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Around a week ago I pulled out an old file drawer of IBWO stuff buried in a closet (much of which I actually thought I’d thrown out long ago!), and began reading 15+ year-old back-and-forth correspondence with various key people. So much time, so many discussions/debates have passed. It was fascinating to read things/discussions I hardly remembered ever having (and all the folks who thought this would be easy). But one downer thing that struck me from this trip down memory-lane was that several of these folks have since died (and others have left the IBWO debate altogether in frustration), and even among those still around, many are well over 60 now and who knows how much longer they (and I) will be here. I feel a lot less confident that the Ivorybill will be definitively documented in my (or their) lifetime — we keep doing similar things over and over again and expecting a different result (not that I know any better methodology). Often in some of the correspondence (and elsewhere) someone is voicing the view that documentation is ‘just around the corner’ or surely would come ‘next year’ or within a few months… and 15+ years later here we are still always turning new corners! ...forever sounding exaggerated (or, to the skeptics, delusional) in how close we are :(( A small smattering of people seriously looking for a needle in a vast haystack, analyzing the heck out of any scrap of evidence to come forth (and not-so-oddly reaching whatever conclusion they had basically started with).
Anyway, March arrives soon and hey, once again juvenile Ivory-billed Woodpeckers could thereafter be emerging from nestholes and foraging with their parents in remote vast places before leaves return to the trees, but will anyone be there, in the right place at the right time, to see and photograph them? Anyone???
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4 comments:
"Not that I know a better methodology..." I offered this to you, to publicize, over a year ago. You did not mention it. It's based on studying IBWO sighting patterns, the flee distance of the species as reported, and field testing of the equipment--
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CYY13-5Hx10nIxZEJxlH3TnXA90SHHL9/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=114870777332591992240&rtpof=true&sd=true
One look at that old Ivory Bill thread on bird forum will show the exact same thing, several people initially stating each year stating that photo documentation is just around the corner, should happen during the next search cycle, etc., then year by year, the optimistic predictions slowly trailing off, then, silence.
Hey John:
1) I did previously cite the FB post where you linked to your original camera study; but no, I did not link to the revised version a year later.
2) A lot of folks (including on European forums) have debated over which cameras are best for such work — you’re not the only one to have an opinion — and I don’t feel competent to judge which opinions/recommendations are best.
3) Moreover, as a practical matter, I doubt there is much probability, of even getting adequate in-flight IBWO pics from human-operated cameras. Definitive photographic evidence more likely will come from:
a) an automated camera remotely-positioned at an active cavity or foraging site (in fact it’s amazing that that has not yet been achieved, and again there’s debate over the best type of automated camera to employ)
b) a skillfully-maneuvered drone
c) if an active cavity or tree is found, then a smartphone (maybe even a Brownie camera!) will be more than adequate. (a very large zoom lens might also be effective, but not practical for carrying into the swamp)
There aren't any needles in the haystack.
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