Hearing the Striated Grass-wren

[Peter Shute <>]

I'm interested to hear if anyone has had any success with listening devices for species like these.

There used to be a device called a SongFinder available, but I believe it's been discontinued. It wasn't cheap.

I've been wanting to try my bat detector on them, but haven't had a chance. Also not cheap, and they're usually designed to filter out frequencies like these that would be low for a bat.

I have seen both species on Nowingi Track in Hattah-Kulkyne, but didn't detect them by ear. We once had a pair of Mallee Emu-wrens feeding around us just a couple of metres away, but I could still barely hear them. I doubt I'd hear them at all now, 10 years later, but maybe my hearing aids would help. My second sighting was just a fluke - saw one flutter across briefly.

Given my low success rate for seeing any MEWs at all each time I tried, it's possible that the reason you didn't hear any was because they weren't there. How would you know?

Peter Shute

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From: Birding-Aus <> on behalf of David Dickson <>
Sent: Monday, 12 October 2020 11:58 AM
To: <>
Subject: [Birding-Aus] Hearing the Striated Grass-wren

 

I have dipped on sighting the Striated Grass-wren and the Mallee Emu-wren on each of my last three trips to Hattah-Kulkyne NP. I use the approach to finding these birds suggested by Rohan Clarke and Tim Dolby, “walk slowly and quietly while listening for their high-pitched calls.” I have spent days trawling through ideal mallee spinifex habitat and heard not a squeak - deafening silence. I would say my hearing is in the normal range for someone my age - 67.
Is there a readily affordable microphone that can pick up the high frequency calls and ‘convert’ them into something I can hear? I imagine that people interested in bats face a similar problem and are able to access equipment that enables them to hear their calls.
Yours
Dave Dickson


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