Subject: [Tweeters] Re: Pishing
Date: Sep 29 19:49:12 2004
From: Douglas Canning - dcanning at nisquallyestuary.org


On 26 Sep 2004, Guttman, Burt wrote:

> Now, I'd appreciate hearing from other folks about how you do it, and
> about your degrees of success with various methods.

For me, there's generic pishing and The Pish.

To make The Pish sound I do better by sharply expelling a blast of
air through slightly open teeth with my jaw pressed forward a bit. It
seems to work rather well as a general purpose call for birds in
brush and the lower canopy, especially sparrows. (When it works at
all.)

I've had what I consider to be remarkably good luck at calling in
Swainson's Thrush with a whistled imitation of their call which
involves pursing my lips so as to not quite whistle, and expelling
air briefly, cutting that off by raising my tongue to the roof of my
mouth. It's kind of like going through those motions while attempting
to say "whut!" (That's "remarkably good" only in the sense that
Swainson's Thrush are such rarely seen skulkers, and any sighting
seems remarkable.)

At times I've found that even the sloppiest whistled imitation of a
bird call has success. Chickadees especially come to mind.

Interesting question!

Doug


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Douglas Canning
Olympia, Washington, USA
dcanning at nisquallyestuary.org
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