I've noticed for years that, at least at places where I bird and in my neighborhood, when there are families of B. Orioles around, once the young fledge they stay in the area for at most a week or 2, then disappear. I've often wondered whether they are already heading south, or just moving away from the nesting territory. Today I think I stumbled on the answer, at least for the Yale Forest area. In the Forest, as most everywhere now, the vast majority of birds are no longer singing, although there are some exceptions. Even though it's quieted down there are still lots of birds around, and every day I manage to find something interesting. When I can find the time I'm going to post a "Boston Hollow Re-cap" to report on the last couple of weeks and some of the things I've seen or found. But today was kind of different. This spring the Yale folks suggested that I take a look at some areas that they have recently logged, which I didn't know about. One is a very large tract in Union, in the northwest corner of the Forest. It was cut perhaps 3 or at the most 4 winters ago, and is now growing up into shrubs and brush, averaging 3 to 5 feet tall. In late June I found the predominant birds there to be Chestnut-sided Warblers; the fields were full of them, along with Common Yellowthroats, E. Towhees, Catbirds, House Wrens and a few other varieties. They have left a large number of mature trees standing as seed trees and bird habitat, and they call that type of area "shelter woods". There are large numbers of woodpeckers in the trees; I've found YB Sapsuckers, Pileated, Red-bellied, Downy and Flicker. I can't recall seeing a Hairy, but I don't doubt they're there. The ground cover is so thick it's almost impenetrable except for the traces of logging roads, especially since the predominant plants are BLACKBERRIES! When I first went there in June I noticed they were literally covered with berries, even though I think the very dry June set them back a little and diminished the size of the berries. Ever since, I've been checking back waiting for them to ripen, and a couple of weeks ago, found the first few. Even today, when I finally went back, less than 1% were ripe, but there are such masses of them that the plants are falling over under the weight in places. I confess that I went today mostly for the berries, but I wasn't there long when I realized the brush was filled with not only berries, but birds! And a majority of them were Orioles, probably 90% or so juveniles. They were everywhere, feeding on the berries. I stood at one spot and I'm sure, saw more than 50 of them, although between the brush and mayhem a count was impossible. And I'd guess this cut area may be 100 acres, of which only a small portion is easily accessible. So I think there are easily 100 or more Orioles, and that may be a very low estimate. In addition, the trees were full of Cedar Waxwings, so many that at first I thought their calls were some kind of insect, since the Cicadas are now out in force. I had 1 CEWA land within 25 feet of me, pick a berry and give me a dirty look before departing with his prize. And the G Catbirds and E Towhees were having a field day as well. So, if you're looking for fruit-eating birds, look for blackberry brambles! Looks like there's a bumper crop this year. And don't forget to check out any black or choke cherry trees that have ripening cherries on them as well. They should be ripe in a week or two now. Unfortunately the tent caterpillars hit them pretty hard this spring. Don Morgan, Coventry, Ct. mntncougar@aol.com