tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-147620102024-03-17T20:44:47.567-04:00IVORY-BILLS LiVE???!...<b>==> <i><u>THE</u> </i>blog devoted, since 2005, to news & commentary on the most iconic bird in American ornithology, the Ivory-billed Woodpecker (IBWO).... [<i>contact:</i> cyberthrush@gmail.com]</b><br>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------cyberthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01883119145892591610noreply@blogger.comBlogger1640125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14762010.post-40116434968702832152024-03-16T07:00:00.001-04:002024-03-16T07:00:00.135-04:00 — An Aside — ——————————————--———
Recently, I was a bit surprised to see Dwight Norris, who runs the largest of the various IBWO Facebook groups, and who I don’t often see pass judgment on matters there, end a posting by writing, in reference to the publicized IBWO claims for Saluda, S.C., that he “and many others consider it to clearly be a hoax.” [If you don’t know about the Saluda story I won’t cyberthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01883119145892591610noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14762010.post-50134175885365104112024-03-13T07:00:00.067-04:002024-03-13T07:00:00.144-04:00 — Ongoing Problem — -----------------------------------------------------Hugely annoying that after all this time people continue posting pics and videos on YouTube, forums, news pages, and other websites labelled as Ivorybills that are clearly Pileated Woodpeckers… every time I get perturbed by one of these mis-IDs I have to stop and remember how many uncorrected pics are now floating around the Web easily cyberthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01883119145892591610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14762010.post-40582206292831103082024-03-09T08:00:00.015-05:002024-03-09T08:50:16.197-05:00— Something Current, Something Past —————————————————A new hour-long podcast with Mark Michaels and producer Andy Sarjahani of the indie film "American Grail" on the IBWO and the Proj. Principalis search:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFZrdAr0cegThe film has its own Facebook page here (where you can expect future showings to be listed):https://www.facebook.com/americangraildoc/...Meanwhile, I seem to be living in nostalgia these cyberthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01883119145892591610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14762010.post-7079595923760028702024-03-06T13:02:00.001-05:002024-03-06T13:02:27.449-05:00 — Those Were The Days ;) —--------------------------------------------------------I’ve been rummaging through old files searching for things (that are shareable) that might be interesting or entertaining to post… I don’t usually share verbatim correspondence at all… but… will make this one, lone exception! In early days I received a number of short scammy, hokey letters that were more annoying than interesting, but late cyberthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01883119145892591610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14762010.post-49311238153630814322024-03-02T19:00:00.007-05:002024-03-13T08:39:38.225-04:00-- Video Re-run -- --------------------------------------------------------I already linked previously to this slowed, frame-by-frame, annotated version of one of Proj. Principalis's drone videos (added: showing 2 birds at one point) that Paul Fischer posted on FB, but will link to its YouTube posting as well (...since I'm a little surprised at how few views it's had on YouTube)... and it can also be cyberthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01883119145892591610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14762010.post-9765766825684607022024-02-28T08:00:00.001-05:002024-02-28T08:00:00.140-05:00 — 2024… A Notable Year ———————————————————
There is so much historical information on the Web (including in prior years on this blog) pertaining to Ivorybill history and searches that I try to now avoid re-treading that material here, letting readers get it from elsewhere. But this is 2024, so worth noting that it’s the 25th year since David Kulivan’s 1999 La. sighting and the 20th anniversary (just passed) of the cyberthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01883119145892591610noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14762010.post-3620970159145452612024-02-25T07:30:00.001-05:002024-02-25T07:30:22.922-05:00 — Sunday Navel-gazing ———————————————————
Around a week ago I pulled out an old file drawer of IBWO stuff buried in a closet (much of which I actually thought I’d thrown out long ago!), and began reading 15+ year-old back-and-forth correspondence with various key people. So much time, so many discussions/debates have passed. It was fascinating to read things/discussions I hardly remembered ever having (and all the cyberthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01883119145892591610noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14762010.post-74385544478250104792024-02-21T08:00:00.015-05:002024-02-22T06:05:01.491-05:00— Quick Note — +Addenda ——————————————————Like so many others, I’ve now abandoned Twitter and Musk’s mismanagement, and am moving to Jack Dorsey’s Bluesky platform where I am:
@cyberthrush.bsky.social
