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Catching up on a few things:
In the future, the former “Project Coyote” search for the IBWO in Louisiana will be carried out under the heading “Project Principalis” in partnership with the National Aviary:
Mark Michaels will soon be updating all this info on their old Coyote site and describing plans for the winter search/monitoring. [I'll probably add a link here when he does so.]
Jackson Roe asked me to pass along this video of his current search method in Arkansas:
One of the Ivory-bill groups on Facebook recently mentioned that the current issue of the “Bluebird,” ornithological journal reports on a museum Ivory-bill skin with a history linking to a site in Michigan. I’m pretty open-minded about what the original IBWO range may have been, but verrry doubtful of them ever residing in Michigan. If anyone has read the article (I haven’t) and can tell us some of the specifics of what they argue I’d be curious to hear. Certainly Ivory-bill artifacts were traded by Native (and other) Americans and could have easily made their way to Michigan, but if they are claiming that a live IBWO was taken in Michigan at some point I can’t imagine what their evidence trail would be (other than verbal report, which would be iffy or mistaken).
Finally, news of a new Honeyeater species being discovered in Indonesia:
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2 comments:
Re: the "Bluebird" article, Mark Michaels sends me this note:
"I have read the article. It is a specimen collected after the Civil War. The paper trail is better than many, perhaps most, specimens from that era. The collector was in the location given at the time of the purported collection; the taxidermist is reputable. The collector does not mention it in his journal but seems mostly have been interested in big game. He collected a couple of PIWOs from the same region, if I remember right.
It’s about as good as 145 year-old evidence can be. The only reason for rejecting it is what we think we know. I’m not saying I believe it, but it’s perplexing."
The collector would have mentioned the month?
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