THRASHER IN JACKSON COUNTY

NOTE: RUSS NAMITZ CONFIRMS THERE HAVE ONLY BEEN THREE PREVIOUS ACCEPTED RECORDS OF CALIFORNIA THRASHER IN OREGON.
This bird was seen and photographed in Jackson County by Frank Callahan in late summer of this year.

Here are Frank’s own words about this bird:
“The California Thrasher site is south of Pilot Rock ca.: N42D 01′ 43.3″ W122D 33′ 58.9″ Jackson Co. OR. Location can be reached on foot. Sited several weeks ago. I came across many of these birds in my surveys in the Summer of 2000 when I was doing soil surveys for the CSNM. This bird loves chaparral, and is proficient at hiding there.”
There are as yet no confirmed records of breeding California Thrashers in Jackson County. But where this bird was found is where you’d expect them to be, if they are present and breeding. Most likely this was a bird wandering during the species’ modest dispersal season. His smaller, tuneful cousin, Sage Thrasher, is a common breeding bird in the sagebrush steppe of eastern Oregon. Some say Mr. S.T. is the most prolific songster in the avian world, with over 2000 individual tunes he can string together. The California Thrasher is no slacker when it comes to song with a loud, clear voice coming from some hideout in the chaparral. Neither thrasher is as urbanized as the Mockingbird which is now present in some parts of Jackson County, an invader from the south. All 3 species are in the exclusively Western Hemisphere family of Mimidae.