-- Just a Little Meditation --

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Just a bit of meditative thought while awaiting more news....

The following quote is from an old meditation piece on the web (and expresses a thought common in meditation practice):

"Breath is also powerful because we share the air we breathe with every creature that has ever lived. The breath I take in at this moment may contain molecules that Lincoln or Jesus or Susan Anthony or the Buddha or my great, great grandmother or a giant T-rex breathed in and out. Breathing is a powerful expression of the interdependent web of all life."

And then today I couldn't help but notice that Laura Erickson, preparing for her own venture to Arkansas Ivory-bill country, ended a post in a similar vein with the following words:

"...I'm both hopeful and joyful. Whether or not I see anything at all worth reporting, I'm going to be spending time in Ivory-bill habitat, breathing air molecules that may have touched an Ivory-bill's feathers or glittering eyes..."

Good luck Laura... and breathe deep!

And elsewhere on the web I stumbled upon this quite wonderful sermon from a Unitarian minister on the Ivory-bill, with this same theme of the interconnectedness of all life -- even more amazing, it was inspired solely by Phil Hoose's book and delivered "April 24, 2005," the Sunday BEFORE the announcement out of Arkansas that would shake the ornithological world -- talk about TIMING!... (if you're staying home from church this New Year's Sunday I recommend this piece as your Sunday sermon).


...oh yeah, and HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone!
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-- BirdLife Int'l. Year-end Report --

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The Ivory-billed Woodpecker... has company:

In their annual year-end review BirdLife International notes that several bird species were re-discovered in 2005 following decades of of absence:

"A number of birds were seen after decades without confirmed sightings, including the distinctive endemic Peruvian race of the endangered Southern Helmeted Curassow Crax unicornis koepckeae, not recorded since 1969. In Angola, the Orange-breasted Bush-shrike Laniarius brauni and White-headed Robin-chat Cossypha heinrichi (last seen in 1957), and the Black-tailed Cisticola Cisticola melanurus (last seen in 1972), were refound."

An interesting MSNBC report on the story (entitled, "Extinct Birds Are Making a Comeback") starts off as follows:

"Scientists beware: Don't count your extinct bird species, because one of them may hatch. Several supposedly extinct birds have recently been "rediscovered," raising hopes that others not seen for ages may still be taking to the skies. "The real message of rediscoveries is that we didn't look hard enough in the first place," said Nigel Collar of the British-based conservation group BirdLife International. "We think we've explored the planet when we haven't. We have this assumption that we know it all, but we don't."

....Amen
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-- Some More Views --

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Not too surprisingly, the Ivory-bill re-discovery has been ranked the #1 story of 2005 in cryptozoology at the site www.cryptomundo.com (...gotta love that URL name).

A somewhat interesting past post focussed on a Gene Sparling talk is at this site:

http://www.theageofpossibility.com/2005/12/11/wings-of-hope-or-despair/

Here's a bit from it to whet your appetite:

"When he returned from the trip, he posted a trip report on his canoe club’s web site. He told them about the beautiful spot, and made an oblique reference to what he’d seen. He wasn’t going to do anything more with the sighting, but a woman who read the report urged him on, telling him he had a duty to tell more people....
Sparling says that he almost let this amazing gift slip away “because I was too skeptical and cynical and afraid of being called a fool. I thought it was up to someone else to save the bird, that I wasn’t worthy of the task.”

“I learned two great lessons from this experience,” he continued. “I learned to believe that the most wonderful things can happen in this world. And I learned that ordinary people can have an extraordinary impact, beyond our wildest dreams.”

After Sparling concluded his tale, I leaped up—along with everybody else—to give him an enthusiastic standing ovation."

Finally, for a slightly different take on the Ivory-bill search area in Arkansas take a look at this Tenn. "swamper's" account from a recent day's visit to the Big Woods:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/bill_bill/101176.html
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-- Mo' Readin' --

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Some more details on strategies being employed by Cornell during the winter search are available from one of the searchers here, and another more general Cornell newswire report is here.
And in case Ivory-bill news is just not enough for ya, turns out that now the Dodo has been rediscovered!... well, sort of... the bones of about 20 specimens of this little-understood flightless species have recently been found on the island of Mauritius -- quite a significant find actually. Read all about it. (...at least they're claiming they're Dodo bones; since there have never been any photos or videotape of Dodoes I'm not sure we can be certain the species ever really existed ; - )))
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-- Upcoming, Friday Afternoon --

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Cornell reports that their Conservation Science Director, Ken Rosenberg, will be a guest on NPR's "Science Friday" Fri. afternoon, Dec. 23, from 2:00 to 3:00 P.M. (or whenever it plays in your area). With him on the air will be Audubon's Geoff LeBaron discussing Christmas Bird Counts and how the Ivory-billed Woodpecker has been added back to the list for the first time in many decades... but will anyone have the audacity to report it and face an inquisition?
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-- More On IBWO vs. PIWO Beak Gouging --

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"Fangsheath" on BirdForum has recently posted the following data from his own testing of Ivory-bill vs. Pileated tree gouging, coinciding more-or-less with ongoing work being done by Steve Holzman and Paul Sykes (see "Ivory-bill/Pileated Grooves" past post in left-hand side-bar). This is a new line of study which will hopefully prove helpful in the field at some point (if not already) :

"I have now completed synthetic beaks representing the largest published southern pileated and smallest published northern ivory-bill. With these and my previously fabricated beaks representing the averages for each species have have been gouging away in balsa wood. Here are the results for gouge width (n= 20 gouges for each data set). Five width measurements were taken on each gouge and averaged.

average pileated - mean = 2.93 mm, range = 2.44-3.40 mm
largest pileated - mean = 3.50 mm, range = 2.85-4.04 mm
smallest ivory-bill - mean = 4.20 mm, range = 3.74-4.64 mm
average ivory-bill - mean = 4.40 mm, range = 3.77-5.25 mm

From these studies I would expect some species overlap in gouge width on individual gouges, but this appears to be eliminated by measuring at least 10 gouges and averaging. To be safe I would recommend measuring 20 gouges. I understand that some people are searching for ivory-bills as far north as Illinois and Indiana (which I think is perfectly reasonable). The pileateds up there may be larger and gouge width correspondingly greater for that species. However, the wider gouges produced by ivory-bill beak are not merely due to its larger size, but especially the result of its distinctive flat-sided shape.

I reiterate that gouges consistently greater than 3.5 mm should be regarded as suspicious, those greater than 4.0 mm should be regarded as highly suspicious, particularly if accompanied by unusual sign such as scaling of very tight-barked trees or excavation of still-living trees."

Possibly some of you out there, depending on where you live, can start putting this sort of info to use immediately!
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-- Dear Virginia... --

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The end of year is always a time for Top 10 Lists, so here goes....

