[obol] Yellow - breasted Chats - LINN CO.

[Jeff Fleischer]

Obolers,

I spent some time visiting some favorite sites of mine
here in Linn County today.  Of interest was locating
two small populations of YELLOW-BREASTED CHATs in
areas where I have not seen them before until this
year.  The first area is the Shea Hill area on the
south side of Foster Reservoir.  The area where I saw
at least 3 singing males is about 300-400 feet in
elevation up from the lake in a logged over area that
has replanted Douglas Fir trees now about 6 to 8 feet
tall.  The area is also covered with a fairly thick
growth of alder, vine maple, berry vines, and assorted
other shrubby type plants.  I have been to this site
several times this spring and each time I have
encountered these singing birds.  There is quite a bit
of acreage in similar condition on this hillside above
Foster Reservoir so there are most likely more Chats
in the area.  Pretty cool :)

I also visited the Upper Berlin Dr area which is east
of Lebanon in the Hamilton Creek drainage.  There are
some logged over areas on Weyerhauser property that
have similar plant growth to the Shea Hill area by
Foster Lake and this area was also supporting at least
3 singing males this morning.  I visited this area
several years ago while doing some survey work for
Purple Martins.  While doing that work, there were no
Chats present and the replanted firs were only a few
feet tall.  By the way, I did see at least two PUMAs
this morning during my visit so they are probably
using one of the few snags for a nesting site that
were left behind after the logging that occured here
several years ago.

So, it appears that Yellow breasted Chats are finding
the logging regrowth areas to there liking in Linn
County this year :)  Good news for us Chat lovers!

Jeff Fleischer
Albany


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