---------------------------------------------------
On the bright side: I had figured out a somewhat cumbersome, convoluted way of viewing tweets on Twitter without having an account there, but a reader (thank you) sent me a simpler means of doing so, so now I can check on @ibwo_discourse or anyone else when I wish.
Matt Courtman will be holding another monthly (free) Zoom meeting this coming Monday night at 7:30 EDT.
Someone recently asked on Facebook if there’d been much searching in Western Tennessee (and specifically bringing up the Chickasaw Wildlife Refuge). Historically, there were no confirmed reports of Ivory-bills in TN., but in their 2007 report, USFWS did mention 4 areas of the state of possible interest (all in the far west, bordering Arkansas): certain parts along the Hatchie River, Meeman Shelby State Park, Reelfoot Lake area, and yes, the Chickasaw National Refuge. I’ve often cited Bill Pulliam’s enticing reports of possible IBWO at the Moss Island Refuge (which seems on the smallish size, but is close to the larger Chickasaw Refuge). His main posts are HERE and HERE. I could never tell for sure if Bill was toying with his readers over Moss Island, since he never returned for more extensive searching (perhaps? hindered by money and time), but as I’ve reported here before, when I once specifically pressed him if he seriously believed Ivory-billed Woodpeckers resided there, he simply said that IF they did they deserved to be left alone, having survived this long on their own [he didn't particularly encourage folks to go look there, but nor discourage them]. In any event I know of no more recent searches/encounters with IBWO in these areas in subsequent years. BUT yes, western TN., as well as slivers of southeast Missouri and southern Illinois interest me, specifically because of the scarcity of searching ever done there (and a few oddball reports) versus prominently mentioned areas (where more claims come from, but followup searches mostly fail over and over).
As a sidenote will just mention that author Sam Keen, in one of his books, tells the story of growing up around Pikeville, TN. in 1942 (much farther to the east in Tennessee) and as a young birdwatcher being told that a locally shot bird is an Ivory-bill (which he buries) — he admits it was surely more likely a Pileated, but still is haunted a bit all these years later by what the grownups, probably not credibly, insisted at the time.
All of which reminds me a tad of how in philosophy or logic they talk about “necessary and sufficient” conditions for a statement to be true. These days I keep looking for Ivory-bill evidence that is “significant and credible.” Evidence sometimes floats around that might be significant if only one could vouch for its credibility & accuracy… and vice-versa, there are sometimes assertions made which are credible, but which are more rehash or repetition than truly new or significant. Getting “significant and credible” together is a bit of a challenge :(
Otherwise, from the Dept. of Marching-Around-In-Circles I see this discounted photo from almost 20 years ago re-surfaced... yet... again... on YouTube last week; I guess the creator can take pride in the staying-power of his handiwork. Oy:
Chuck calls the article "intriguing" by which I assume he means 'God help us all!'.
(nothing IBWO-related in the piece, except for peoples' apparent love for, or gravitation toward, conspiracy theories)
---------------------------------------------------
ADDENDUM 4/15:
Will just mention that Hannah Hunter, who I previously wrote of for her piece specific to the Ivory-bill, is back with a co-written article on the "audiovisual afterlives" of the IBWO and a mammalian species, the Bucardo:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/24694452.2024.2304206
...and now, ADDENDUM to the Addendum: Hannah is on a new short podcast about the same topic here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMWDpLSKIeY
---------------------------------
ADDENDUM 4/19:
A heads-up (especially for any nearby to the locale)… the Pennsylvania Society for Ornithology 2024 Birding Festival will be held in Washington, Pa. from May 31 - June 2:
https://pabirds.org/2024-schedule/
On Saturday, June 1, Steve Latta is scheduled to share the evidence from their Louisiana study and argue for the persistence of the IBWO ”based on a variety of data collected over a 10-yr search period, 2012-2022”
??? does that mean he’ll have nothing from 2023 (or for that matter 2024) to share; guess we'll find out in a few months.
---------------------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment