-- Google Trends --

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Taking a cue from John Trapp at his 'Birds Etcetera' blog** I checked "Google Trends" to see what cities were showing the most interest in the Ivory-billed Woodpecker (i.e. generated the most Google searches for "Ivory-billed Woodpecker"), and found the results a little disappointing, though not surprising. Not too unexpectedly Little Rock, AR. was BY FAR the city with the most searches for our favorite topic. A little scarily though, second in the rankings was Minneapolis, MN. home of a skeptically-minded blog that shall remain nameless -- or maybe folks there are just trying to get at the truth and away from some of their hometown blather ; - ) The top 10 list for Ivory-bill-interest from Google Trends rounds out as follows:

3. Denver, CO.
4. Wash. DC.
5. Atlanta, GA.
6. Seattle, WA.
7. New York, NY.
8. San Francisco, CA.
9. Chicago, IL.
10. Toronto, Canada

I suppose it's not unusual that the list is dominated by large, northerly metropolitan areas, but still would've been fun to see some of the smaller southern Gulf Coast towns that really ought to have an ongoing interest in this bird show up out of nowhere. How's about it, Naples, Pensacola, Jacksonville, Fla., or Valdosta or Albany, GA., or Mobile or Auburn, Alab., or Pascagoula, Vicksburg, or Natchez, Miss., or Slidell or Baton Rouge, LA., or... or... or... Don't you feel the least bit ashamed being beat out by the likes of Seattle, San Francisco, and that long-time bastion of Ivory-bill lore, Toronto, Canada!!
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( ** as an aside for those with general birding interests I'll note that John maintains one of the best lists around of other birding blog links on the right side of his blog -- worth a gander.)
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