had our longterm monitoring stations (point-transects) distributed within certain pre-identified habitat types. A shortcoming of this design was that habitats can shift away from the transect locations and new locations must be selected. The new design allows habitats to shift while the monitoring stations stay put. Habitat information is collected at each station during the field season and the data is post-stratified (grouped together after the fact) back to habitats. This way, we can track changes in vegetation composition, structure and associated avian communities without requiring the relocation of monitoring stations. That's the nutshell version. I'd be happy to point interested parties to a more scientific explanation of it. To get back to the question of elevation; we do have elevation data associated with our monitoring stations and they are well distributed across the state and across elevations ranging (roughly) from 4,000' to 12,500'. We are now looking at habitat relationships although I am not sure if elevation will be included in this go around (I do not work with the Monitoring Program very much), but climate-related changes to the landscape certainly have our attention. The great majority of the monitoring work we do is defined by contracts we have with state and federal agencies, so we are often limited by funding in what questions we have the time and resources to answer. However, I do know that addressing the roll that climate plays in avian communities on large geographical and temporal scales is something that RMBO has interest in and elevation is an important variable in that dynamic. To see monitoring locations, distribution maps based on our field data, to query our raw data, or to see species accounts, follow the links at the top of this page: http://www.rmbo.org/public/monitoring This site is a work in progress and data from the new design (Colorado 2008, and CO, WY, MT, AZ 2009) should be integrated later this fall. Sorry for the long-winded reply, Greg Levandoski Biologist, International Program Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory Fort Collins, CO 80521 Visit us at: http://www.rmbo.org http://www.facebook.com/RMBObirds --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Colorado County Birding: http://www.coloradocountybirding.com/ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.as/group/cobirds?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
