Date: 10/21/26 4:37 pm From: William Isaacs via groups.io <waisaacs...> Subject: Re: [EBB-Sightings] ID help from audio
Hi Chris, Jenn,
(And Ann, I got a direct response that looks like it wasn't copied to the
group)
Jenn, all those details are in my note but I hid them under my sign off,
sorry.
Chris, the curlew would fit the size for sure - our first thought was
migrating waterbirds. My ear for matching calls to reference recordings is
not great. Practice I guess. But I mentioned signal processing software,
and I love spectrograms, which I see as vocalization fingerprints. I can't
get a great zoomed image but I uploaded a screenshot
Lots of background noise but the call is repeated several times and always
looks like it does in this clip.
I didn't find a great match to this visually when I looked at the Curlew or
anything else I could think of. I'm not trying to argue that it's
definitely not a local, just that this particular call doesn't seem to be
in the databases. (Or maybe I need to clean up the audio first and try the
BirdNet Live match again?)
I appreciate getting feedback so quickly, glad I found this group through
the GG Bird Alliance.
Best,
Bill
On Wed, Oct 21, 2026, 4:25 PM jennyfuzzy <jennyfuzzy...> wrote:
> Hi Bill,
>
> Welcome. Jenn here, also from El Cerrito.
> Could you please describe more detail about where , when, the recording
> was done? That would be of interest
>
>
>
> Cheers,
>
> Jennifer Fury
>
> Saltwater is the cure for everything, sweat, tears, or the sea 🌊
>
>
> -------- Original message --------
> From: "Chris Waterman via groups.io" <chriswaterman555...>
>
> Date: 10/21/26 3:38 PM (GMT-08:00)
> To: <waisaacs...>
> Cc: <ebb-sightings...>
> Subject: Re: [EBB-Sightings] ID help from audio
>
> Hi Bill! Nice to meet you! I’m not super familiar with Long-billed
> Curlew vocals but something was telling me to check their calls. It does
> sound like a good match for the 5th recording on the Merlin app for the
> species. I’m interested to see what other birders think.
>
> Thanks for the posting!
>
> Chris Waterman
> Alameda, CA
>
>
>
> On Oct 21, 2026, at 12:18 PM, William Isaacs via groups.io <waisaacs=
> <gmail.com...> wrote:
>
>
>
> Hi East Bay Bird fans,
>
> Just joined this group, I am hoping for help from someone to make an ID
> from some audio and notes.
>
> I understand I should not attach anything here, so here's a link to the
> unprocessed audio file
>
>
> https://drive.google.com/file/d/1urQElJZrQmF2A8pWEXwOAqf-ynJKkqRw/view?usp=drivesdk >
> Apologies if I've misunderstood any of the group protocols, please let me
> know if so.
>
> Thanks,
> Bill Isaacs
> El Cerrito
>
>
> Sat Oct 17 2026 8:45pm
>
> Warm evening with the windows open, sitting in the house. My wife alerted
> me to a sound outside and we went to our deck facing south. The house is
> adjacent to the Hillside Natural space behind Ganges Ave in El Cerrito. I
> opened Merlin and started recording. She saw the silhouette outline of two
> large birds heading in the direction of San Francisco so SSW. They were
> gliding not much higher than roof height, so below the adjacent hillside
> tree levels. It was dark already so no features visible, but size at least
> in the vulture or large owl or large waterbird category. We suspected some
> migratory flyover, but we also think they must have perched nearby, because
> we heard them for a solid minute on the deck plus the time it took to get
> out there. (Don't know but it feels like a plain fly by would have gone
> faster.) Merlin did not make any identification suggestions.
>
> I got the latest BirdNet Live app, which will run the ID algorithms on
> audio files as well as listening live. It also didn't make a suggestion
> with the default settings. I completely removed the location filter, and it
> made one suggestion: a 59% match to a Black Kite. I went through the audio
> clips within Merlin for that species and it wasn't obvious to me that any
> was a good comparison to what we heard (plus they were all from Africa, but
> I recognize this may be a stray which explains why I didn't get an ID from
> Merlin). I reduced the probability filter to the minimum, but BirdNet Live
> didn't make any other suggestions. It's my first time using this app, so I
> don't know if I missed turning any knobs that would have helped.
>
> I'm a retired computer physicist, and have programmed my share of signal
> processing software, so I know very well how the audio ID works, its
> limitations, etc. Whenever I get a surprise match I try to find comparison
> audio to learn from. But here is a great case for human expertise, so I'm
> happy to consult a real person for this!
>
> I didn't know how to usefully navigate eBird to see if anyone reported
> something that aligns with the above. I did ask one of the AIs if there
> were any rare bird reports on eBird or Facebook near our area from that
> timeframe, and it couldn't find any.
>
> We're excited to learn what we heard, even if it somehow turns out to be
> something common. I haven't tried cleaning up the audio and running it
> again. Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Bill
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