--- Top 10 Reasons Why the Skeptics (Grinches?) are Wrong :

10. They forever underestimate the density, vastness, and inaccessibliity of the areas in need of searching.
9. They don't comprehend that large-scale, organized searches have never been conducted for this bird (Pearl River having been the largest, and now most of those participants saying it too was inadequate). You can't find something that isn't adequately and meaningfully looked for. (Skeptics think lots of individuals on their own meandering around the woodland over time constitute adequate searching.)
8. They presume there have been no sightings during the past 60 years simply because none of the 100s of reports to come in (let alone those sightings never turned in, in part, because of the ridicule people fear from skeptics) have been verified with clear photographic evidence -- has any other creature with so many claimed sightings, been so quickly written off as extinct -- it's easy to deny the existence of anything if you simply deny the validity of every report of it turned in.
7. They fail to appreciate the adaptability, tenaciousness, and instincts of long-lived creatures, perceiving them as simple automatons subservient to human analysis and prognostication.
6. They place tremendous trust in the unverified and often tentative conclusions/generalizations of a single grad student from 70 years ago and think them applicable to all Ivory-bills in all locales, while distrusting the claims of all other sighters since the 1950s.
5. They fail to understand that a bird which routinely perches high in tree canopies can see a human approaching long before the human sees it, and depart in an opposite direction... again and again and again and...
4. They don't realize that a bird inside a treehole (where IBWOs spend a fair amount of time) is completely invisible to human sight (...except for Clark Kent's).
3. There have been too many credible reports since the 1950s, not to mention the verified sightings in nearby Cuba in the late 1980s, for all of them to be shrugged off. Extinction, like the death penalty, should never be declared when 'reasonable doubt' (of extinction) still lingers.
2. They greatly overestimate the ease with which photographic evidence can be obtained. Most IBWO spotters of the past likely lacked cameras. Especially underestimated is the difficulty of photographing quick-moving objects in dense habitat, or of getting close enough to a bird even of IBWO-size to snap clear photos -- requires close proximity or telephoto lens (not to mention stealth, good light, quickness, balance, luck...). Tanner only got pics of IBWO in a locale where an experienced guide was able to lead him to them -- in his 3-year search, despite believing they still existed in both S.C. and Fla., without such a guide, Tanner, for all his supposed expertise, could neither find them nor photograph them.

1. Finally, if there are no more Ivory-bills out there then next thing you know Virginia, people will be saying there is no Santa Claus either!!! =: - 0
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-- This and That --

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Recent Washington Post article on the AR. search here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/19/AR2005121901218.html

The U.S. Gov't. never officially declared the Ivory-bill extinct, but that apparently didn't constrain the American Birding Association from designating the bird "extinct" at some point, for they now say they won't change their listing until there is "unequivocal proof that the species still exists." (For starters, "unequivocal proof" is a redundancy, what they mean is "unequivocal evidence" -- there is no such thing as scientific "proof" -- even mathematical 'proof' relies on UNprovable, axiomatic assumptions, as do ALL scientific beliefs, but enough semantics). However, ABA adds that if you think you saw one (an IBWO) it's fine with them if you go ahead and count it -- whewww, I'm sure Gene, Tim, and Bobby were much relieved to hear that! (or is there some sort of doublespeak going on here...?)

Lastly, new blog on the block: Although I read several off-and-on, I don't usually plug other blogs here, as most of them (including this one) have a sort of inconsistent quality that makes me hesitate -- also, there are none that serve the very narrow focus/purposes of this blog. But.... many of you know Julie Zickefoose from her always wonderful nature writings and artwork (principally for Birdwatchers' Digest, which her husband edits), and she has started her own blog, which I believe (once she hits her stride) will be a wonderful place to start (or end) the day with that morning (or evening) cup of coffee. A-a-and she's a long-time Ivory-bill enthusiast to boot!! -- If you've never read this piece she wrote several years ago, before the current IBWO-fever, by all means give it a look. She has a great knack for being informative and entertaining at the same time.

http://www.juliezickefoose.com/blog/

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-- Re-discovery Anniversary --

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Y'all are invited to the "Ivory-billed Woodpecker Re-discovery Celebration" at the Brinkley Convention Center in Brinkley, AR., Feb. 23-25. Speakers, tours, vendors, seminars, field trips, and "celebration cake" (but hopefully, NO Ivory-bill stew)... :

http://www.ivory-bill-woodpecker.com/ivory-billed-convention.htm

...and if you haven't already seen it, "Birdchick" has posted a bit of the flavor of the town of Brinkley at her blog:

http://www.birdchick.com/2005/12/brinkley-its-helluva-town.html
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-- AP Wire Story & More J. Jackson --

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Another AP wire story on the ongoing search here.

Jerry Jackson is due to have a 'revised' version of his Ivory-bill book out next spring (can Phil Hoose be far behind???)... of course with any luck by then there might be enough documentation of IBWOs in various locales to require a revised 'revised' version!!! Jackson will be searching himself this winter in potential Ivory-bill habitat in Florida (where he works), certainly as likely a place to find the birds as AR. As previously noted, he and John Fitzpatrick will appear on an episode of PBS's 'Nova' in January, to offer their contrasting views (from separate interviews) on the state of the IBWO controversy. And also the Jan. 2006 edition of The Auk journal will reportedly have a lengthy paper by Jackson on the IBWO issues. Wouldn't it be wonderful if it was all a moot point by then.... (but if not, the more active, and promising, breeding season, ~ Feb.- Apr., is not too far off).
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-- 4th ! --

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I was (pleasantly) surprised a month ago when I heard that an upcoming 'Nova' edition would list the discovery of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker as one of the top 10 science stories of 2005. Now, the latest edition of Discover Magazine (Jan. 2006, pg. 31) lists the discovery of the Ivory-bill in Arkansas as its 4th TOP science story for 2005! Even I'M skeptical of THAT ranking -- I guess for those of us who have known all along that the bird was out there, the story seems big, just not THAT BIG!!
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-- Another Idea... --

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As many of you know helicopters and small planes have often been used in the past to search for Ivory-bills by flying over large land tracts and watching for the birds to flush out of the forest canopy (in theory, viewing their size, shape, color pattern from overhead should make them easier to ID than spying from ground level) -- the counter possibility is that overhead airplane noise may cause the birds to hunker down and be less mobile. Anyway, a poster on the Arkansas bird listserve today offers a different approach I've not heard proposed before:

"Has anyone considered using hot air balloons in the search for IBWO's? Seems like it would be more effective than helicopters which were used in Louisiana. One could quietly drift over the Big Woods at low elevation covering a lot of ground. Cameras could be mounted on the bottom of the basket for constant filming as one drifted. When something flushed below it would be caught on film. Of course the winds would have to be just right to take you in the direction you want to go. Also, the balloon could be colored the same as the sky (blue for clear days, white for cloudy) to help camouflage it. Balloons could also be used as stationary observation posts that could be moved around to different places and raised and lowered to give the best view of an area. This would make an incredible observation platform as the balloon would be tethered to the ground and raised and lowered as needed."

I don't know enough about hot air ballooning to know if this is as practical, safe, or easy as it sounds, but seemed like an interesting thought.

Follow-up: David Luneau has responded with this note:

"Hot air balloons have been discussed as have ultralight aircraft. Some
ultralights may be used to fly some transects. (They are the ultralights
from the Whooping Crane migration.) With hot air balloons not only are you
at the mercy of the wind, but they are not as quiet for the operator as they
would seem. The periodic fiery blasts are quite noisy.
A helium balloon might be a good idea. Does anyone still fly them (besides
the big ones used by Goodyear, Fuji, etc.)?"

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-- Last Minute Shopping? --

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Looking for a last minute gift for that Ivory-billed-obsessed friend??? One lesser-known volume they may be lacking from their bookshelf is "Ivory Hunters" by veterinarian Dr. Greg Lewbart. Little known, because 1) it's a NOVEL, and 2) it came out in 1996 long before the current hubbub over the species. The plot revolves around Ivory-bills discovered in the Big Cypress swamp of Southern Florida (a locale still of great interest/potential) and the good and ill-willed people who pursue them. You can check it out at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1575240092/103-0626673-4626246?v=glance&n=283155
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-- The Duck Stamp Program --

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Several recent articles have stressed the significant role played by hunters/fishermen in the salvation of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker through their purchase of yearly Federal Duck Stamps which help preserve wild habitat. And you need not even be a hunter/fisherman to purchase these handsome collectable stamps ($15). If you're interested in buying one or just want to learn more about them check 'em out here:

http://www.fws.gov/duckstamps/

(also, keep in mind that Ivory-bill conservation stamps are available through the site listed at bottom of the "links" section in left-hand margin.)
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-- More Reuters --

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"Here we look for A holes," he said. "An A hole in a swamp is a good thing, not a bad thing."