Bluesky is still getting revved up (but it looks to eventually be the biggest, most-active alternative to Twitter), and birding posts for now are still on the light side compared to Twitter (I refuse to call itcyberthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01883119145892591610noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14762010.post-72273442376722349832024-02-18T09:00:00.001-05:002024-02-18T09:00:00.128-05:00-- Celebrating Amateurs... -- -----------------------------------------------------Hahhh…. I’ve often enjoyed Jack Hitt’s stories on NPR’s “This American Life” and in the New Yorker, and mostly enjoyed a book he did several years back, “Bunch of Amateurs” (involving how cults of amateurs get involved in various mysteries) which included a chapter on the quest for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker -- a chapter I was cyberthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01883119145892591610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14762010.post-35816421393916679682024-02-14T06:01:00.003-05:002024-02-16T05:40:29.822-05:00-- GISS Birding -- +Addenda --------------------------------------------------------Quick apology to long-time readers that I keep re-hashing things already discussed here long ago... Have been reading and enjoying Malcolm Gladwell’s 20-year-old bestseller, “Blink,” basically about what I often call “intuition,” though he mostly calls it the subconscious, and several more recent volumes use yet other terminology cyberthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01883119145892591610noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14762010.post-81522730196607192812024-02-07T07:00:00.075-05:002024-02-07T07:18:49.804-05:00 — A Question For Any Tanner Experts —--------------------------------------------------------On the off-chance someone may have a sense of this, will toss out a question I once had but then failed to ever pursue:
For his multi-year study of Ivorybills Tanner spent a very few days in a great many locales (in addition to his lengthy time at the Singer Tract), but even when there had been rumors of IBWOs elsewhere he would often emergecyberthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01883119145892591610noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14762010.post-52267210458094857982024-02-05T07:04:00.002-05:002024-02-05T13:57:13.210-05:00 — Why Sound Evidence Is Not Sound! —--------------------------------------------------------
Been a lot of time spent on auditory evidence lately which I almost never link to (my view of auditory evidence has been consistent over the last 18 years) -- it won't move the needle forward for skeptics, who view such evidence as “stringing” people along — and I try these days to focus on evidence that skeptics may find of interest (cyberthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01883119145892591610noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14762010.post-73221278165969491072024-01-30T07:00:00.001-05:002024-01-31T18:20:47.521-05:00-- Just Another List -- ---------------------------------------------------Sometimes I get asked what would it take to convince me that IBWOs are actually extinct… so I’ll pass along yet another re-work of a very old post/list from 17+ years ago:10 things that would make me re-consider the possibility that IBWOs are really extinct:10. A snowball makes its way through Hell unscathed...9. Gene Sparling, Tim cyberthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01883119145892591610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14762010.post-88169365302414640202024-01-24T08:00:00.004-05:002024-01-24T15:58:40.035-05:00-- Let's Go To The Movies!! -- +Addendum ——————————————————
There have been some independent IBWO movies in the past, and now a new "short" is about to premier, Feb. 18, at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival (Missoula, Montana) based on the life and times (so-to-speak) of National Aviary searcher Mark Michaels:https://projectcoyoteibwo.com/2024/01/24/cyberthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01883119145892591610noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14762010.post-43519592263820963932024-01-21T10:00:00.010-05:002024-01-21T10:00:00.134-05:00-- Umm, Yes, I Have a Bit Too Much Time On My Hands -- ------------------------------------------------------
I’ve been perusing some old posts that I don’t even remember writing (…I’m gettin’ old), and may do some updates of them, starting with this one:
9 Things NOT likely to happen in 2024… and one that might :
1. Sacha Baron Cohen releases his latest film entitled "Borat Wanders the American Southern Swampland In Search of that Very Mostcyberthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01883119145892591610noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14762010.post-90353563629144941912024-01-18T07:00:00.017-05:002024-01-24T06:17:28.811-05:00 — Match Game ————————————————————Cold, windy weather has kept me inside lately doing mindless things… like creating this match-up game for readers. Column A has several names somehow connected with Ivory-billed Woodpeckers and column B has things those names may be significantly associated with… match them up (most are pretty easy, but a few might be more obscure… and yeah, there may be some ambiguity):Column cyberthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01883119145892591610noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14762010.post-15130203298168965092024-01-12T07:00:00.034-05:002024-01-15T17:41:59.429-05:00— Books ...& more — +Addenda —————————-------------——-——
