Glorious October
October is the pretties month in Minnesota, everything is incredibly colorful and the weather is perfect. Even the sky seems its brightest blue. This is one of the views from the Summit Overlook at Hawk Ridge. I'll be there Friday night. They’ve added a new public program this year—“Strangers of the Night” is an owl program held on Friday nights now through the end of October. It starts at 9:30pm at the main overlook, and they’ll be bringing up banded owls for adoption—very similar to the hawk adoptions during the daytime. The program is free and registration is not necessary; adoption amounts vary from $30 to $100.
This tree was practically glowing as I walked down my street. Maybe the colors are just more vibrant because I'm happy to be up and moving in a healthy way.
Yellow-rumped warblers are still in big numbers around my apartment building. I keep getting endless joy of pishing them from out my bathroom window. I'm amazed at how close they come. This morning they were in my window boxes and clinging to the screen.
The warblers appear to be after these tiny little flying bugs. There are literally millions of them. They are all over our screens and are so small they can squeeze right in. They don't appear to be interested in what's in our home, just hanging on the screen. Whatever they are, the warblers sure are savoring them.
Here's a third yellow-rump that fell for the bathroom pish, they just kept coming and I just kept pishing.
And then I took my pishing too far and pished in a squirrel. The warblers took off and I gave it up for the afternoon.
posted by birdchick at 8:49 PM
4 Comments:
What does "pish"ing mean?
T.
That little maple is glorious! Trees just don't get that vibrancy like they do "back home".
I understand what "pishing" is but I want to try it here on the foreign birds but have never seen or heard it being done. Can we have a "pishing for dummies" blog please?
Pete Dunne just wrote "The Art of Pishing". I think it's available through Stackpole books.
Pishing Definition: Take the word pish and say it as a whisper with your teeth together. This sound will get some species of birds' attention and cause them to get very close to you. Generally works better in spring but I have pished birds in all seasons.
No one knows for sure why birds come to pishing and there are a few theories. One is that is sounds like a warning call, that other species are "mobbing" a predator so birds come in to check out the activity. Another theory is that it sounds like a baby bird begging for food and birds are so primed to respond to that stimulus that they come in to the begging call--one of the reasons why it works better in spring. I once watched a redstart foraging on a dead tree where there was a hairy woodpecker nest. The chicks in the nest started begging and the redstart (well known for its pishability) flew right up to the hole and went inside to check it out.
The other theory is that the birds are curious as to what the weird sound is all about and want to know what the heck is making that noise.
Many birders will start to pish without realizing it when a warbler is seen.
About that squirrel... is that an example of "be careful what you pish for"?
Sorry...couldn't help it. *runs away*
Post a Comment
<< Home