Uhhhh, that's a direct quote from another Reuters news story on the Arkansas IBWO search... you'll have to read the article for a clearer idea of what's being discussed (or make up your own joke) :

http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=scienceNews&storyID=10577264&src=rss/scienceNews

For the time being there are several news-folk 'embedded' as it were with the searchers so at least for awhile there may be some frequent reporting, with or without solid news to add. Just maybe we'll get lucky and a real Arkansas A hole will be found soon.

Addendum: Yet another Reuter's article (Wed.) notes at end that 375 possible IBWO cavities have been seen thus far.

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-- Nature Conservancy Announcement & Partners --

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The official Nature Conservancy announcement of the 2005-6 winter search for the Arkansas Ivory-bill(s) is now posted, if you just can't get enough of these bulletins:

http://nature.org/ivorybill/press/press2174.html

Largely the same info that is already out there, but I did find the current list of "Ivory-billed Woodpecker recovery partners" rather impressive and noteworthy (the charisma of this bird can't be denied!):

Ivory-billed Woodpecker Recovery Partners

• American Bird Conservancy
• American Forest Foundation
• Anderson Tully
• Arkansas Forestry Association
• Arkansas Forestry Commission
• Arkansas Game and Fish Commission
• Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission
• Arkansas Parks and Tourism
• Arkansas State University
• Arkansas Wildlife Federation
• Audubon Arkansas
• Audubon Mississippi
• Civic Enterprises
• Cornell Lab of Ornithology
• Ducks Unlimited
• Earth Conservation Corps
• Environmental Defense
• Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
• Florida Gulf Coast University
• Georgia Department of Natural Resources
• Greenwood Plantation
• International Paper Company
• Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries
• Louisiana Forestry Association
• Louisiana State University
• Mack’s Prairie Wings
• Mississippi River Trust
• Mississippi State University
• National Audubon Society
• National Council of Air and Stream Improvement
• National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
• Natural Resources Conservation Service
• The Nature Conservancy
• Smithsonian Institution
• South Carolina Department of Natural Resources
• Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies
• Texas Parks and Wildlife Department
• Trust for Public Land
• Turner Endangered Species Fund
• University of Arkansas at Little Rock
• University of Georgia
• University of Missouri
• U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
• U.S. Department of Agriculture
• Farm Service Agency
• U.S. Forest Service
• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
• U.S. Geological Survey

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-- IBWOs at Smithsonian/Cornell Bulletin --

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For your perusement: Here's a somewhat interesting read going back to last June which revolves around the apparently 18 Ivory-bill specimens housed at the Smithsonian in Wash. DC. My favorite lines are the very last paragraph:

"There's a lesson in all this. Despite our best efforts to eliminate its habitat, the ivory-bill nevertheless survived. As British zoologist Sir David Attenborough so fondly points out, life on Earth is tenacious. If it can find a way, it usually does, and if the ivory-billed woodpecker has been surviving for over 60 years without our help, maybe it should be left alone to do just that. Perhaps the "Lord God Bird's" love for deep-forest solitude is truly the key. It's payback time. Arkansas should be closed to humans, and all traffic rerouted."

Well of course THAT isn't going to happen, and here's a link to the last Cornell "Ivory-bill Bulletin" which gives a few more details of the search than many of the news-wire stories currently making the rounds :

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/ivory/field/from_field_html/nov1

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-- One More Episode --

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Last night, Jeff Probst hosted this season's final episode of CBS's "Survivor," that saw Danni Boatwright win $1 million for "outwitting, outplaying, outlasting" all comers during 39 days in the Guatemala jungle. Seems pretty clear we deserve a different episode of "Survivor," hosted by David Attenborough, and focussed on surviving 60 years in bottomland swamp... we already know the winner.
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-- huhhh...??? --

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Another news article (Reuters) on the Arkansas search with nothing much new to add, but a few lines struck me as somewhat odd:

"Asked what would silence all doubters, Andrew [of USF&W] said a bird in the hand would be definitive, but good, clear video or an eggshell fragment or feather would help put questions to rest.... What happens if they find one [an Ivory-bill]? 'The first priority is protecting the bird, and treating it if it is injured', Andrew said." (all italics added)

Where did that come from? Has there been ANY suggestion that this bird which is so adept at evading pursuers might be injured? Probably just some sort of meaningless slip of phrase in the rush of an interview, but seemed like an odd remark to me, and certainly hope it doesn't imply that any folks are looking for an excuse to take 'Elvis' into captivity for closer study.

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-- Ivory-bill VISA Card & eBay --

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I don't want to get too commercial, and I'm no great fan of credit card companies, BUUUT... I couldn't resist temptation -- had to order a VISA card graced with a picture of a flying Ivory-bill available through Birdwatcher's Digest. (Can't say any cashier has even noticed it yet, but still love flashing that thing out of my wallet.)

And of possible interest to some folks, another check of eBay found the usual array of enticing Ivory-bill trinkets (artwork, books, t-shirts, etc.) up for sale here. Included is another copy of J. Tanner's original monograph currently bid at just $69 (with 3 days of bidding left), and also another copy of the original Brinkley (AR.) Argus newspaper announcing discovery of the IBWO.
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-- Patience, Patience --

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I hear a lot of grumbling out in cyberspace among folks starving for a good photo or videotape of the Arkansas Ivory-bill(s). There is a low drumbeat of concern and nervousness. Please be patient and keep in mind that:

1. Virtually no organized searching took place during the hot uncomfortable summer months.
2. The winter search only recently got underway; the leaves probably aren't even entirely off the Big Woods trees yet, and all the logistics may still be getting worked out.
3. In 14 months and 20,000+ man-hours of previous searching, Cornell attained less than 2 minutes of sightings.

The task ahead, in short, is no cakewalk; only the sheer number of people now involved in this once super secret mission, gives raised hopes for an encounter... and even then, clearcut photographic evidence may remain difficult to attain.
Moreover, it is possible, depending on the precise circumstances, that even if good documentation is gathered, Cornell might wait months to release it. The ultimate object here has to be to save the bird and its habitat, not to feed the appetite of the birding masses.
So take a deep breath everybody, and just know that the first truly large-scale Ivory-bill search ever conducted in a given area in human history is now underway.
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-- The Jackson (Florida) Talk --

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I asked anyone attending Dr. Jerome Jackson's Ivory-bill talk Wed. night in Collier Cty., FL. to please send in a synopsis, and I've received one anonymous response, worth reading in the 'comments' section of that earlier post -- Here. Jackson appears to be as critical as ever of Cornell's work, and will apparently be countering Dr. Fitzpatrick on a PBS Nova episode scheduled for Jan. 10. (Geee... I may have to take him off my Christmas list!). Many have already speculated about the competing egos, personalities, etc. involved in the whole Arkansas IBWO debate. I don't wish to dwell on that here except to say that it looks like Jackson's talk does nothing to quell such scuttlebutt.
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-- My Christmas Wish List --

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Dear Santa, I have a short Christmas list this year, please do what you can:

1) New hiking boots
2) An Ivory-bill roosthole found in the Big Woods of Arkansas with a pair of birds photographed/videotaped by either Jerry Jackson or David Luneau (they deserve it), and other Ivory-bills spotted in Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi (...for starters). Safety, warmth, good health, and hot baths for all the staff and volunteers involved, and give Gene Sparling WHATEVER he wants.
3) Chocolate
4) World peace
5) a nice slab of Crow baked and fricasseed to perfection for Tom Nelson for Christmas dinner.

