Monday, April 13, 2015

-- 10 Years and Counting --

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"Every time my cell phone rang I expected it to be from someone in the bayou saying ‘We got it!'
The days were long but the excitement was in the air – it was just electric. It was thrilling to be with birders and impassioned conservationists all working together in the hunt to rediscover this bird that had been thought to be extinct." 
-- Cornell's Ron Rohrbaugh speaking about the original Big Woods search for the IBWO

We're approaching the 10-year anniversary of the USFWS/Cornell announcement that, for a short while back-in-the-day, set the birding world aglow. Meanwhile, not much good search-time remaining in the current search season.

I assume most readers continue to follow along Mark and Frank's searches in central La. Their last two search-entries here:

http://projectcoyoteibwo.com/2015/04/06/trip-report-part-one-march-31-april-5-2015/
http://projectcoyoteibwo.com/2015/04/08/1184/

and an additional new post on bark scaling here:
http://projectcoyoteibwo.com/1087-2/


As long as I'm citing Web material, should probably mention that Mike Collins continues to upload IBWO-related videos/mini-talks (on various aspects of the controversy) to his own YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/IBWOvids/videos

Finally, I don't usually go public with such things, but have been trying without success (unlike in prior times) to nail down a loose, vague, non-public, slightly intriguing rumor that crossed my screen in March. If anyone knows something about it and can pass along any info (in confidence) to flesh it out a bit, would appreciate it: cyberthrush{AT}gmail{DOT}com  

Likely nothing to it, or it's already been dispelled, but would be nice to clear off my radar if that's the case... or, if still being pursued, to at least know that that is the case (...no need for guessing, and am unable to spell out any further details unfortunately, but if you've heard it, then you probably know the one I mean without any further details).  Vast majority of rumors I receive go nowhere, and this one is likely no different, but....

...On a complete sidenote, I was recently checking around for more recent pics/examples (since last time I checked) of leucistic Pileated Woodpeckers and lo-and-behold there's a doozy from just a month ago in Iowa:


http://ladagephotography.com/developer/2015/03/14/kips-comments-3-14-15/

(not a bird that could be mistaken for an IBWO, but just a gorgeous bird in its own right!)
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Frank Wiley's sighting of 4/3 (http://projectcoyoteibwo.com/2015/04/08/1184/) seems quite compelling - he noted a white "traffic cone" shaped bill among many field marks. It's a reminder that even as we haven't had as many sightings in the last few years the birds are apparently still going about their business.

Anonymous said...

I would say it's more evidence that believing is seeing.