Date: 9/20/26 8:16 am From: Hans-Joachim Feddern via Tweeters <tweeters...> Subject: Re: [Tweeters] "Pish" rarities app
Thanks for the heads-up Gary! Maybe you should Yahoo to rest ?? Hope this
finds you well! I am sitting at the Orlando airport right now. Just got in
from a cruise this morning. Not too birdy, nothing pelagic except for a few
Frigatebird. Now I am partial to them since I added them to the Colorado
state list! Google frigatebird in Colorado sometime!
Tschuess!
Hans
*Hans Feddern*
Twin Lakes/Federal Way, WA
<thefedderns...>
On Sat, Sep 19, 2026 at 2:35 PM Chuq Von Rospach via Tweeters <
<tweeters...> wrote:
> On Sep 19, 2026 at 11:16:36, Gary Bletsch via Tweeters <
> <tweeters...> wrote:
>
>> As several Tweeters have recently reported, the new app "Pish" is
>> supposed to notify birders about rarities. I just tried it out, but was not
>> at all impressed.
>>
>
> I fired up Pish when it was first announced and it’s earned a place on my
> phone. It’s not perfect, but it’s a nice and solid 1.0 release.
>
> Unlike Gary, I didn’t have any issues signing in. The biggest issue I’ve
> seen so far is it has a tendency to forget my settings, and reset the
> search list to everything. An easy and quick fix when I fire it up, but
> still a bit annoying.
>
> (Note on using a yahoo.com email: as someone who used to run large scale
> email systems for a living, I’d strongly encourage people to migrate their
> email address to something else. Investment/maintenance of Yahoo stuff Is
> minimal these days, and I’m honestly surprised they haven’t retired the
> system already)
>
> What really makes me suspicious of Pish is that the next closest rarity on
>> its map of my region is an Ivory-billed Woodpecker, reported from some
>> place up north of Toronto.
>>
>
> This is not a Pish problem, it’s an eBird thing. A couple of days after I
> fired up Pish, I started getting REALLY funky rarity reports from it; it
> turned out someone decided to visit the Tacoma Zoo and eBird list every
> thing they saw at the zoo that day. Those sorts of things happen and I
> sympathize with eBird reviewers that get to sort it out.
>
> The thing Pish solves for me is something I’ve wanted eBird to do forever:
> let me drop a pin somewhere and only get rare bird alerts within a range
> from that point. Where I live here in Kitsap, if I want to monitor rarities
> within about an hour’s drive, I need alerts set up for five different
> counties, and those will include locations 3-4 hours away. Pish solves that
> and does so pretty well. So far, where I’ve checked on it, it’s reported
> everything I expect it to, and it hasn’t neglected to report something to
> me, so it seems accurate.
>
> I haven’t used some of the secondary features (like loading in my lifer
> list), so I can’t comment on that. I’d be just as happy if they did away
> with those and focus on refining and improving the core feature. It’s good
> — I’d give it a B grade as a first release, and I think it has potential,
> and so far, it’s been a useful addition to my phone.
>
> chuq
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------------
>
> Chuq Von Rospach (http://www.chuq.me)
> Silverdale, Washington
> Birder, Nature and Wildlife Photographer
> Vice President, Kitsap Audubon Society
>
> Email me at: <chuqvr...>
> Mastodon: @<chuqvr...>
>
> Stay Updated with what I'm doing: https://www.chuq.me/6fps/ > My latest e-book: https://www.chuq.me/ebooks >
> I have opinions
>
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