Thanks, (please do your best -- but I do have a birthday in February, so some of these things can wait, if necessary... well, not the chocolate).

Cy
(p.s., I was a good boy for most of the year...)
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-- Shootin' From the Hip (...aka 'My Thoughts') --

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(warning: longish and rantish...!) :

The 'Rorschach' nature of the Arkansas Ivory-bill evidence continues to confound: I keep reading of folks who are swayed to IBWO 'believer' status by Cornell's acoustic evidence, which oddly, still strikes me as their weakest armament. The 'double-raps' released thus far seem to me unconvincing, and for now I trust my instinct on this -- in 2002 the only evidence brought forth from Pearl River was a 'double-knock' audio clip, which upon hearing, I was sure, was NOT an Ivory-bill (didn't know what it was, just that it certainly wasn't any IBWO); it took Cornell additional weeks of analysis to identify the sound as gunshots. It was hugely disappointing that after 30 days in the field this was the best evidence searchers could produce or that this was even perceived/offered as possible evidence.
Nor do I believe the Jan. 29 'kent' calls emanate from Ivory-bills (again, not sure what they are, just don't sound like IBWOs). The Jan. 31 calls are more intriguing and might rate them a 50/50 chance of being IBWO, but 50/50 is not as great as one would hope for.
The grainy Luneau film I think rates higher -- not because it clearly shows an Ivory-bill, but because (to my eyes) it DOESN'T look much like any of the alternative options. If I had to stick a number on it I might say 60-75% probability IBWO, based on the visual, and if you accept and add in Cornell's computed measurement data the probability goes up from there.
What continues to be most convincing for me (and yet is problematic for others) are simply the sheer number, details, credibility, and firmness of the various sighters across time -- essentially, what in an earlier era would have been a gold standard for acceptance -- only because we live in a now video-saturated world, and for 50 years people have been prejudiced/indoctrinated by a notion of IBWO extinction (despite little evidence for such), has that gold standard changed. What others speak of as brief, poor quality sightings, I view as repeated, consistent, and most importantly, credible (i.e. coming from people with experience, and familiar with Pileateds in the field). The talk of aberrant Pileateds has been somewhat confused and inconsistent -- if they are present why has no one (out of all the excellent birders that have been there) simply stated, "I saw something that looked like an Ivory-bill at first, but turned out to be a leucistic Pileated." I don't recall anyone specifically yet saying they saw an abnormal Pileated 'that if seen by others, could easily be mistaken for an Ivory-bill.' (...it seems to be just a given assumption, unfounded I think, that if abnormal Pileateds exist they will be easily mistaken for IBWO 16+ separate times, rather than recognized as abnormal PIWOs). And of course no photo of one.
Like 'creationists' who relentlessly and effectively focus on a few weakpoints and gaps to tear away at evolutionary theory (and in so doing make persuasive arguments to lay people), so too IBWO skeptics employ narrow arguments, I believe, to create doubts about IBWOs, downplaying the totality or breadth of the evidence. Unlike the Passenger Pigeon, the Carolina Parakeet, the Great Auk, the Heath Hen, Bachman's Warbler... the Ivory-bill has been reported repeatedly over decades by credible observers in various locales across it's former range -- this alone should be enough for faith in its presence, until proven otherwise beyond a reasonable doubt (by the passage of decades with NO such reports coming in from credible observers).
If the IBWO is finally verified, only to then die out years from now, it won't be the loggers and hunters and collectors of yesteryear who pounded the final nails in its coffin, but the 20th century ornithologists and skeptics who, upon such scant flimsy data, prematurely wrote the species off and failed to do the hard professional work needed to save it decades ago. For a scientist, a bigger sin is usually committed NOT by being SO open-minded that one accepts as possibly true, things which later prove to be false, but rather, the bigger sin is made when being so closed-minded as to dispute as false, things which are later shown to be true -- that is the error we ought be guarding against as birders, conservationists, and/or scientists.

Or,... so it seems to me. . . . .
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-- J. Zickefoose Observation --

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Artist/writer, astute observer, Julie Zickefoose, writing on the Birdchick blog, has a current note about Ivory-billed/Pileated comparisons in flight (as she works on a new painting of the former):

http://www.birdchick.com/2005/12/ice-white-wing-white.html
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-- Bob Russell's Top 10 Hunches --

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Mary Scott has finally posted long-time Ivory-bill researcher and USF&W employee, Bob Russell's 'Top 10 Sites' to look for Ivory-bills:

http://www.birdingamerica.com/toptenibwpsites.htm

Somewhat interesting that he ranks the Congaree National Park in S. Carolina above both the Atchafalaya region of Louisiana and the Apalachicola area in Florida. Not sure many would do that despite a lot of S.C. rumors through the years. And disappointed to see him 'definitely write off' Missouri and Tennessee, which, if only because of their proximity to northeast Arkansas and their great LACK of attention over the decades, I think deserve greater scrutiny. But nonetheless, a nice, compact, thoughtful list. Given that most folks tend to focus on areas of the most recent sightings/rumors, his mention of the Wacissa and Aucilla River Swamps in Fla., based on more distant history, is also interesting. And finally worth noting, the Cache River area falls into his also-ran category, not even breaking into the Top 10...

Read, enjoy, and contemplate....
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- South Carolina Hopes --

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
South Carolina has long been on many people's short-list of likely Ivory-bill homes (actually I have a rather longer list), since the 1930's when James Tanner named it is as one of only 3 states remaining he suspected of harboring the birds. The Santee and Congaree River regions have long been the source for IBWO rumors, and a credible-sounding 2004 spotting report of 2 IBWOs off the Waccamaw River near the Green Swamp area brought attention to that locale.
Cornell has earlier stated they would be conducting winter IBWO searches throughout the species' former habitat range (from S.C. to Texas), but Federal, State, and private biologists in S.C. apparently couldn't wait and are already organizing a search plan similar to Cornell's Arkansas efforts for their state:

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/sports/outdoors/13323461.htm
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- Epiphany --

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
HEY, I suddenly realized last night that the name "Elvis" is an anagram for the word "lives" --- hmmmm... do ya sense some sorta Karma at work here...?!!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- Jerome Jackson Talk --

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I mentioned some upcoming Ivory-bill programs a few posts back; here's another one: IBWO expert Dr. Jerome Jackson will be speaking at the Collier County Audubon Society (Fla.) on Wed. Dec. 7. What intrigues me is the stated title of his talk: "The Ivory-billed Woodpecker Lives !!" (...sounds like a good title for a blog : - )
Some have pointed to Jackson as a skeptic of the Arkansas findings -- actually, he has been more of an agnostic, pretty much stating there may or may not be Ivory-bills in Arkansas, and the Cornell evidence just isn't conclusive one way or the other. I would be interested to know if by now he has shifted his opinion, or is the title just in some way rhetorical, and he still has reservations about Cornell's specific findings (for anyone who doesn't know, Dr. Jackson has been the most consistent, prominent, vocal proponent of possible Ivory-bill survival over the last 20 years).
If any of my readers by chance attend that presentation I would certainly enjoy hearing what he has to say.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- Meet The Search Team --

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On this page Cornell introduces their current search team (paid staff, not all the volunteers) for the winter endeavor now underway in AR. Looks like a talented, skilled, yet diverse group of folks. May the force be with them! :

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/ivory/field/from_field_html/searchteam2005
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- Field Museum Talk --

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here's an article on the Chicago Field Museum talk of a couple nights back. Nothing too new, but a couple of quotes to whet your interest if you care to peruse it:

"Based on several sightings, evidence for one bird has been found, there is circumstantial evidence for the existence of three birds, and there is enough contiguous, old forest habitat, possibly, to support 12 pairs.

