-- Whatever --

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Not much substantively to report so I'll just pass along a tidbit an acquaintance sent along to me. It's from an April 21st post on a birding listserv group in which a novice S.C. birder birding the Congaree innocently mentions the following toward the end of a routine post:

"...A couple of photographers were standing along the Weston Lake Loop in stunned silence. one told me they'd heard such a strange sound and it came from up in a tree but they couldn't find its source. She said it sounded like a "horn". As I walked on, I, too, heard some non-melodic sounds from a distant tree but left the man setting up his camera to find and record..."

At least mildly interesting given the number of rumors hailing from S.C. over the past year (...and possibly also worth noting that following their sojourn in Texas/La. it was to the Congaree that Cornell's Mobile Team rapidly returned to).

A tad farther north Jerry Condrey (who claims an IBWO-pair sighting in 2004) continues to plan for further exploration of North Carolina's Green Swamp area (near NC/SC border). He notes that not only is the habitat good, but it is largely overlooked and under-searched (IBWO habitat-focus having historically rarely gone that far north).

Meanwhile Cornell has been largely silent on any results from the Big Woods this season. Given the bashing they've taken in some quarters one could expect they might not report any gathered evidence until absolutely all 'i's' are dotted and 't's' crossed this time, but more likely their silence reflects lack of anything to report.

Lastly, although there are really no new arguments to be made in the Ivory-bill debate, Brit Martin Collinson attempts to tie together the given skeptical arguments in the form of a speculative analogy here. From all sides of the issue it's all been said before. As long as sightings claims keep coming in all we can do is watch and wait for pictures. Field notes won't do it, sketches won't do it, lengthy sightings won't do it, audio won't do it, DNA won't do it (it will have to be dated and proven uncontaminated); pictures or a dead carcass are now required.
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From Web Grab Bag:

Everyone loves a mystery (warbler):

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/mystery

...and a fun recent post from Julie Zickefoose here, if you missed it, combining Purple Martins and Elk of all things:

http://www.juliezickefoose.com/blog/2007/04/madness-of-martins-and-elk.html
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