For reasons yet unknown to scholarship, Western birds do not respond to pishing. Nor does it work elsewhere in the world except parts of the Caribbean if it imitates the excited pish sound coming from chickadees and titmice when black rat snakes go arboreal. It leads me to believe pishing imitates mobbing cries, and since the arid west doesn't have the same conditions as the Eastern hardwood forest, they may not do this out there. Audrey Hoff once taped a mixed flock of birds native to St. Lucia in a mobbing scene in thick underbrush (why we went into this undergrowth against such a warning on an island where Fer de Lance is found is one of the wonders of stupidity) and we noted it sounded exactly like similar scenes back home. She then replayed the tape regularly in East Tennessee and it regularly brought in birds every bit as effectively as a screech-owl tape. Clapping may sound to the birds like one of the strange sounds western jays make in similar circumstances. One sudden clap can also make a turkey gobble. We used this on the World Series of Birding regularly. James Brooks =================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER===================== The TN-Bird Net requires you to sign your messages with first and last name, city (town) and state abbreviation. ----------------------------------------------------- To post to this mailing list, simply send email to: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx ----------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send email to: tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * TN-Bird Net Owner: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx (423) 764-3958 =========================================================