"He [Scott Simon] loves working in Arkansas and said scientists regularly find new species on their holdings."This year we found three species that were not previously known to science," he said. These include Pelton's rose gentian, a freshwater shrimp and a type of cave crayfish."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- Arkansas Sighting Report --

---------------------------------------------------------------
This report was part of a much longer post on the AR. birding listserv yesterday:

".....Met Dave Rogles looking over the gulls and we sat talking in the
horizontal rain. We naturally got around to the Ivory-billed
Woodpecker, and he still harbored some skepticism. My news for him was
that my friend in Eureka Springs, Dale Becker, had seen Elvis about ten
days previously, an excellent sighting of a flying and perching bird, in
sight for about ten, maybe more, seconds. At 50-70 yards. He'd seen
bill, crest, chin, back and flying wings as the bird moved from one tree
to another, each time quickly moving to the far side and peeking around
at Dale. When he called Cornell later, they said it was probably the
best sighting they'd had.... J Pat Valentik Nov 29 2005

PS. I'll have a transcript of Dale's notes sometime soon and will post
them, minus location info.

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-- IBWO e-newsletter --

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Nature Conservancy is offering an e-newsletter pertaining to the Ivory-bill search.
Go here to view online copies or sign up for email delivery:

http://nature.org/ivorybill/current/art16784.html
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

-- Just For Fun --

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
OK, call me a "Pterosaur Skeptic," but just stumbled upon this story on the possibility of prehistoric pterosaurs escaping extinction (and for those so adament about photographic evidence I would especially direct you to pg. 2 of the article) -- Kind of a fun read (...actually, I'm just trying my best to distract the Nelson brothers on to other topics).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- Chicago Talk --

--------------------------------------------------------------
Tonight (Nov. 30) at Chicago's venerable Field Museum, John Fitzpatrick and others involved with the Arkansas search will give another interactive talk on rediscovery of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. Maybe he will explain how not 1, not 2, not 3, not 4, not 5, not 6, but 7 to 16 people, at different times, on different days, from different positions, at different angles may have all mistaken a Pileated Woodpecker for an Ivory-bill... or, maybe not.
These talks are still travelling around the country so be on the lookout for one in your area sometime. A presentation is scheduled for Jefferson City, MO. Dec. 8, in Raleigh, NC. sometime in Feb., and Bobby Harrison speaks in Lakeland, FL. on Dec. 3, among other talks.
--------------------------------------------------------------

-- A Truly Incredible AR. Finding! --

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Snowy Owls are one of my mostest favoritest grandest birds in the whole entire world so felt compelled to pass along this post which appeared today on the AR. birding listserv:

"I was just e-mailed a picture of a bird from the local weekly paper, Heber Springs Sun Times, to identify for them.Yes, no kidding, it was a Snowy Owl. Details are sketchy so far but it was apparently taken this past weekend north of Quitman along Hwy. 356 in Cleburne Co.The landowner said the bird appeared to be injured so he captured it and apparently turned it over to the AG&FC. Of course more info is needed to know if this truly a wild bird and a bonafide occurence but what other records are there for Arkansas ?"

Apparently (according to another poster) there are only 4 records of Snowys in AR., and those occurred between 1946 and 1955 -- I'm guessin' there have been a whole lot more Ivory-bills than Snowys in the state both before and since then!!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- Like Father Like Son --

----------------------------------------------------------------------
No real news here, but slightly interesting article from the Baltimore Sun, if only because it's the first I've heard of a father-son team involved in the AR. search -- and it's no less than IBWO expert Jerome Jackson and son Jerry, who is a photographer for The Sun:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/ideas/bal-id.ivorybill27nov27,1,4418820.story?
coll=bal-ideas-headlines&ctrack=1&cset=true
----------------------------------------------------------------------

-- Imperial Woodpecker Update --

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Not too promising -- The following note from John Spencer was posted on a Mexican birding listserv a few days past summarizing his recent search for the Imperial W. in an area it had been purportedly spotted a short time back:

"I am now home in La Ribera, Baja Calif Sur. A ten day round trip to El
Furete and Copper Canyon now over. I spent the time looking for the Imperial Woodpecker.
Spent four days carefully searching the area that my friends (Ron and
Sarojam Mankau) sighted the Imperial. I personally covered the area
from Divisadero to Posada Barranca, from road to rim (about 4 miles by
about 1 mile). Did not sight the bird and did not I find any 'old
growth' snags/trees that had nesting/resting sites. All along the rim
is second growth, with few/no old growth trees. Not prime habitat.
On the Friday morning (18th) Greg Homel checked into the Mirador
Hotel. Greg has the time, resources and skill to find the bird. He is
a 'pro' and has been looking for this bird for twenty years. I pass
the 'baton' on to him and wish him all the luck in the world. I'm just
a plain old birdwatcher and really have neither the skill or resources
to continue the search. 
I believe that the bird has left the sighting area, and Greg will find
her by searching the proper habitat. I have no doubt that the bird is
in the area, I couldn't find it as much as I wanted to.
Let's wish Greg all the luck in the world.
If you want a more complete report of my trip I'll post it on
www.bajajohn.com in the next couple of days. Or email me and I'll
attach a copy in reply.

Bajabirdwatcher ... John Spencer" 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- Gotta Spare $2000 ? --

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
for my many readers with more expendable income than you know what the hey to do with :

A few posts back I commented that 'capitalism thrives'; maybe I should've said capitalism runs amok -- in 2002, during the official Pearl River search I was surprised to see original copies of James Tanner's monograph on the Ivory-billed Woodpecker going for over $500 on the internet. On another quick check of eBay today I just noticed that someone now has a copy up for bid and is asking $2000 for a quick sale! (the Dover reprint is $12.95) -- for that price I would expect it to have, at a minimum, James Tanner's autograph and some fresh Ivory-bill droppings...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- New USF&W Website, and more --

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
US Fish & Wildlife Service has put up a new site to aid those making their way to Big Woods to look for 'Elvis'. Worth a look even if you're not headed down that way:

http://Arkansas-ES.fws.gov/BigWoodsBirding

Possibly worth mentioning (though I'm very wary of them), there have been a number of undetailed, individual reports of possible IBWO sightings briefly mentioned on the Web in the last few months in Fla., LA., MS., MO., and I think either GA. or AL., in addition to AR. Not terribly meaningful at this point, but with more time, maybe. No idea how many reports have flowed into Cornell through their solicitation, or how many of those have any credibility whatsoever in their eyes.

....and a final editorial note: All creatures have a 'will to live' and a drive to reproduce far stronger I think than humans (and particularly, skeptics) give them credit for, regarding them instead more like automatons obedient to OUR hypotheses and expectations. But the intelligence, instinct, and individuality of woodland creatures far surpasses what we tend to acknowledge, often proving our flimsy notions false. Quite simply, this is especially so for creatures with wings who are not gravity-bound, and who possess a freedom (and evasiveness) we fail to appreciate or factor in. If documentation of IBWOs is attained, words like "incredible," "miracle," and "unbelievable" will be grossly overused -- it will be nothing of the sort; just creatures who can, on a whim, fly to new habitat, drawing upon their will to live under changing conditions as they always have and always will... and defying simple-minded human considerations in the process.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- Tomorrow... --

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"If the only prayer you say in your entire life is 'Thank you,' that will suffice."

-- Meister Eckhart

To all you readers out there, at this time, in this illustrious Year-of-the-Ivorybill, wishes for a HAPPY, HEALTHY, & GRATEFUL THANKSGIVING!....

