Subject: Re: pishing
Date: Feb 10 14:32:21 1995
From: "Nunnallee, Dave" - DNUN461 at ecy.wa.gov




I've found that "pishing" is especially effective if you wait until you find
a candidate Excitable Bird ("EB") around. Good candidate EB's include
Red-breasted Nuthatches, wrens, and Black-capped Chickadees.

If you find an EB, especially one which is already making some noise, start
your pishing, and try to get it excited. The more excited and noisy the EB
gets, the more birds of other species you will attract. Once in an excited
while, you will hit the jackpot and find yourself surrounded with more birds
than you can possibly follow. I have pished in ten species at once, and I
know that is nothing unusual at all - I'm a very average pisher. If you
make an effort to stay a bit out of sight you will often have even better
success. And, as others have mentioned, an excited "pished-in" bird will
often come very close, frequently much closer than your binocs will focus.
Really quite exciting!

If you have the good fortune to accompany a really good birder, pay
attention to his/her pishing. Listen and learn! While all pishes may sound
pretty similar to us humans, the birds obviously hear otherwise. I was
astounded once during a CBC when I saw what Gene Hunn could do with his
pishing - he has a kind of whistle in his pishes that just drives the birds
wild!

What's the record in Tweeterland for number of species pished in at one
time?

Dave Nunnallee
dnun461 at ecy.wa.gov
Bellevue, WA