While birding today with our local birding club, NCIOS, a waterthrush was discovered and luckily we brought along our birdJam loaded iPod. We quickly found the song for Louisiana Waterthrush and it was a perfect match! birdJam’s software is great because it removes the voice from the start of each track and also allows for easy finding of the bird in question. Full Review
Today I also got my free shirt from birdJam because I filled out their survey. The survey results also came in and are pretty interesting. 35.1% of people surveyed said they don’t use birdJam to call in birds. There is a lot of debate about this, but for the most part tape playback (of any sort) is OK when used with caution. In high traffic areas or for rare/nesting birds it is not a good idea. Also, in inclement weather or when hawk migration is heavy, it should not be done.
For the most part, following the rules of pishing, owl calling, etc. should be followed with sound playback. We played the sound enough for our group of birders to hear for verification and got a short reaction from the waterthrush and then we moved on.
I had a Waterthrush i.d. pic on my blog that we were mulling over. Birdjam sounds pretty good.
http://brownstonebirder.blogspot.com/-Larry