Pishing Amongst The Trees

It's at this time of year, and throughout autumn, that the art of 'pishing' comes into it's own when out birding. This technique of making a 'pishing' noise to attract birds started in North America and spread to the UK, and now most birders will deploy this technique at some point, during the autumn particularly, if not often!

I was doing one of my plantation woodland bird surveys this morning and my 'pishing' amongst the trees paid dividends with a number of birds coming to investigate the noise and therefore showing themselves! Which is what 'pishing' is all about, it's a tactic to enable you to be able to see the bird by attracting it to you through this veritable art! One of the purposes of these bird surveys that I am carrying out is to look at bird usage of the plantation woodland in late summer/early autumn in terms of species and total bird numbers, and 'pishing' does give a helping hand.

Two paragraphs on 'pishing' is enough now, so I'll move on! When I arrived at my survey site in north Cumbria at first light I was greeted with full cloud cover and a light SSW wind. I had wondered weather it might be raining when I got here because it was certainly raining when I picked a coffee up at Tebay and as I drove over Shap Fell. Thankfully the rain kept away and I managed to complete the survey.

 Berries and blossom on the same Rowan

Of the 120 individual birds I recorded of interest were three Song Thrushes, two Chiffchaffs, seven Willow Warblers, thirteen Swallows, three Coal Tits, 26 Goldfinches, a Bullfinch, a Goldcrest, two Reed Buntings, thirteen Mistle Thrushes, a Great Spotted Woodpecker, a Blackcap, three Grey Wagtails, a Siskin, a Snipe and a Buzzard.

 Mistle Thrush

So, all in all 'pishing' amongst the trees was a pleasurable way to earn a buck on a dreich Friday morning! The forecast is looking reasonable at weekend, so fingers crossed for two days of birding and ringing at the Obs!