Anybody who birds with me, knows that I frequently pish occasionally with excellant results. I feel that I have had some excellant conversations. Obviously some birds species respond and others could give a d...m. The chickadees are best known for their responsiveness. I believe that most times of the year, if there is a chickadee within a quarter of a mile, it will check you out. I have pished whole flocks of thirty and more out of the brush. Once I held my hand out and pished a chickadee right onto my hand. Other bird groups that are strongly responsive are the warblers, nuthatches, finches, sparrows, wrens, and gnatcatchers. I once walked up to a bush and pished from about ten feet away. A song sparrow flew out heading straight for the sound and my face, veering off course at about three feet and heading back into the bush. A second set of pishing and he flew half way out and settled on the trail and stared. I like to sit under a bush where I am all but hidden and pish. One time I filled the bush with about a half dozen assorted warblers that were four to ten feet away.
While some species in a group are more reactive than others, I have found that the more reactive species groups almost always respond. I have heard that pishing does not work in the tropics, but when I was down in Ecuador, I found that the warblers and sparrows were still very responsive. But, they make up a much smaller percentage of the bird population. Other birds are unresponsive. I have never seen any reaction from a flycatcher or a shorebird. Also I have had no response from any butterflies, but even though I try, I have never expected one. One time I thought the woods were so quiet that an accipiter must be near. I pished and a Cooper's Hawk flew by about 20 or 30 feet away. I do make other sounds to attract birds. A Screech Owl trill I found is successful in calling some birds, especially cavity nesters. And a short low whistle will draw out some owls. I have had Long-eared Owls and Great-horned Owls respond. Once a GHO flew just a couple of feet over my head. Steve Weston on Quiggley Lake in Eagan, MN sweston2 at comcast.net ----- Original Message ----- From: "Pastor Al Schirmacher" <[email protected]> To: <mnbird at lists.mnbird.net>; <mou-net at moumn.org>; <wisbirdn at lawrence.edu> Sent: Tuesday, June 19, 2007 11:33 AM Subject: [mou] Pishing (or is it spishing) > How effective do you find pishing to be? > > Sometimes I think we pish just to keep ourselves busy while waiting for > the target bird to pop up - seems like we can go days without the desired > response - then there are days like today, when casual pishing drew in > Mourning, Golden-winged, Blue-winged, Chestnut-sided Warblers with little > effort (latter three in same tree). > > Which leads to the questions of: How much should we pish? Are there > times when pishing should be avoided? > > Wondering while working on Sunday's message about prayer, > > Al Schirmacher > Princeton, MN > Mille Lacs & Sherburne Counties > >