(...and may we all get what we're hoping for for Christmas! ; - )
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- Start the Bidding --

------------------------------------------------------------
Just out of curiosity I now check eBay once-a-month-or-so just to see what "Ivory-billed Woodpecker" items might be showing up there (usually mostly books and art works of one sort or another), and on a recent check the item that caught my eye is a copy of the "Brinkley Argus" newspaper in which the "original announcement" of the IBWO "in its hometown" was announced -- asking starting bid, $5.00... ahhh, yes, capitalism thrives in America! (from the same town that brings you Ivory-bill haircuts and Ivory-bill burgers) -- actually, it looks like a possible great souvenir for some lucky reader of this blog... and hey, Christmas is right around the corner!

Try this link (maybe half-way down the page) for a look-see, or look it up yourself on eBay.
-------------------------------------------------------------

-- Macaulay Library of Sounds --

----------------------------------------------------------
While we're biding time here's a link to a fairly interesting (and longish) article from The American Scholar (Summer 2005 issue) on the Ivory-bill and the Macaulay Library of natural sounds at Cornell that may be of some interest:

http://journalism.nyu.edu/portfolio/narechania/hearing.html
----------------------------------------------------------

-- A Reading or Two--

-------------------------------------------------------------
Lately, I've been reading a lot of material on two disparate subjects that inspire mystical thoughts for me: mathematics and nature/wilderness. The passages below just might be evocative for current Ivory-bill searchers and come from an anthology I only recently discovered, "The Soul Unearthed -- Celebrating Wildness and Spiritual Renewal Through Nature," edited by Cass Adams:

"It is only in the forest that I realize how many rooted structures exist inside of me, and it is in the forest now, with my breath lifting in billowing spirals in the cold air, that I am suddenly released into the miracle of small things -- a bird's movement on a branch, the sound of water still dripping from yesterday's rainstorm. In the forest everything in the mind can be given away, so that the heart can be open to the intense concentration that natural objects demand. Through this concentration where nothing exists but the object itself, enormous energy opens out through the woodland silhouette." -- David Whyte

"We have become estranged from the earth, from our bodies, and from the other beings who inhabit the earth. There is great fear and misunderstanding about wilderness. In general, we lack a familiar and close relationship to the very source of life that sustains us... Wilderness leads us back to our center. Even the knowledge that wild places exist consoles and frees the human spirit." -- Cass Adams

"Mystery, and certainly, humility are not virtues that contemporary culture supports... Wilderness, on the other hand, supports and cultivates a taste for embracing and even finding strength in mystery and humility... Do you want to transform your life? My recommendation is a simple one: Go out in the wilds, take off your shoes, sink your feet well into the ground, and be touched by mystery." -- Steven Harper

....and tomorrow, maybe something on prime numbers... but probably not.
------------------------------------------------------------

-- Records Committee Says 'Yes' to IBWO --

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This notice comes late today from Laura Erickson's birdblog -- (my reaction to it is, "well, duhhhhhh!!," but others will no doubt find it of more significance) :

"LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS—After reviewing evidence of the ivory-billed woodpecker gathered in the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge in April 2004, the Bird Records Committee of the Arkansas Audubon Society has voted to change the status of the bird in Arkansas from ''extirpated'' to ''present''.
Max Parker, longtime curator for the Arkansas Audubon Society, received on June 17, 2005, verifying documentation for the extraordinary record from a member of the research team. The documentation was studied at length by all members of the Arkansas Bird Records Committee before the record was accepted."

You can read Laura's full post at:

http://birdwatching.birderblog.com/?v=11-18-05#11-18-05_170310.txt

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- Back To The Pearl --

--------------------------------------------------------------
Among the many folks out searching for Ivory-bills right now is Mike Collins (not associated with Cornell, and therefore more free to report whatever he so chooses) who is exploring the general Pearl River area (not Arkansas), believing he has previously heard IBWO near the Stennis Space Center, as have others. You can follow his updates at:

http://www.fishcrow.com

Despite the failure of the previous LSU search in the Pearl many (including Van Remsen who headed up that endeavor) believe it still holds great promise -- I personally always thought the Bogue Chitto area in particular was a likely home for Ivory-bills and was admittedly surprised by the 2002 failure to turn them up there. Could still be a little while though for the leaves to entirely fall from the trees permitting good visibility, and keep in mind too that Ivory-bill courting/breeding activity could likely begin early in the new year.
--------------------------------------------------------------

-- One More Person's Viewpoint --

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Once again Birdchick Blog has another fun/interesting post today, this time on the recent Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival (you may want to read the whole thing), but including this noteworthy passage on David Luneau's video, for what it's worth:

"Tim Gallagher gave a presentation and signing at the RGV Fest too. Watching his footage of the Luneau video was a very different experience than having watched it on the internet or tv news where it's blown up to grainy proportions. Having watched it on a large screen at regular speed, it makes much more sense as to why this is an ivory-billed woodpecker and not an albinistic pileated. Whether or not you believe the bird in the footage is an ivory-bill, I will tell you this, it is for sure not a pileated. It doesn't have the flight pattern a pileated does -- this isn't someone speaking from behind a computer, this is someone who has considered a pileated a favorite bird since age seven and has watched it for hours in the field. If anything you could argue that the footage is an albinistic wood duck from the way the wings flap and the speed that the bird in question leaves the tree--it doesn't have the flight pattern of a woodpecker at all. What keeps it from being a wood duck is that you can see the bird clinging to the side of a tree before it takes off."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- for the umpteenth time --

------------------------------------------------------------------
With the lull in the news, and at the risk of beating a dead palomino, I'll just reiterate a few major points (for the umpteenth time):

1) The Big Woods area of AR. is about the size of the state of Rhode Island -- nothing too unusual about not being able to find a bird in a (mostly wooded) area that vast (depends how many there are) -- heck, half the time I can't find my car in the mall parking lot! And in the 80 years prior to Pearl River there were never any truly large-scale, organized, meaningful, well-funded searches for the bird; NONE.

2) ...nor anything whatsoever unusual about failure to capture the bird on film. Without finding an active roost or nest hole this will remain difficult at best (although the sheer number of searchers running around with cameras/video of course increases the chances of at least more fuzzy shots).

3) at least 16 people claim to have seen/identified the bird -- all of whom know about, and are experienced viewing Pileated Woodpeckers. Furthermore, most of the sightings occurred out in the open, unlike some past sightings that have involved interference from leaves or tree limbs. (...As I've said before, if the sighters' names included "Sibley," "Kaufman," "Dunne," "Ehrlich,", etc. we wouldn't even be having this debate, no matter how brief the glimpses, because rightly or wrongly, those who write books or are mass media "names" are automatically granted credibility not afforded to others.) Numerous bird identifications, including those used in official counts, are based on equally brief looks -- only people's biasing, preconceived notions of Ivory-bill extinction cause them to challenge all such sightings.

4) For several sighters SIZE was one of the very first, most striking features of the bird in question -- this is significant since other field marks can be missed with a bird in flight (although the key trailing white wing edge, the one fieldmark people are incessantly told to focus on, was reported by most sighters).

5) Credible reports of Ivory-bills have been made every decade since the 40's (indeed, since at least the 20's). It is the pronouncement of "60 years without being seen" that is, and always has been, a completely unproven, unwarranted claim, that again biases people ahead of time to (against) any new reports.
----------------------------------------------------------------

...Ti-i-i-ime Out...

