Michael Brown wrote:
>
>I'm wondering if this deception on my part caused any undue stress to the
>bird. I know pishing can do this, but am unsure if imitating a call has the
>same effect. Isn't the idea that pishing mimics a distress call? "Whit"
>isn't a distress call is it?

Pishing doesn't mimic a distress call, it mimics an alarm call. You can
see the danger of confusing the two, because "distress" implies something
different than "alarm" (at least it does to me). Alarm just means "watch
out, there is a predator nearby." The bird then attempts to locate it. I
think we're giving human emotions to the birds when we extend a bird alarm
call to "I'd sure be distressed if I thought there was a lion lurking in
the bushes and I didn't know where it was." Birds do in fact have calls
that have been called distress calls--those they make when actually grabbed
by a predator (or a mistnetter).

"Whit" may well be an alarm call made when a Swainson's Thrush detects the
presence of a potential predator (like a person). The typical calls (not
songs) we hear from many species, the ones we use to identify them--the
harsh notes of Song Sparrows and Common Yellowthroats, the double kiss of a
Winter Wren or chatter of a House Wren--extend this list to your familiar
species--are probably all alarm calls that the bird wouldn't even be giving
if we weren't in the vicinity!

I don't think anyone except the bird can answer the question of "undue
stress." A bird's life is made up of responding to potential predators,
which are around all the time, and I think a person walking by is just
another one. Obviously if you inundated such a bird with constant stimuli
(say, people again and again walking near its nest), either (1) it would
become habituated, as many urban birds seem to, or (2) you might well
stress it out of the area. The latter seems to happen to some apparently
more sensitive birds, but only with quite a bit of human intrusion.

I don't for a second feel bad when a Song Sparrow calls as I, a lone
person, walk through its territory; I have as much right there as a hawk or
weasel, to which it would respond somewhat similarly (although in much
greater jeopardy, whether it knows it or not). At the same time, I would
be saddened to see developers come in with a path or road that would open
up the same territory to dozens and hundreds of people, knowing that would
have a potentially much greater effect. Imagine dozens to hundreds of
weasels/hawks passing through the territory!

This is why (and I hope someone from the Center for Urban Horticulture is
reading this) managing for people (as in making the paths better at
Montlake fill and encouraging more and more people to use them) is *not*
the same as managing for wildlife.

Oh boy, back on tweeters for only a few days and I've already found my old,
worn soapbox.

Dennis Paulson, Director phone 206-756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax 206-756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416