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Hearing issues and birding (1 Viewer)

bonxie birder

bonxie birder

Going for the One
United Kingdom
Just commenting on the “swift” thread made me decide to post this new thread. I haven’t heard swifts for several years now, despite seeing plenty of them. I believe my frequency range has diminished as I’ve got older. I also struggle to hear Cuckoos and grasshopper warblers are silent. I have to see them to know they are there. Not only does it make birding harder, but a large slice of the joy of birding has gone.

Is anyone else aware of this? Any other species cause problems?

It’s not all bad, I picked up whimbrel the other day purely on their call.
 
Yes, if I go 'birding' in company, it is usually with a gent near twice my age, who I met half a dozen years ago. He was great at identifying bird species by ear, but now that he is in his 80's he has noticeably lost some of that - and at times I'd say he's deaf as a beetle !

It just seems a general decline rather than one species or another - I've recommended that he seriously investigates a hearing aid (it helped my similarly aged parents no end - stopped them arguing with each other while having two completely separate and unrelated conversations with one another ! Which I must admit, made for hilarious spectator sport !).

I also know someone with Cochlear implants. I knew him in his 30's and toward the later part of that decade he got a second one. This increased the range of sounds he could then hear. I remember the day he was able to discern a magpie as a separate sound - he was grinning and dancing and squawking around like a kid with candy ! :-O

I myself have a bit of industrial deafness courtesy of an early workplace, and though I can hear the individual sounds ok, have trouble picking what they are. Not helped by never having had a musical bone in my body I suppose !

It does indeed make 'birding' harder, but also gives some added motivation to nail a precise id. :t:






Chosun :gh:
 
I can't hear shrews any more, so I've lost some top frequencies. One of my friends has a more general issue with distant/quiet sounds but seems to retain the full range of frequencies if the sound is loud enough. Together we seem to manage....

John
 
We had a guide in Uganda who was superb but it soon became apparent to us, that his hearing was shot and he knew it. No idea what we may have missed due to his impediment but even at my age, 60, I could hear many more species than him, as could my travelling companion.

Sadly for him, he cannot access any hearing aids so his guiding will eventually have to come to an end.
 
Farnboro John said:
I can't hear shrews any more, so I've lost some top frequencies. One of my friends has a more general issue with distant/quiet sounds but seems to retain the full range of frequencies if the sound is loud enough. Together we seem to manage....

John
Click to expand...

I struggle with the lower sounds and often can't hear Nightjar species unless they're really close.
 
Shrews? Do they make a sound? Perhaps we need to introduce a handicap (definitely no pun intended) system for year listing as my lists are likely to be affected as I get older
 
When I was in Nepal with a mate, he hadn't realised how bad his ears were until he was there with me. I could hear feeding flocks which were heading our way and he just couldn't.
 
Had some much younger birders than me staying last week (I'm still young, he says). Interestingly one of them is always hearing shrews and voles and things I have absolutely no cognisance of at all.

But then we were at a Nightjar site and I was the first to pick up a churring bird. Maybe his hearing is tuned far higher to start with?
 
dantheman said:
Had some much younger birders than me staying last week (I'm still young, he says). Interestingly one of them is always hearing shrews and voles and things I have absolutely no cognisance of at all.

But then we were at a Nightjar site and I was the first to pick up a churring bird. Maybe his hearing is tuned far higher to start with?
Click to expand...

I can still hear Bat sqeaks as they fly near my home.
 
Never heard a bat in my life ... and in the last week had them flying barely a few feet above my head in two locations (mid-sized species, so not sure what range would have been anyway).
 
It’s difficult to know what you can’t hear, because you can’t hear it to know it’s there. I’m generally ok with nightjar. But swifts and grassies I can’t even hear on the Collins app
 
I can hear shrews, Grasshopper Warblers, Redwings, etc.

I can hear bats, very occasionally, but they're so rare these days with the collapse in insect numbers that it isn't often one can.

I can't hear Nightjars any more, because there's none within hearing range: the nearest is about 30 km away, and that's too far to hear them even with my ears. If there was some way of getting closer, then I'd be able to hear them, but with covid restrictions and lack of evening transport, there isn't.


bonxie2003 said:
.. Perhaps we need to introduce a handicap (definitely no pun intended) system for year listing as my lists are likely to be affected as I get older
Click to expand...

That'd be a good idea - first suggestion, deduct 100 points from anyone caught using a car, that dreadful implement of wealthy privilege and perpetrator of climate & wildlife destruction, for year listing :t:
 
Nutcracker said:
That'd be a good idea - first suggestion, deduct 100 points from anyone caught using a car, that dreadful implement of wealthy privilege and perpetrator of climate & wildlife destruction, for year listing :t:
Click to expand...

And half the score from anybody using guides. Ticking off what your guide has found... :-O

Ontopic: at a young 52 I can still hear everything, fortunately. I would really miss birdsong if this is ever going to end :C
 
Nutcracker said:
That'd be a good idea - first suggestion, deduct 100 points from anyone caught using a car, that dreadful implement of wealthy privilege and perpetrator of climate & wildlife destruction, for year listing :t:
Click to expand...


That's not the way you wrote it the first time Nutty....;)
 
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