Pishing Out a Good 'Un

Every year I experiment with pishing. For the uninitiated, pishing is literally making 'pish...pish' sounds with your mouth in an effort to coax small birds out of cover. Google it. Once you persuade Google that yes, you mean pishing, not phishing, you'll get some handy links to browse. And straight away you will notice that they are nearly all American. As far as I can tell, pishing is a technique which gets little publicity on this side of the Atlantic. The only place I've seen anyone else try it properly is Scilly. I don't know who it was, but I was mightily impressed by his utter lack of self-consciousness. Because standing by a clump of bushes, loudly going 'PISH-SH-SH...PISH-SH-SH!' makes a person look pretty odd. Thinking about it though, maybe pishing is actually practiced a lot more often than I think...but only in private. I mean, I doubt very much anyone has ever seen me do it. Maybe we are all secret pishers?

Pishing, for me, is mainly an autumn thing. Certainly that is when it seems to be most productive. And I wonder if that's because the mostly young birds of autumn are especially inquisitive. At its best, you can pish at silent, 'empty' bushes, and instantly have three or four birds pop out for a look. At its worst, no amount of pishing has any effect whatsoever, to the point where I have occasionally wondered if I am just useless at it.

Anyway, here we are in early 'autumn', with the first trickle of juvenile warblers coming through. Pishing is back on the agenda.

Cogden is a great place for pishing. Nice bushy clumps, hedges and whatnot, and frequently a good view in all directions to reassure you that an unsuspecting member of the public isn't suddenly going to appear round the corner and catch you mid-pish. This morning I tried it first at the start of the coast path and got a Willow Warbler. Then at the boardwalk. Just a couple of Blue Tits. To be honest my efforts were somewhat half-hearted. Pishing requires a bit of work from your facial muscles, and mine are still a bit flabby from months of inactivity during the pishing off-season. Arriving at the turning-point of my morning walk, I paused briefly at the sallows and waited for something to move. Nothing.

'PISH-SH-SH...PISH-SH-SH...PISH-SH-SH...'

Almost instantly a warbler popped out on to some close, twiggy branches. It was in full sun, and the obvious yellow wash told me straight away that I had another Willow Warbler. Instinctively I checked the legs. They were very pale in the sun, but not the warm, yellowy pale of Willow Warbler; a colder, greyer tone altogether. And hefty-looking too! What?! The penny was beginning to drop. I checked its head. A plain, open face; no real supercilium at all...and with that, the bird flicked back into the bushes. Three, maybe four seconds of binocular view at point-blank range, and I hadn't registered even its bill colour, let alone primary projection. But surely this was a Melodious or Icterine Warbler?

I backed right off and pished some more. A few rubbish, fleeting glimpses, and then it appeared in the canopy, partially obscured, peering at me. I was desperate for some sort of photo, but really didn't want to mess up any chance I got. So, minimal zoom (300mm) to maximise the likelihood of something in focus. I managed one burst of four shots...

There it is, the lovely little dot. Full frame, uncropped.

The pale bill and plain, yellow-washed face are obvious here

This is the first shot in the series of four, and the best view of the wing. What can be seen of the primaries suggests a short projection, the greater coverts lack obvious pale fringes and there is no strikingly pale wing-panel on the secondaries. All points favour Melodious Warbler of course.

Without photos I would have been stuffed. To be honest, within moments of that bird first zipping back into the foliage I was already doubting what my eyes had told me. Mike and Alan joined me after a while, and searched for some time after I left, but it never showed again. Sedge and Reed Warblers showed, and a Garden Warbler. I do wonder, would I have talked myself out of it eventually? That yellow wash though...

Yes, without the photos I have a sneaky feeling that this would have been one of those horrible, nagging near misses.

Martin Cade at Portland Bird Observatory sees more UK Melodious Warblers than most birders (like the one five days ago for example!) and was kind enough to cast an eye over the photos. Timing-wise, Icterine Warbler is extremely unlikely anyway, but Martin can see nothing in the pics to suggest anything other than a typical, early-autumn Melodious Warbler. I'm more than happy to go along with that.

A bit of context. Most birders will think of Portland as the Melodious capital of Britain - which it probably is - but Dorset records average just three a year currently. And I was surprised to learn that neither Melodious nor Icterine Warbler is on the West Bex and Cogden list. Since I've lived in the south-west I dread to think how many hours, how many bushes, with Melodious Warbler all the while on the radar... For zilch.

And then this morning, out of the blue, mind not really on it...a bit of pishing...and pow!