Northern Waterthrush - need help with audio

[okaugust]

July 1, 2023 Trout Creek Hillside south of Sisters, OR, about 3000' elevation, we were at a spot along the dirt road where one just passes a pine/deciduous are into a more open hillside, and the creek runs out of the woods along the road. The scrub is still pretty dense, so it can be hard to get down to or see along the creek itself.

I thought I was hearing Yellow Warblers, the sweet sweet sweet little more sweet, but the song sounded not exact. Merlin said Northern Waterthrush. Northern Waterthrush are reported at various points around the mountain areas there, but are still rare. The habitat should be fairly likely for them, and I'm not the only person reporting one in the vicinity.

However, I'm on an iPhone 6E and the audio recording is really not all that great, plus I let it run too long, with too much rustling and crunching of gravel and talking.

I got a snarky email from the eBird reviewer to not trust Merlin (I don't, unless I can verify with either my own ears or eyes, which in this case I did hear the bird) and he can't hear anything on the recording at all, not a Yellow Warbler and much less a Northern Waterthrush. (That's a near quote). I don't think he even tried to hear it, to be honest, because if I am on a lap top and listening to the audio on an external speaker, I can hear the bird song right where Merlin says it is, around 2:15 seconds to about 2:50 seconds.

Soooo...while I generally trust other, more experienced, birders who tell me I may be incorrect about something I see or hear, I'd probably let it go, but one who really treated me like I was some idiot newb he couldn't be bothered with, I've decided I'd like to at least give my audio a pass at a revision and nicer people.

You all did a great job with helping me with an audio of possible Mountain Quail a few months back, that I ended up passing on the reporting, because even with enhancement it really wasn't obvious. I downloaded audacity, tried to use it, but it seems to be over my IT skill level. It looks simple enough, but all of my clicking around doesn't do what I want it to do.

I'm wondering if anyone might be game to give it a listen and/or pull a clip out the time range of around 2:15 - 2:50, amplify the volume, and save it back?

I'm attaching the file and including the google link, because I know other folks had issue with the google link before.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1F0rxP1zRsmXi9KFLE6pLXp4pWu2zLB35/view?usp=sharing

Ya'll are the best, even for considering. Cheers!

[AlexHenry]

I think your biggest issue is that you have 2 minutes of extra audio on either side of the bird in question.

I hear a few “chips”, then several renditions of a song.

Not certain yet what it is, but I’ll take a closer look and see if I can chop it down a bit.

[AlexHenry]

Here’s an abbreviated version of your recording.

Next time you try to record a bird, please try to minimize background noise as much as possible. I could try amplifying it, but there’s so much background noise I don’t think it’ll help.

[DLecy]

19 minutes ago, okaugust said:

However, I'm on an iPhone 6E 

he can't hear anything on the recording at all, not a Yellow Warbler and much less a Northern Waterthrush. (That's a near quote). I don't think he even tried to hear it, to be honest, because if I am on a lap top and listening to the audio on an external speaker, I can hear the bird song right where Merlin says it is

 

First off. Whoa! Rockin’ the 6E?! Good for you!

Second, the calls around 2:15 sound pretty good for NOWA to me. I don’t hear anything except a bunch of jumbled stuff and voices at 2:50.

Just curious, in your checklist did you put what time the calls were at? I don’t blame your reviewer for not necessarily listening to the whole clip if this wasn’t pointed out. Asking someone to listen to 5 minutes of audio for 2 seconds worth of short chip notes is a little tough. That doesn’t excuse any sort of dismissive or curt retort from the reviewer, but I wasn’t privy to the communications, so won’t go further on that part of your post. In general, trimming your audio to focus on the sounds in question is a good idea.

[okaugust]

Thanks! Yah, I had an old iPod in gray face for years longer than anyone else in the world :laugh: I can't justify spending the money on a phone I don't like to use much anyway.

Yes, in the original eBird report I said song is at around 2:38 exactly, and I heard it just prior to that as well, but that didn't matter it seemed, and I even apologized for the extra time around it. I actually had met to turn it off right after that but didn't by accident, hence the extra time and noise.

I appreciate both the clip and the seconding of the calls. 🙂