For this, the third episode of my new video series, "Sunday Morning Sound," I visited the Hoquiam River in my hometown of Hoquiam, Wash.
The Hoquiam River runs for about five miles through the city of Hoquiam before emptying into the Grays Harbor bay. Source The location filmed here is just two blocks from my apartment and one of my favorite spots to visit.
Sounds of note There are a lot of birds greeting the day in this video, which I shot just around dawn. The two that take center stage are a kingfisher and a pair of shorebirds.
The shorebirds I've identified as greater yellowlegs, using the Merlin Bird ID app from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's website All About Birds. I watched them flying over the river, but failed to catch them in the frame. Their eerie calls as they went by are crystal clear though (and perfectly suited for the foggy morning!).
There were a couple of kingfishers around that morning, and I did manage to film one of them. Their rattling calls are present as background in many of the scenes.
I highly recommend the Merlin Bird ID app if you're interested in identifying birds for your Hive posts. I didn't have a photo or video of the shorebirds to refer to when trying to pin down their variety, but with the app, all I had to do was hold my phone over my computer speaker, hit 'Sound ID' in the app, and play the recording. Worked like a charm.
The app isn't perfect: when there are several birds going at once, it can be difficult to figure out which sound the app is ID'ing. Hence the scene in this video that I've entitled "The Mystery Bird(s)."
Thanks for watching (and listening)!
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