>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>Date: Fri, 15 Apr 94 09:15 PDT
>From: Del Blackburn <blacdf at clark.edu>
>
>>Date: Wed, 13 Apr 1994 21:34:05 +1000
>>From: Kevin Vang <kvang at LAUREL.OCS.MQ.EDU.AU>
>
>[stuff deleted]
>>
>>Anyway I have gone on too long-- by the way, of all my 3,500 species I
>>have yet to see a Yellow Breasted Chat. I will be returning to North
>>America later this year. I will do anything (and I mean it) to finally
>>see one of these darn things--WHERE DO YOU GO?
>
>Kevin,
>In 1992 a pair of Yellow Breasted Chats nested at the Frenchglen Oregon
>area, just south of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, upstream on
>the Blitzen River from the Page Spring Campground. Early June is a good
>time to find them in that area.
>
>Del Blackburn, blacdf at clark.edu

While Frenchglen is indeed a good place to find Chats, there are lots of
places that are much easier to get to, especially east of Oregon. For
example, I spend a week every June in southern Ohio, in an area where
Chats are among the most common breeding birds (Zaleski State Forest).
Check any forest clearcut (at dawn, in June) in the hills of West
Virginia or Kentucky or Missouri or Arkansas, and I'm sure you'll find
them, (or probably in any of a dozen other states). If you have access
to O.S. Pettingill's "Guide to Bird Finding East of the Mississippi"
you'll find plenty of specific recommendations. They are among the first
birds to begin singing during the dawn chorus (while it is still dark),
and among the first to quit after sunrise, so it may prove to your
advantage to get out early.

Skip

--
Skip_Russell at intersolv.com
Aloha, Oregon