[obol] Re: Finding a Varied Thrush in the Portland area: without getting up so early!
- From: Joel Geier <joel.geier@xxxxxxxx>
- To: Oregon Birders OnLine <obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2014 13:18:46 -0700
Hi Janet & All,
As Tim and others have mentioned, Varied Thrushes are often out at first
light on roads in forested areas of the mountains, below the snow line.
However, for people who want to sleep in longer and not go driving
around in the mountains, there are good numbers of Varied Thrushes on
the Willamette Valley floor already this month.
A good place to look for them is under overgrown fruit trees (apples or
pears), especially ones where the fruit has been left on the ground to
decay. There will be plenty of American Robins in this same situation.
In mid-morning or afternoon you'll more often hear their "chup!" call
than their tin-whistle song (which you'll hear more often around dawn,
or when light gets dim due to passing rain clouds). It's worth listening
to recordings of this "chup!" call to familiarize yourself before you go
out, and compare with the "tuk" call of Hermit Thrush, and the "churk"
or "tuk-tuk" calls of American Robin.
If you can do a soft screech-owl imitation, often the Varied Thrushes
will fly up into the interior branches of the tree that they're foraging
under, so you can have a good look. They characteristically hold
themselves at an uptilted angle when they're doing this -- that and
their slim, pointy profile will help you to distinguish them from robins
if the light inside the tree is poor.
One place with an abundance of unmanaged fruit trees is E.E. Wilson
Wildlife Area (Willamette Valley Birding Trail site L11) but I'm sure
you can find that type of habitat in the Portland metro area.
I'd think that The Nature Conservancy's Camassia Preserve (Site H1 on
the WV birding trail) should have Varied Thrushes by now, and the trail
is interesting in other ways.
Good luck,
Joel
--
Joel Geier
Camp Adair area north of Corvallis
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