Taking Pishing to a New Level

Blue-winged Warbler

 I have recently graduated to the level of pishing...making funny noises so birds come out to see what new mischief is afoot...where birds sometimes actually emerge to investigate, although not always. (Not even the majority of the time.)

However the weird sounds I can make have been known to get Barred Owls hooting way off the in the woods, and even to sometimes come floating up to the roadside to check me out. And I can almost always "get" a Song Sparrow or two. Plus Common Yellowthroats, the nosiest warblers in the bushes.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird in our garden

Today, I topped my ultimate best ever pishing effort and I am here to tell you I will never forget about it.

Ralph suggested that since the warblers are beginning to disperse and even to migrate  we go out to Lost Valley State Forest. He would wait in the car and I would walk the wild walk.

It was fun. I was able to tease out a couple of Blue-winged Warblers and almost got a woodpecker six-pack (no Pileated this time). 

The pond at Burbine Forest

About ninety minutes in I topped the big hill almost at the end and after catching my breath noticed a little rustle in the brush about four or five Ralph-lengths away from me. (I have long used the mental image of the length of multiples of Ralph stretched end-to-end to measure short distances in my head. Thus it was about four or maybe five times just under six feet....don't laugh...it works.)

Since I had been having White-tailed Deer stomping and barking at me since I got out of the car I tested my deer barking skills. Cough. Cough. Bark. I bark back at deer all the time. The thing began to move off...I thought it might be a bird as a few small branches were moving.

Thus I tried out my finest level of pishing. A bird did fly out and crossed the road maybe five or six Ralph lengths down the hill.

Another catbird. Dagnabbit. There must be a million of them.

 Right behind it was a Black Bear.

Yep, I was just a few husband lengths away from a bear I couldn't see.

Thankfully my incredible squeaking and hissing and barking-like-a-deer skills must have terrified it. It loped off down the hill as fast as if it were hot on the trail of a pic-a-nic basket.

I did not lope back to the car, but let me tell you, it did NOT take me an hour and a half to retrace my steps.

Oddly enough I grew up playing in the woods and have hiked many mountain trails and birded hard over our home county, plus the two adjacent ones and have only ever seen one other bear in the woods.

To my thinking that is enough.

Chestnut-sided Warbler