Nuthatch behavior, Boulder county

[Deborah Carstensen]

I sat in a forest west of Nederland for four hours today as I played the fiddle for families walking through an “enchanted forest “. It was a fundraiser for a Nederland ecology/nature center that is going to be built there.
I enjoyed the wildlife and bemoaned the fact that I hadn’t brought my binoculars. Nonetheless, I enjoyed being “forced “ to sit for 4 hours, time to let me watch the wildlife at work.
Specifically, I watched as a chipmunk stored his seed under a small flat rock. A short while later, a red breasted nuthatch came and stole his stash. The chipmunk came back a while later with his cheek pouches full and stored a new batch of seeds. Soon after that a white breasted nuthatch came and stole the whole stash.
Although it was quite the score for the birds, I do hope the chipmunk figures it out and gets to store enough for winter!
It was a beautiful day!
Deb Carstensen, Arapaho county