Patagonian pishing works to a limited degree. Thorn tailed-rayaditos are
overjoyed at the prospect of something else making noise, likewise
Southern house wrens.

On the Antarctic I couldn't find anything to pish. On South Georgia
prospects improved though not by pishing. Brown Skuas could be lured by
lying down in my red tourist parka and then twitching my foot. A skua
would run over and start nibbling at my rubber boot. As that was
inedible, it walked up to my face, at which point the experiment was
abruptly concluded by me. A tete-a-tete with a skua has limited appeal.
I think the red color might be something they pay particular attention
to. I repeated this performance at 2 other landings. One worked, one
didn't. The other responder worked in the same pattern, twitching foot
first, face-to-face second, investigator chickening out third.

Tom Weir
weir at u.washington.edu
(206)747-8480