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Well, gee, wasn’t planning to post again this soon, but Chuck Hunter now has another superb entry to the IBWO FB page that I'm compelled to pass along:
I had just posted an Addendum to the prior post about Chuck, and then lo-and-behold he adds the above post which aligns virtually 100% with my own view… which is that the Cornell/USFWS work in the Big Woods was the last really good evidence for the IBWO. The Auburn work and everything else since, while containing plenty of interesting, suggestive elements, also suffers from issues/problems that leave much of it as highly speculative. The notion that keeps getting loosely tossed around that there has been scientific “proof” of IBWOs since the Big Woods study is just patently false. Even members of the Cornell team I suspect would confess to the possibility that the IBWOs they encountered may in fact have been the last 1 or 2 on Earth! — not that that is a likely or probable scenario, but just that it remains a possibility which can’t simply be laid aside.
And I’ll reiterate what I’ve said multiple times before:
IF IBWOs exist in numbers sufficient for reproducing and persisting through these decades the question is not only why do repeated searches following up on credible sightings fail to produce definitive photographic evidence, but more importantly why have remote automatic cameras (that can have mechanical problems, but not the prevalent flaws of human observers) trained on suspected IBWO cavities and foraging sites or flyways (the Big Woods ACONE system) failed, despite millions of frames, to capture even one... single... indisputable photo (made public). The two main explanations are that the species is extinct, or we humans, despite 100s of man-hours of work and study remain ridiculously incompetent at correctly identifying IBWO cavities or foraging work… take your pick… neither a very fun choice (…yeah, a third possibility is that we keep finding such cavities and foraging sites AFTER they are no longer in use, but c’mon now! -- these birds have to forage and enter/leave cavities EVERY single day). Possibly, human activity around such sites, or even the mechanical presence of the cameras, simply scare the birds off, but again, the more time that passes, the more such explanations seem like tenuous pie-in-the-sky.
[With all that said, I continue to believe that IBWOs persist in 3 or more states... but, I fully understand the skepticism, derision, mockery, and sarcasm that gets hurled our way!]
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ADDENDUM 5/31:
small addendum, to say that if you're interested in the IBWO of course you must be interested in the Pileated Woodpecker as well, and I only recently discovered this Facebook group (it's been around for well over a decade) devoted to the PIWO. Some nice photos and videos... so as much as I hate promoting anything Facebookish or Zuckerbergian, here it be...:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/74736493236
ADDENDUM2 6/2:
Just since mentioning 11 days ago that the Facebook IBWO group had 3900 participants it has already grown to over 4700 and counting… on the one hand nice to see this continued, growing interest in the species, but on other hand the ‘discussions’ become increasingly repetitious, erratic, often-superficial, and difficult to follow. :( ...not sure how much longer it can continue on this trajectory before becoming more problematic than time-worthy. Perhaps some form of greater moderation is needed?
Anyway, on a more fun note, this quite interesting video (of a juvie Pileated caught in a young woman’s hair) has been making the rounds, often in abbreviated form. Check out this 3+ minute version to get the fuller story. Almost evokes memories of “Sonny boy” and J.J. Kuhn, so just maybe THIS is how an IBWO will eventually be documented for good! (LOL).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbmHg6GG46E
ADDENDUM3 6/7:
If you missed it, last evening on Matt Courtman’s Monday night Zoom meeting, David Martin gave a very nice, cautious summation of basic/key information about the IBWO that newbies especially often ask about, consistently emphasizing that what we THINK we know is based on very limited sample size and study; i.e. how much of that 'knowledge' is applicable to IBWOs remaining today is difficult to feel certain about. BTW, Matt’s Zoom meetings for the immediate future will be limited to the first Monday of each month (not weekly as they have been). I presume at some point Martin's talk will be available on YouTube but no idea how soon… Matt’s, ummm, a bit behind at getting these posted.
Hype and speculation continues to swirl, on the Web and in my inbox, about searches or sightings of the species, but again I wouldn’t expect much solid news anytime soon. Perhaps in the fall USFWS will make a decision (or decide to postpone any decision) on de-listing the species.
ADDENDUM4 6/8:
==> INTERVIEW!: First, I might like to interview a skeptic for a blog post; could be anyone from those who are convinced the species is extinct to a more agnostic sort who simply leans strongly that direction — but should be someone who has followed the whole IBWO debate fairly closely for a long time and is familiar with the arguments. In the distant past I did a number of transcribed “interviews” simply sending out a set of questions to which the respondent sends back their answers. Let me know if possibly interested! (cyberthrush@gmail.com)
Meanwhile, the IBWO Facebook group is now at over 5100 members; impressive to watch the rapid growth of participation over there (though with that said, only a limited percentage appear to be experienced ornithologists or birders).
And thanks to all who keep sending me tidbits via email, most of which I’m already aware of, though some of the background or backchannel stuff is helpful or new. If I don’t respond to something that you think calls for a response don’t hesitate to nudge me again. I’ll reiterate though that the vast majority (indeed, almost all) of pics/videos/audio sent my way are unlikely to get a positive response unless it is fairly clearcut, or I think is good enough to be of interest to skeptics.
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