[obol] Hearing them birds

[Dennis P. Vroman]

Larry, and other hearing loss folks (me included I'm afraid)

Perhaps a decade and a bit more now, there was an article in Oregon Birds on 
this.  A lady in PA composed it I believe.  Her work was to help those with 
hearing loss, she was a hearing specialist.  I contacted her and ended up 
purchasing a set of hearing aids.  I'm happy I did, for as Larry mentions 
they do not correct 100% for hearing loss, but they sure do help!  The 
really high pitch birds need to be close before I can hear them, but they 
help greatly to hear even lower pitch songs and calls at a distance further 
away from me than I could with out them.  It's likely there are better aids 
out there now than when I got them year ago.  On a side note, the good 
hearing aids are a bit spendy.

Dennis...still listening north of Grants Pass



> Thanks, Charles, for your post.  It's tough for those with normal and
> supernormal hearing to understand or at least consider, this hidden 
> handicap
> of aging birders.  I have new hearing aids (my second pair), which help in
> many ways, but hearing aids do not restore normal hearing.  In fact, they
> can block some aspects of normal hearing which are taken for granted, and
> they can change the quality and reduce the presence of bird calls.  This 
> is
> an issue experienced by many and rarely discussed.
>
> Larry McQueen