john@nmtsun.nmt.edu (John Shipman) (03/24/88)
In <18531@oliveb.olivetti.com>, Michael Mammoser writes: > I bird [Stevens Creek Park] a lot and the California Thrasher > is quite common here, but it can be difficult to see unless > it is singing from the top of a low bush or tree. It is very > spooky and will generally flee when it catches sight of you. I agree; you can really feel you've accomplished something when you get a good look at this bird. For listers that need it, my favorite spot for California Thrasher is around the Stanford Museum (on the Stanford campus). They're somewhat tamer there, perhaps due to all the foot traffic around the area. Around 1980 the west side of the museum was still somewhat brushy in spots, and a reliable spot for the species. Last month I sent my friend Phil to this spot so he could tick it; he informs me that the west side is now a sculpture garden, and too well-manicured. However, he did find it easily on the EAST side of the museum, which has not yet been over-landscraped. Method: sit in your car in the alley or stand quietly, and listen for birds scratching in the underbrush. Most will be Brown Towhees. Some look like miniature roadrunners with scimitar bills. TO PISH OR NOT TO PISH---that is the question. My friend Phil recently discovered pishing, and it has produced such spectacular results for him, he can't imagine why everybody doesn't do it all the time. I started out as a pisher, but in the last few years, I do it a lot less. Recently, I watched from above as Phil pished his way up a gully, and it looked to me like he was herding the critters. Each bird, on first hearing him pish, would pop up on a high perch and give Phil a nice 3-second look, and then the bird would flee for its life on up the gully. If you're on a Big Day, this is probably a good deal. You may miss a few birds, but most of them will pop up long enough for you to identify them. Also, Phil keeps pulling out birds that I've never seen, in all my favorite spots! I suspect that it's my predilection for photography that got me away from pishing. I like to get more than one picture of a bird, if possible. So I like to creep down the trail at a literal snail's pace, trying not to make any noise at all. It's very boring for non-photographers, but fine if I'm out alone. I find that only when I'm careful about noise and fast motion will I see a Cal Thrasher. Maybe the thing to do is to work a site with pishing on some days, without it on other days; you might see different birds. Or pish just before you plan to move some distance away, when it won't matter if you traumatize the birds. There's one more complicating factor. It seems to me that many wild animals will freak out if they think you're STALKING them. When I do my molasses stalk, I see different birds than if I go with a friend, strolling along and talking as if nothing unusual were happening. The latter situation seems to reassure some birds that we're not after THEM. An extreme case of this: Common Crows have been raiding a pecan tree in our neighborhood for much of the winter. You can walk directly under the tree and they will stay there;but if you make EYE CONTACT with any bird, they will all flip three blocks away. > Rock sandpiper only in winter [at Pescadero Rock] Oops, right you are. > Moss Landing tallied 214 species in this year's CBC. Maybe, > for once, we will beat out Freeport, Texas for high species > count. 8-) I just gotta say a few more kind words about Moss Landing. You go down S.R. 1 until you see the two gigantic smokestacks of the PG&E facility, or, if it's foggy, until you get to the bridge over Elkhorn Slough, from which some fishing piers are visible on your right. The best spot is Jetty Road. This is the first turnoff north of the bridge (except for the turnoff to Skipper's Restaurant---is their chowder still as wonderful as it was around 1980?) and should be marked. Just a little ways off the highway, you have the harbor on your left and a group of brackish sloughs on your right. You don't have to move much from this spot to see boatloads of species of gulls, terns, shorebirds, waders, dabblers, and divers. Most of my best pictures of loons and grebes came from here at times when the tide was all the way in to the jetty. And when the tide declines, the tideline and mudflat are usually entertaining. When the tide is all the way out, the large muddy spot in the north end of the harbor is good for loafing birds. If the harbor action is slow, usually the sloughs are good. Sometimes the harbor mouth can be good for divers, and the outer beach is like any other section of beach in this end of the state (good), but most of the good stuff is right off Highway 1 on Jetty Road. -- John Shipman/Zoological Data Processing/Socorro, New Mexico USENET: ihnp4!lanl!unm-la!unmvax!nmtsun!john ``If you can't take it, get stronger.'' --Falline Danforth
mjm@oliven.olivetti.com (Michael Mammoser) (03/25/88)
In article <17@nmtsun.nmt.edu>, john@nmtsun.nmt.edu (John Shipman) writes: > TO PISH OR NOT TO PISH---that is the question. > Or pish just before you plan to move some distance > away, when it won't matter if you traumatize the birds. I agree that pishing can be overdone, but not because it traumatizes birds (I've never seen this), but that it becomes rather ineffective. If done continuously, the birds tend to ignore you. In the case with Wrentits, I do it only when I know that one is right off the trail next to me and I can't get a good look by waiting for its normal movement to bring it into the open. Many times these birds will continue their foraging activity right in front of you for some time after being pished up. These birds have typically been classified as shy and secretive; due more, I think, to the nature of the habitat rather than the nature of the bird. I have found them to be quite curious and tame. Another bird that I try pishing with is the Marsh Wren. Again, I do it only when I have heard a bird in the area right next to where I am standing. From my experience, I would say that the success rate of getting these birds into the open is probably less than 50%. Most of the time they just chatter back at you from cover. CAVEAT: pishing at nesting birds CAN BE a disturbing experience for them! > There's one more complicating factor. It seems to me that > many wild animals will freak out if they think you're > STALKING them. When I do my molasses stalk, I see different > birds than if I go with a friend, strolling along and > talking as if nothing unusual were happening. The latter > situation seems to reassure some birds that we're not after > THEM. How true! Many times I have walked down a path and seen birds in the trees to the side and the moment that I stop to look at them, off they go. However, if you are standing quietly when the birds come on the scene, they tend to pay you no mind. I think it is the sudden change in your behavior that concens them; i.e. walking along then suddenly stopping and turning towards them. (especially if your behavior change was in response to a vocalization they made) > The best spot is Jetty Road. This is the first turnoff > north of the bridge This spot always seems to be mentioned on the Rare Bird Alert during shorebird migration. This road is actually the entrance to the Moss Landing State Beach (the ranger's fee collection hut is about 150 yards up the road). 1 hour parking is allowed along the right side of the road between route 1 and the hut. I think this is to accommodate birders, who don't want to pay the three dollar entrance fee just to look at birds for an hour. Good hunting, Mike