--------------------------------------------------------
Okay, I bill this blog as "All Ivory-bills, All the time," but for the first time ever am going momentarily OFF-topic to refer folks to a post I thought too wonderful not to pass along, on another marvelous bird, the California Condor -- this post from 'birdchick' today (Tues., Nov 15), concerns an injured Ca. Condor in rehab in Minnesota of all places, and includes some great photos along with the storyline... Enjoy!

http://www.birdchick.com/2005/11/california-condor-at-raptor-center.html
--------------------------------------------------------

-- Some of The Folks Involved --

-----------------------------------------------------------
If you haven't already seen it, there are short blurbs/bios of people involved in the Arkansas search (with nice quotes) available at:

http://www.nature.org/ivorybill/team/

(...and geee, despite what skeptics might have you thinking, most of these folks even have credentials, college degrees, experience, and appear non-hallucinatory!!)
-----------------------------------------------------------

-- Arkansas Carrying Capacities --

-------------------------------------------------------------
A couple of posts back I made mention of forest 'dead timber densities' and IBWO 'carrying capacities;' if you want to see more data on such factors (densities of large-diameter trees, snags, and dead wood) in the pertinent Arkansas areas, check out the following site that provides some graphic habitat inventory maps based on recent research:

http://www.lmvjv.org/IBWO_habitat_inventory_&_assessment.htm
--------------------------------------------------------------

-- Stay Tuned --

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This short note from David Luneau's website today:

" 'NOVA ScienceNow' will be featuring the IBWO as one of the TOP 10 science stories of 2005 in a program that will run sometime in January. Keep an eye on your local PBS listings."

...for any birding story, even including re-discovery of the Ivory-bill, to make a top 10 list of all possible science stories for a given year is pretty remarkable!!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- Ivory-bill Estimates --

-----------------------------------------------------------------
After the initial announcement of Arkansas Ivory-bills I attempted to estimate how many IBWOs might remain in the entire American Southeast, based on distribution of previous reports, habitat availability, time passed since Tanner's study, possible breeding and death rates, and... intuition. As best I can recall the numbers I arrived at ranged from a low estimate of ~45 birds to a high of possibly ~125. These numbers were based on such imprecise and hard-to-quantify data and assumptions, that I presumed they would be scoffed at as absurdly optimistic.
Now, some folks on a BirdForum thread, using dead timber density and other 'carrying capacity' factors as guides, are throwing out possible Ivory-bill estimates of well over 100 birds for just AR. and LA. alone; thus, I'm a bit more heartened that in the end my figures might just prove to be moderate or even conservative, rather than insanely optimistic.
-----------------------------------------------------------------

10 Things I Learned OUTside Kindergarten...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Just a few things I learned all on my own, when I wasn't in school studying stupid stuff:

1. Birds are pretty smart critters (...and corollary, humans ain't as smart as they invariably think they are).
2. Birds know the outdoors and their own territories a whole lot better than humans do, or ever could.
3. Birds have appendages called "wings" that allow them to move swiftly, on a moment's notice, at will, in any direction, far away, to evade predators or detection.
4. Creatures that get shot at don't much like it, and over time learn to avoid the creatures doing the shooting.
5. Though the woods "are lovely dark and deep," they can also be vast, dense, inhospitable, poorly-accessible, and difficult to traverse without making lots and lots of noise.
6. Living things have a tremendous will/drive to live and reproduce, and adaptive individuals virtually always survive well past the time silly humans think they're all gone.
7. It can be difficult to make generalizations about species because individual members are so variable and dynamic.
8. Extinction is forever, and that's a LONG, LONG time -- one ought be mighty gosh darn positive before ever declarin' it, or you just might look like a fool.
9. The Universe is positively brimming with improbabilities.
10. Children's intuition (before it is extinguished) is right just about as often as grown-up science is.

....just a few late-night thoughts; think it's my naptime now.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- More Words From The Past --

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
A bit of Jerry Jackson as we head into the weekend -- Back in his 1989 (pre-Pearl River and Big Woods) report to the Government USF&W, after extensive study of Ivory-bill natural history and searching, IBWO expert Dr. Jerome Jackson wrote the following (not all readers will know the specific cases he makes reference to, but you'll understand the gist, and a near identical passage appears in his current book as well):

"Perhaps we can dismiss the photographs that George Lowery presented to the ornithological community. Perhaps we can dismiss the sightings reported by Whitney Eastman. Perhaps we can dismiss the sightings of John Dennis. Perhaps we can explain away the Dennis tape recordings that were analyzed by Hardy. Maybe there is a miniscule chance that the recording made by Reynard isn’t of an Ivory-bill. Perhaps we can dismiss the response to tape recordings that were heard by Robert Manns, Malcolm Hodges, and myself or the birds heard by Fred Sibley and Ted Davis. But the list goes on and on -- right up to the present. If each of these observations has any probability at all of having been real, these probabilities add up. It is unlikely that all of these reports are misidentifications."

Additionally, Jackson concluded the following regarding possible ivory-bill locales:

"...the most likely states in which ivory-bills might still exist are, in order of likelihood: Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi. South Carolina, Georgia, and Texas would be next, and Alabama and Arkansas would be behind them."

Hmmm... Arkansas last? After years of study was Jackson just flat-out wrong, or did he have it right and the now sought-after AR. birds are in fact just one of the smaller populations of ivory-bills out there to be discovered???
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- Symposium Abstracts' Thoughts --

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Just a few thoughts about the Symposium abstracts previously referenced:

The abstracts are interesting, but often only hint at the details that may have been covered in the full presentations. As could be expected many of the abstracts are more indicative of what we DON'T fully know or understand about Ivory-bills than what we do know.

Here is one quote from the abstracts I throw out only to indicate that among principals of the search, unlike the constant armchair debaters over the internet, there is LITTLE doubt what the Luneau video shows:

"Due to technical imperfections, the woodpecker in the Luneau video offers a challenging identification puzzle but comparisons with images of Pileated Woodpecker in flight and a reenactment with models of Ivory-billed Woodpecker and Pileated Woodpecker demonstrate the videoed bird is indeed an Ivory-billed
Woodpecker. "

I am still troubled somewhat by the acoustic data; so far as I can tell there is still no indication that the "kents" recorded in the Big Woods have been compared to the 'toots' of a Red-breasted Nuthatch, the bird Tanner (and I) believe most resembles the Ivory-bill sound (albeit not as loud); only comparisons to the White-breasted cousin are mentioned (this I think is a major lapse if it has not been done). As far as Blue Jay calls go, I see no great problem with the possibility of the taped kent calls emanating from them, since this simply begs the question of why are Blue Jays in the Big Woods apparently producing this call so much more often than they do throughout most of their range. Either this IS a case of mimicry or it is some sort of strange vocal co-evolution in which case one must explain why do Big Woods Blue Jays make the call much more frequently than say Blue Jays in Chicago, Illinois. (Indeed, how many calls do Blue Jays make that are neither part of their normal daily repertoire nor instances of mimicry??? -- does anyone have a clue...)

Finally, I will quote just one abstract below in its entirety, because it so strongly mirrors the conclusions I too have been approaching over the last few years:

"The role of human depredations in the decline of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker"
-- Noel F.R. Snyder

"In virtually all modern accounts, the endangerment of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker has been attributed mainly to (1) extreme foraging specialization, leading to a crucial dependency of individuals on vast areas of pristine woodlands to obtain sufficient food, and (2) the logging of nearly all virgin forests in the species' original range. However, rigorously persuasive evidence for the ivory-bill being an extreme foraging specialist appears to be lacking, and the numerous reports of early abundance of the species across its original range are difficult to reconcile with a dependency of individuals on vast areas of mature forests. Although the ivory-bill did exhibit sparse populations and a frequent close association with remnant virgin forests as it approached extinction, these characteristics may have been due mainly tofactors other than food stress. In particular, direct human depredations may have been more important than habitat modification and food scarcity in producing the species' decline. The loss of certain Florida populations to zealous specimen collecting has long been acknowledged. But in addition, there are other populations for which evidence plausibly suggests extirpation mainly due to subsistence, curiosity, and sport killings. The high vulnerability of the ivory-bill to human depredations was often noted in historical accounts, and no substantial regions are known that were free of such threats. In many regions major ivory-bill declines clearly took place before logging operations were initiated, suggesting that habitat destruction was at most a secondary stress, whatever the primary stress may have been. Logging must surely have greatly lowered the carrying capacity of most woodlands for the species, but not necessarily to the point where food supplies were inadequate to support any ivory-bills. Instead, logging's most significant detrimental role may have been the facilitation of human depredations on remnant populations, especially by providing much improved access to formerly remote regions, a role increasingly recognized as crucial in the current disappearance of vulnerable wildlife species from tropical forests around the world."

