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SUNNY Temp: 34 °F Wind: CLM at 0 mph Monday, October 14, 2002 SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA HomeLife Magazine W3 Magazine Jobs @ Mail Tribune Tempo A & E Oregon CarZone Wellness Connection Real Estate Newspaper in Education Prime Times Outdoor Journal Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find Everything E SOUTHERN OREGON Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar ABOUT US FAQ What's New Advertise Home Delivery Classified Ad Contact Us Media Kit Email Story to a Friend September 29, 2002 Brown thrasher finds itself a long way from home By BILL VARBLE Mail Tribune That brown bird thrashing around in the leaf litter at Mo Lolandi’s place near Lake Creek doesn’t look like a star, but he’s drawing crowds like a Hollywood opening. He or she — the sexes look alike — is the second brown thrasher ever seen in the Rogue Valley. His arrival has sparked a stream of birders turning up at Lolandi’s door. "I feel so lucky," says Lolandi, who has been birding for about three years. "All these great birders keep coming out. It’s my three or four days of fame." On a chill early morning with tiny Anna’s hummingbirds buzzing their feeders, the thrasher forages with spotted and California towhees as if it belongs here. Working methodically, the rufous-backed bird with the striped breast tosses Oregon grape leaves this way and that and gulps down the uncovered bugs. It turned up Monday splashing in a birdbath near where California quail today are calling chiCAgo chiCAgo . Lolandi didn’t recognize it and realized it was unusual. "I knew that I didn’t know it," she says. She went to a field guide and decided it looked like a brown thrasher, a member of the mimidae family. The birds are year-round residents of the Southeast and should not be west of the Rocky Mountains. Lolandi called Wild Birds Unlimited, a Medford bird-feeding store, and talked to Howard Sands, an expert birder. "He got really excited," she says. "We get lots of calls that you can’t tell," Sands says. "But she convinced me pretty quickly that’s what it was. She was right on the money." So Sands was among the birdwatchers who flocked here all week. With the nearby confluence of Lake and Lost creeks, plus the conifers and oaks and gently rolling hills, plus the feeders, drippers and cover that Lolandi has built up over the last eight years, this is one birdy spot. While Sands was thrasher-watching, he saw a sharp-shinned hawk, a pileated woodpecker and a young golden eagle being chased by red-tailed hawks. The male brown thrasher may be the all-time champion singer among birds, with a song repertoire in the thousands. An exact count may be impossible, since he improvises as he sings, changing phrases slightly. But nobody has heard a peep from this one. Brown thrashers occupy successional habitat where woody shrubs move into former woodlands in the wake of fire, windstorms or clearing by humans. Almost a foot long, they "thrash" the ground in search of insects, as this one has been doing every morning for an hour or so, and will eat lizards, salamanders and frogs. Both sexes join in building the nest, a cup of twigs in a bush or low tree. Thrashers are thought to migrate mostly at night, sometimes dying in collisions with radio towers in the darkness. Their numbers seem to be declining, probably because of reforestation eliminating successional shrub habitat. Scientists say that avian wrong-way Corrigans like the thrasher probably have a glitch in their orientation that leads them astray, sometimes by thousands of miles. Such a bird, mistaking the Pacific Ocean for the Gulf Coast, may fly out over the Pacific looking in vain for the Yucatan Peninsula or Venezuela until it perishes in the endless sea. Lolandi hopes this one will be lucky. "It’s been so exciting," she says. "I’ve learned so much." Reach reporter Bill Varble at 776-4478 or e-mail [email protected] Printer Friendly Version Email Story to a Friend Subscribe Archive: Click to Search Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright 1997-2002 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy webmaster feedback A D V E R T I S E R S