Haven’t talked about IBWO books in awhile, but the topic came up over on FB so, for newbies primarily, will re-state what remain my favorite IBWO volumes (out of the growing number), with the caveat that I do have some problems or issues with most of these:
1) The Ivory-billed Woodpecker — James Tanner
….the classic study that is sort of ‘must’ reading, cyberthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01883119145892591610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14762010.post-14894032958476099152024-01-07T07:00:00.002-05:002024-01-07T07:00:00.132-05:00-- Intermission ("They are other nations...") ---------------------------------------------------------A while back I remarked to someone that “the natives are restless” in reference to a lot of splintering/infighting within the so-called IBWO ‘believer’ community — different believers, believing different things about different bits of evidence (always the case to some degree, but with perhaps wider/deeper fissures now). Even IF the cyberthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01883119145892591610noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14762010.post-56017900913960941052024-01-03T07:00:00.017-05:002024-01-03T07:00:00.134-05:00— Silence Is Not Golden — ------------------------------------------------------1) Will try not to belabor this too much, but very disappointed that USFWS reached the end of the year without any public pronouncement (as I thought required by regulation?) on IBWO status. While most take their non-action as a declaration that the Ivorybill ought not yet be declared extinct, having opened this quandary, cyberthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01883119145892591610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14762010.post-60788533123386788142023-12-28T10:00:00.007-05:002023-12-31T05:48:54.552-05:00— Two Challenges — +Addenda———————————————————Here's your mission if you choose to accept it ;) ....
Am seeing a lot of end-of-year news reports saying that 2024 will be the year of AI-generated fake videos (…especially affecting the political sphere). We’ve had skilled still-photographic fakery possible for some years, and now the rapid rise of fake video and audio.
I suspect amongst readers here there are some pretty cyberthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01883119145892591610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14762010.post-38520352283034679742023-12-25T06:08:00.000-05:002023-12-25T06:08:04.079-05:00-- Revisiting the H. Hunter Paper ----------------------------------------------------------I had hoped to write a followup to my prior mention of the lengthy Hannah Hunter dissertation on acoustic evidence, but it would just take too much time to do properly. So, instead, for those who may have found the piece too long to read through, I’ll just leave here a few key verbatim passages from the paper (a small sampling of cyberthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01883119145892591610noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14762010.post-5443407459736581652023-12-21T15:00:00.025-05:002023-12-21T15:00:00.242-05:00 — My Biggest Big Woods Disappointment —---------------------------------------------------------
I can accept the possibility that human beings are such bumbling clods that they can’t in 80 years go into deep woods and get a single clearcut photo or video of an Ivory-billed Woodpecker… maybe. But cameras aren’t human, just mere mechanical tools that don’t tire, get distracted, hungry or fatigued, aren’t scared of crocs or snakes or cyberthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01883119145892591610noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14762010.post-35515572748999375072023-12-19T07:00:00.058-05:002023-12-19T07:00:00.242-05:00 — Bad Overwhelming Good ——————————————————
“Always remain open minded…. just not so open-minded that your brain falls out.”
— old maxim attributed to various writers
Hopefully, last post on this theme and then on to other things… I may briefly talk of the ACONE system (used in the Big Woods) in next post… IF anyone out there was involved cyberthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01883119145892591610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14762010.post-31575863834633894512023-12-15T19:40:00.000-05:002023-12-15T19:40:08.996-05:00 — The Mason Spencer Effect —-----------------------------------------------------
I currently have a lot of IBWO dribs and drabs on paper I might write posts about (or just skip), but today a couple of folks emailed me about the Ivorybill eBird report in south Texas, which I was already aware of, and for which I see no credibility to speak of, so no I won’t be addressing that here (unless of course something were to cyberthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01883119145892591610noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14762010.post-74365430560098027202023-12-11T13:02:00.002-05:002023-12-11T21:56:24.228-05:00-- Wow! Timely Overview Piece -- +Addendum ——————————————————————
This just suddenly came across my computer… finally, a very timely, long, nuanced, broad and balanced overview of auditory evidence/analysis pertaining to the IBWO arena (the best summary I've ever seen), from Canadian doctoral student Hannah Hunter. It is lengthy and basically for the deeply-entrenched ;) but I highly recommend it:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/cyberthrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01883119145892591610noreply@blogger.com2