Moral dilemma: number 214. Counting year ticks (1 Viewer)

[bonxie birder]

I’m not really looking for absolution, but thought I could raise this point.
This is not a life tick which for me requires sight identification so please bear that in mind.
Up until now, for year ticks I have been happy to include songs and calls, as well as visual identification, but as followers are possibly aware my hearing is failing. While I can hear a sandwich tern a couple of miles away, grasshopper warblers and cuckoos are outside my range. Just yesterday I was with friend who was listening to a GW reeling away in thick bush just yards from us. He was staggered I couldn’t hear it. We hung around for quite a while and resisted the temptation to wade in. Is this tickable for a year list? Only my “disability” prevented me from hearing it. I don’t feel a year tick requires the bird being harassed by tape lures or the like. Any views?

 

[Peter.home]

I went on a walk with a couple of older locals and we found a Grasshopper Warbler. I was surprised that they couldn't hear it. So I suspect It is a song on borrowed time for many of us.

I would suggest maybe seeing if Merlin picks it up on your phone and counting it that way in conjunction with your friend hearing it. Or recording it, and turning up the volume at home perhaps, or looking at the sonogram.

Or there is a birdnet app that also enables Live sonograms.

Something that is more tangible than just taking someone's word for it, but at the end of the day it's only a game, with no fixed rules really.

It is however perhaps worth putting a system in place, in case the next time involves a much rarer skulking bird!

You are definitely right to shy away from the more intrusive approach .

 

[KenM]

You should hear it if you acquire hearing aids “tailored” to the high pitch frequency.
I can certainly recommend Boots for that requirement.
I’ve had mine c3 years and have never looked back.
When I rise in the am, I’m deaf to all songsters, slip my overnight charged aids on and it’s like being reborn again, I can hear everything singing/calling.
On Cyprus recently and I heard Savi’s reeling!
Certainly wouldn’t have heard without!👍

 

[Xenospiza]

If I can't hear something that others can, and cannot identify a bird flying by which should be it, I won't year-tick it.
My hearing is fine, but I am not young anymore and will miss some stuff.

I guess a "live" visualisation with an app is allowable: that's like using a bat detector.

 

[twitcherf]

I’m not really looking for absolution, but thought I could raise this point.
This is not a life tick which for me requires sight identification so please bear that in mind.
Up until now, for year ticks I have been happy to include songs and calls, as well as visual identification, but as followers are possibly aware my hearing is failing. While I can hear a sandwich tern a couple of miles away, grasshopper warblers and cuckoos are outside my range. Just yesterday I was with friend who was listening to a GW reeling away in thick bush just yards from us. He was staggered I couldn’t hear it. We hung around for quite a while and resisted the temptation to wade in. Is this tickable for a year list? Only my “disability” prevented me from hearing it. I don’t feel a year tick requires the bird being harassed by tape lures or the like. Any views?

Well, you didn't see it and you didn't hear it, so on what basis would you year tick it?

THe fact that you know it was there isn't relevant, I would suggest?

I cant year tick a bird because someone else records it if I dont see/hear it myself

 

[bonxie birder]

Interesting opinions. Sadly I do have hearing aids and they are pumped up to full volume on these occasions. Still nothing

 

[Andy Lakin]

I would persevere with actually trying to see the bird, with patience birds usually show enough features to nail the I.d. Personally I find it a very interesting challenge to get an I.d on birds like this

 

[Steve Lister]

I too can no longer hear Grasshopper Warblers and will rely on somebody else hearing one and pointing me in roughly the right direction to hopefully see it.
But without seeing or hearing it no way wiould I tick it for any list.

 

[Farnboro John]

There has to be some sensory detection by the observer. Failing sight and sound, what do Groppers smell like?

John

 

[MiddleRiver]

If hearing aids don't work for you, then you could lower the pitch. That way the pattern is recognizable and transposed to range where your hearing still works. I used to bird with a gentleman (may he rest-in-peace) who owned the original commercial version of this device and he had great things to say about it.

Hear Birds Again

"Hear Birds Again" is a free mobile app for birders with high frequency hearing loss who desire to once again enjoy the uplifting songs of wild birds.

hearbirdsagain.org

 

[MiddleRiver]

I too can no longer hear Grasshopper Warblers and will rely on somebody else hearing one and pointing me in roughly the right direction to hopefully see it.
But without seeing or hearing it no way wiould I tick it for any list

I tend to agree, but it started me thinking: I sometimes bird with other birders, who may be the ones to notice a bird, find it, and even call out ID before I even can get on it. If I were alone, I would prolly have missed the bird entirely. If doing a 'list' (in our case eBird), we'll likely do a 'team' list. So, am I 'taking credit' for a bird I really didn't 'earn'? In some ways, yes. Does it matter one whit... not really. It's a bit of a stretch but I suppose if you think of it as a team activity, then the bird you didn't hear might well be part of your list.

THAT said, at the end of the day, everyone draws their own lines and decided what birding means to them. If a lifer, with few exceptions, I want to SEE it. If a repeat, then audio or visual...