Date: 5/1/26 2:57 pm From: Akira So via groups.io <akiradotnet...> Subject: [EBB-Sightings] Yellow-breasted Chat at Shadow Cliffs this morning (5/1 Friday)
Hi all,
Just wanted to mention, in case anyone might like to try to refind it, that I had a Yellow-breasted Chat at Shadow Cliffs Regional Park this morning.
It was initially heard at around 9:30am. Later I saw it at around 11am. It was last seen at around 1 pm at 37.66872, -121.8471. (This area is along the creekside trail on the south side of the arroyo, west/downstream of the concrete bridge. It's near a 3-way trail junction.) The Chat was singing very loudly and distinctly among the vegetation in the very weedy, large overgrown field near that trail junction.
Not sure how long it will hang around, but basically it seemed to be staying in that field singing all this morning, at least between 9:30am to ~1pm. (After that I gave up on photo and left.) So perhaps it may still be around this weekend.
When I initially heard the song at 9:30am, I didn't realize it was a Chat. I thought it had this jumbled quality to the song, that reminded me of a Northern Mockingbird. So I dismissed it. Later at around 11 am, as I walked by I heard it again. This time, after consulting the Merlin app, I realized my error. I was eventually able to see it singing in an upper part of a medium-size shrub in the weedy field from a distance of about 40 feet.
The song was loud and very distinctive, yet the bird was very hard to locate it, in part because it kept moving around. (I made some audio recordings, which I will upload to eBird when I file an eBird checklist a little later this afternoon. I know it will be flagged for a review anyway, so I thought I would send this message first.)
