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Bird Watcher's Digest
Review, Bird Watcher's Digest magazine, May/June 2004, page 39 _______________ The Well-Equipped Birder: SongFinder Spring's a drag when you wind up at a young 70 years of age unable to hear warblers. You don't enjoy going on a drive around the countryside with your family, only to stand there like a dummy while they hear all sorts of warblers, but you can hear only blue jays, mourning doves, cardinals, and the occasional crow. I first noticed my hearing problem about four years ago, in late February, when we went out to my son and daughter-in-law's farm to listen for early American woodcock arrivals. I could hear the peent when they were on the ground, but nothing as the male ascended or descended--neither the whistling sounds of its wings nor the accompanying liquid vocal twitter during descent. "Cup your ears," my wife suggested. Nothing. Nothing. I remained in denial for a year, then I had my hearing tested. Hearing aids wouldn't help me, the examiner said. I was okay in the lower registers, but I could hear nothing above 4000 Hz. I was urged to go on a spring nesting survey the following year, and at first I refused to go. Then my son Bill told me that BWD had been asked to review a new device developed especially for birders suffering from high-frequency hearing loss. The SongFinder lowers the pitch of sounds above 4,000 Hz into a range where they can be heard and appreciated. I tried it, and suddenly spring wasn't a drag anymore. I could hear warblers, and, although the relative pitch was lower, the song intervals and rhythms were there again! The SongFinder was easy to use and wear; light, comfortable, and unlike using a regular dish amplifier, my ears weren't being suddenly blasted by a human voice blaring, "There's a golden-crowned Kinglet!" William H. Thompson, Jr. |
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