— Of Physics & Woodpeckers —

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Already mentioned this on a FB page so we’ll revisit it here as well…

Over the years some folks have called the Ivory-bill “Schrodinger’s Woodpecker” after “Schrodinger’s Cat” (famous physics thought experiment in which a cat is simultaneously alive and dead until an observer comes along to view it and cause those two probability waves to collapse into one of the binary options).

It’s sort of a fun analogy but I was never really fond of it. Instead, with a lot of physics talk at the time swirling around a hypothetical particle, the Higgs boson, I thought that made a better analogy — a particle for which there was much evidence, and they were simply trying to lock it down. At the time, in mid-2011, I wrote

“Schrodinger's cat is mostly an abstract thought exercise... I suppose I prefer an analogy to the Higgs, because so many of those in the know feel sure it is really there, and just a matter of time before that is patiently demonstrated... may it still be so for the Ivory-bill... not Schrodinger's Woodpecker, but Higgs.”

Within a year the Higgs was confirmed [on Facebook I mistakenly said it was found 6 months after I wrote the above words, which may well be technically true, but the PUBLIC announcement came a year later]. The Higgs boson, once established to exist, is essentially everywhere, though; the Higgs Woodpecker, uhhh, not so much! 😟

...Meanwhile, elsewhere and remarkably, Dwight Norris’ IBWO FB group has passed the 15,000 member mark (I remember way back when I thought it would plateau at around 6500!).  Nice to see the interest in this story, but it does now make reading the daily entries quite a slog to hunt for the new/worthwhile nuggets among all the repetition and chatter.

And over at his IBWO FB page, Fred Virrazzi is promising a longish study of Alabama, which could be under-searched, sitting as it does as a sort of flyway between Florida and Mississippi/Louisiana (but never with the level of claims or attention as those states).

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— Of Comments and Curses —

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First, a little housekeeping: All future comments are now on “moderated” format meaning I have to okay them before they are posted — a super nuisance for me, but it’s also what most bloggers do these days (if they allow comments at all) -- I’m just late to the party. And as I received complaints about the string of comments on a recent post (a few people going back-and-forth at one another, not necessarily adding much of value) I’ve erased those comments — such behavior & personal attacks often makes others, who may have valuable contributions to make, unfortunately shy away from doing so! (and I get enough complaints about my own comments without having to deal with complaints about commenters’ comments!!). For whatever reason, civility has never been a hallmark of the IBWO debate! :((

“Curse of the Ivory-bill”…. Chuck Hunter recently used that phrase and I love it! So aptly describes the history of tantalizing, but never ever EVER quite solid claims/evidence for this elusive species. The Neil Wright pics, the Fielding Lewis pics, Herb Stoddard claims, David Kulivan storyline, Agey-Heinzmann, of course Big Woods, Choctawhatchee, Project Principalis, Mike Collins, literally probably another 100+ claims (some a-a-a-almost sounding credible) on the internet in the last year or two, and so many other bits I shan’t even mention, and stiiiiiiiill nothing definitive. Curses indeed!

(p.s.... I'm swamped with a lot of NON-IBWO stuff these days, so apologies if I'm a little slower than usual getting back to you about something you've sent along.)

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-- Another Blast From the Past (old interview) --

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Keep finding stuff in past postings I don’t even recall writing! I occasionally did transcribed interviews here with key persons in the IBWO storyline, and that included one almost 15 years ago with long-time active Ivory-bill enthusiast David Martin (generally known as “Fangsheath” back in the day). I’ve edited out one question that is no longer pertinent, but otherwise am posting the verbatim interview below (don’t know if any of David’s views/answers would change, lo these many years further on?):

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1. C: First, for those who don't know of you David, can you state a little of your background and credentials to put your viewpoints in some context? 

DM:  I’m not an ornithologist and I wouldn’t even call myself an avid birder, although I certainly enjoy birds as I do everything in nature. I’m a herpetologist. I received my M.S. in Zoology from the University of Southwestern Louisiana (now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette). In Florida I participated in research on the eastern diamondback rattlesnake and Choctawhatchee beach mouse. Later I worked at the Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville, Texas. In Texas I collected important information on rare, difficult-to-document amphibians such as the Mexican burrowing toad, white-lipped frog, and black-spotted newt. I have always had an interest in documenting rare species. 

2. C:  You had your own area of Louisiana that you were searching for awhile (at least partially on private land as I recall). Are you still spending time there, or anywhere else for that matter? 

DM:  I continue to conduct ivory-bill searches in southern Louisiana and continue to closely monitor one specific area of private land. This area produced a number of ivory-bill reports from 2005 to 2007. I monitor the area acoustically and conduct periodic forest inventories to determine if there are fresh cavities with promising characteristics. But I also investigate other forests in the parish. It is my belief that present-day ivory-bills are essentially nomadic and will not linger in a given area for more than 5 years, usually less. As far as that goes, most of the ivory-bill pairs in the Singer Tract couldn’t be found in a given area for more than a few years.

