-- Sharin' Some Ivory-bill Love --

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Sometimes I skip over reporting on non-documentary Ivorybill-related movies, novels, stories, and the like here… enough folks already regard the content of this blog as fiction ;-) without me bringing up deliberate outputs of fiction. But the reviews I've seen for a recent novel set in the Big Woods of Arkansas, entitled "The Lord God Bird" by Tom Gallant, are too good and positive, not to pass this one along (haven't read it myself, but haven't seen a single bad review).

From the publisher:

"Infused with captivating imagery and spare, assertive prose, The Lord God Bird explores the vibrant spirit of a wild creature in a way no nonfiction work ever could. This is a profound, yet hopeful, meditation on the way humans relate to the natural world."

Read more about it here:

http://thechronicleherald.ca/books/93291-connection-to-the-wilderness

http://www.quantucklanepress.com/catalog/book.php?bkID=102

http://www.kingmandailyminer.com/main.asp?SectionID=74&SubSectionID=649&ArticleID=50206

http://tomgallant.com/site/the-lord-god-bird/the-lord-god-blurbs/

...a transcribed interview with the author here:

http://tomgallant.com/site/the-lord-god-bird/q-a-with-tom-gallant/

and an audio interview here:

http://tinyurl.com/734b82j

…may it be a moving, inspiring read for visitors here.

ADDENDUM 6/17: Rick Wright has now written a nice review of Gallant's book over at the ABA Blog:

http://blog.aba.org/2012/06/gallant-the-lord-god-bird.html
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-- Florida Dreaming --

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 May closes out soon and with it, summer overtakes the southeast… summer heat, humidity, foliage, bugs, snakes…. If any Ivory-bills fledged this spring they may just now be beginning to travel around the forest greenery with their parents, just as Ivory-bill searching is largely forced to wind down to a standstill.

Not too much new to report (a few re-hash articles have been on the Web), so I'll just toss out the little bit of visual entertainment I can find: 

First this nice-sounding double-knock apparently recorded in the Choctawhatchee (around the 5-6 second point; & turn your volume up):

 

the fellows recording it made a pleasant companion travelogue of their venture (no additional IBWO material though):

 

From the serious (I assume/hope) to the oddball… an individual on Facebook casually claims the recent sighting of 2 Ivory-bills on a tree somewhere in central Florida (outside Gainesville, I believe, but not certain), and got at least one blurry photo:

http://tinyurl.com/ctvxwfv

The bird certainly has an interesting posture, size, and neck(!), and is on an interesting tree (though poor-looking habitat), but lacks key features of an IBWO (longer bill, white saddleback) and so it goes....

Here's an artist's rendering of an IBWO in a similar pose:

http://cache.io9.com/assets/images/8/2011/05/ivory-billed-woodpecker.jpg

and here, some Pileateds similarly posing:

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a169/libsys/Jan2009/IMG_1804aPileatedWoodpecker.jpg

 http://www.outdooralabama.com/images/Image/Pileated.jpg

http://tinyurl.com/7om963v

http://tinyurl.com/7r45wk7

Summer seems to always bring a few more interesting tidbits than I expect, but still am not anticipating a great deal of posting over next few months. We'll see what happens....

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-- Population Genetics & Species Decline --

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h/t to Nate Swick and the ABA Blog for bringing attention to some graduate student work at LSU focusing on using new population genetics techniques to better account for the significant declines/extinction of some iconic bird species:



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