-- If 'human depredation' was in fact a MAJOR cause of the IBWO's decline than its end in the 30's would have given the species an extra 20 years to stabilize and hang on while waiting for 2nd growth forest to recover in the 50's; 20 years of crucial 'breathing' time.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- Symposium Abstracts Available --

--------------------------------------------
Abstracts (14 pages worth) of the presentations from the recent large woodpecker ecology symposium in Brinkley are now available (in pdf form) at:

http://nature.org/ivorybill/current/art15996.html

...may have more to say about them after I've read through them myself.
--------------------------------------------

-- In The Popular Press Again --

----------------------------------
Yesterday's USA Today contained a somewhat textbook-like article on the Ivory-bill :

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/discoveries/2005-11-09-ivory-billed-woodpecker_x.htm
----------------------------------

-- Another Look Back: John Dennis --

------------------------------------------------------------------
...some more ivory-bill history to re-live: Ornithologist and writer John Dennis's reports of Ivory-bills in the Big Thicket area of Texas gained him notoriety and then discredit back in the 1960's. Below is part of the memorable account he wrote for Audubon Magazine in Dec. 1967. Others discounted his claims (which were never corroborated) and later he himself admitted to being overly-optimistic in his estimates of Ivory-bill numbers in Texas though he still believed they were present... as many others still do :

"... toward dusk I heard the tin trumpet-like sound that could only come from one source. I had last heard these notes in the swamps of the Chipola River in northwestern Florida in 1951...
Rain and impassable roads delayed my return to the locale until December 8th, when I made another discovery. Not far from where I had heard the call notes I found a living overcup oak with two fresh, squarish holes -- each about four inches in diameter -- penetrating a hollow trunk. Since the pileated woodpecker does not normally make square roost or nest holes or use living oak trees, I had good reason to believe that this was the work of an ivory-bill.
But when I returned two days later my crest of optimism was diminished. I could not even find the oak with the two squarish holes. All morning I took one compass bearing after another near the spot where I thought the roost tree should be. Then toward noon I wandered along the edge of a cypress-filled bayou. I had walked only a few yards when I was almost paralyzed with excitement by a sight that few have seen.
The bird had apparently been feeding near the ground. Effortlessly and almost gliding, it seemed, it rose from its feeding place, disappeared behind some trees, then reappeared for an instant on the trunk of a big dead cypress tree standing in the nearby bayou. Then before I could fully comprehend what I had seen, the bird vanished in the forest.
The wide white border at the rear edge of the upper wing convinced me beyond doubt that this was an ivory-billed woodpecker. A half-hour later I spotted the bird again. This time I saw what looked like a giant red-headed woodpecker perched on a stump, wings outspread in an attitude that suggested a threat display...
...on February 19th I was able to show Armand Yramategui an ivory-bill at almost the same spot. He saw the same features I did -- the the upper wing pattern, the long pointed tail, and the straight rather than undulating flight. He thought his bird had a black crest.
As I continued my search in this area through early winter, I found evidence of only one bird and this, in all probablility, was a female. My early elation gave way to apprehension. Was this the last ivory-bill in Texas? The last one anywhere?...
... looking back on the history of the ivory-bills’ tenuous survival through this century, I was comforted by the fact that the bird has always reappeared after long absences....

As I searched the Neches River valley during the winter of 1967, evidence began to point to a sizable ivory-bill population. Talking with hunters, fishermen, cattle raisers, lumbermen and oil company workers I found a few persons who had unquestionably seen ivory-bills. The details they gave me could not have come from any book. I also talked to the few hardy birdwatchers who, braving the mosquitoes, water moccasins and difficult terrain, had penetrated the swamps...
In February I found evidence of ivory-bills at still a third location. From a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plane, not only did I spot what was almost certainly an ivory-bill in flight, but the very location had been pinpointed by a woodsman as the place where he had seen one of the birds.
In April, May, and early June, I was again in Texas, this time under the auspices of the Endangered Species Research Station of the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife. Again my assignment was to search for ivory-bills, to interview people -- and to try to determine just how many birds there were and to locate their territories....
By the end of May, taking into account my own observations and the most trustworthy of those made by others, I made a rough estimate of the ivory-bill population in the Neches Valley. Instead of one forlorn bird, I could speak confidently of between five and ten pairs. This was most encouraging. But uppermost was the question of what could be done at this late date not only to save the ivory-bill from extinction, but to bring its numbers back to a safer level.
The situation is not at all hopeless. I am encouraged, first of all, by the birds’ ability to remain out of sight -- even to the extent of having “disappeared” in Texas for 62 years..."

-- John Dennis, R.I.P. (1916 - 2002)

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-- Ivory-bill Habitat Potential --

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In another new BirdForum note, "fangsheath" reported the following:

"Those with an interest in ivory-bills may find this paper of value. It describes forest changes in the Mississippi alluvial valley from the 1930's to the 1990's. Notice that in the early 1930's, when only about 1 million acres of uncut bottomland forest remained, much of it (though certainly not all) in NE La., there were about 13 million acres of regenerating second-growth. By this time many areas that had been clearcut were probably already 30+ years old. Many areas judged to be old-growth in the 1990's remained in private hands." http://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/pubs/gtr...042-rudis01.pdf --- Many of us have never bought the notion that Ivory-bill habitat simply disappeared completely in the 40's (and when necessary, birds can linger in forest 'patches' surprisingly well, if left undisturbed), nor that the birds couldn't easily adapt to second-growth forest. Ivory-bill habitat afterall was home to 100s of avian species (not just the Ivory-bill), almost all of whom are still with us today. ----------------------------------------------------------------------

Ivory-bill vs. Pileated Groove Size Study

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This quite fascinating post from Steve Holzman appeared today on BirdForum. Steve and Paul Sykes (I assume this is the rather long-time IBWO skeptic 'Paul Sykes'?) have been conducting a study of any perceivable, measureable differences in Pileated and Ivory-bill bark scaling signs (I've always been a bit skeptical of these possible differences, but this certainly sounds intriguing/hopeful) :

"We presented a poster at the Large Woodpecker Symposium in Brinkley, AR last week. I think after we do the statistics we'll put a paper together. For those unfamilar with the project, we found some grooves on bark-scaled trees in Arkansas that were above 3.8 mm in width. After looking throughout many southeastern states we found similar sign (likely Pileated Woodpecker (PIWO) work) and measured those grooves. We then measured hundreds of bills of both Ivory-billed (IBWO) and PIWO in museum collections. The grooves outside of AR coincided nicely with PIWO bills and the AR grooves coincided nicely with IBWO bills. While you couldn't say a particular tree was scaled by Pileated or IBWO just by looking at it, there does seem to be a groove width difference. Preliminary work suggests that Pileated's can't make a groove larger than 3.5 (and more are below 3.1 mm). This is a work in progress, but it does show some promise in identifying woodpecker species by examination of foraging sign. We also were able to measure the grooves on the inside of IBWO cavities in museum collections (only 4 cavities are in existence as far as we know). These also coincided with the AR grooves."

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