3. C:  Which Ivory-bill sightings/claims from the last 6 years do you find most compelling?

DM: The Arkansas sightings by Tim Gallagher, Jim Fitzpatrick, Melanie Driscoll, Melinda LaBranche, and Casey Taylor are very impressive to me because they were made by highly competent, very careful observers who were keenly aware of the fact that they needed to eliminate confusion species. However, I think the single most impressive sighting is the one reported by Tyler Hicks in Dec 2005, again a highly competent observer. He saw the bird perched, at very close range, and reported virtually every ivory-bill field mark. 

4. C: Which arguments of the skeptics do you find most compelling in arguing for extinction? 

DM: Well, the arguments from the supposed inability of the southern landscape to support them after the 1940’s are pretty much worthless as far as I’m concerned. I think they’re based on patently false assumptions about bottomland deforestation in the region and the bird’s requirements. However, one thing does bother me a great deal. Why have no recent searches been able to discover an active ivory-bill roost, despite people hearing and recording putative double-knocks at a number of sites close to sunrise or sunset? This is worrying and is of course connected to the often-raised issue of why no clear imagery has been obtained. I believe it is very unlikely that such imagery will be obtained away from an active roost or nest. 

5. C: IF the Ivory-bill persists do you believe there were any major flaws/weaknesses in the official searches that accounts for their failure to confirm at this point? 

DM: I think there are a number of flaws, but the single most important one is an excessive dependence on Tanner’s statements about ivory-bill foraging and habitat use, some of which are plainly contradicted by recent and historical data including his own. I have the utmost admiration for Tanner but I focus much more on his data than his conclusions. There has been a strong tendency to look for “Singer Tracts,” and reject areas that do not fit that mold. There has also been an excessive focus on public lands. Ivory-bills may reject public lands for nesting precisely because they are public. The amount of secluded, mature private forest in Louisiana is unappreciated by many.

6. C: You likely hear various things through 'backchannels' that aren't made public. Have you heard anything (no need to say what) that especially sustains your hope for the species, and might give others more hope if they knew about it?

DM: My own studies have produced results that give me great hope, even though I have not seen the birds myself. In my study area, I found a group of very unusual cavities in one particular area in 2007. This area is within a “funnel,” a relatively narrow strip of forest connecting 2 large blocks, and it was in this area that a number of ivory-bill sightings were reported from 2005 through 2007. These cavities still appeared active in 2008, and more evidence of the presence of ivory-bills was obtained. Since 2008 these cavities have clearly become inactive, and the landowner has not reported ivory-bills in the area. In intensive inventories of almost 3000 acres of forest in the general area I have yet to find anything like this group of cavities. Much of my search effort is devoted to finding another such group. 

7. C: You've been one of the more staunch defenders of Cornell's interpretation of the 'Luneau video.' How confident do you feel that the bird in that clip is likely an Ivory-billed Woodpecker, or have any of the various skeptics' arguments altered your confidence in that?

DM: Actually, there are aspects of the Cornell interpretation that I disagree with. For example, I think it is quite likely that the bird’s wings are open in frames showing light color at around the time of launch. However, I do consider the Luneau video compelling evidence of the presence of at least one ivory-bill in the area at the time. There are things about the bird that were not even noticed by Cornell which I find difficult to explain if the bird is a pileated. I have yet to see a pileated video that even approaches this one in a number of respects. How hard can this be if the bird is a pileated? Of course if someone were to produce such a video, my opinion would change. 

9. C: Can you name anything from the last 5 years that stands out as the most surprising or unexpected happenstance (either good or bad) for you from your involvement with the Ivory-bill saga? 

DM: Just when I think I’ve heard all of the surprising and bizarre stories about ivory-bills, a new one seems to pop up. There are the fairly well-known cases of people like Neal Wright, Bill Smith, and the more recent one of Daniel Rainsong. In many of these cases I have access to far more information than the average ivory-bill researcher, and some of them are completely unknown to all but a few. Often, more information adds greatly to the bizarreness factor. I often imagine that a compilation of these snippets would be most entertaining, but it would require breaking a lot of confidences. I will mention one example although I won’t use the fellow’s name. I interviewed a man a few years ago who claimed to have seen an ivory-bill nest in St. Mary Parish, La. when he was a teenager, around 1970. Note that this is the same general time that Fielding Lewis took his famous photos. He said that he had even made sound recordings of the birds but they had been destroyed in a fire. The man said that he had walked up to the nest at one point and saw large white grubs at the base of the tree which had apparently been dropped. He showed me the general area. This swamp, like many in St. Mary Parish, is extremely difficult to penetrate and virtually no one ever does so. What is truly astounding about this guy is that he had never heard of Fielding Lewis, had no idea about his photos, and was completely unaware that there was any recent controversy surrounding ivory-bill. One of the hardest things for avid birders to understand is that most people who spend lots of time outdoors do not read birding literature or browse birding newsgroups or fora. Many of them have never heard the name ivory-billed woodpecker. In a few cases they have apparently seen the bird and can describe it quite accurately, but either have no name for it or use a local name such as indian head woodpecker or poule de marias. 

10. C: Anything else you want to pass along to my readers that you think they should know or understand about the Ivory-bill situation at this point? 

DM: I think the good news is that probably the ivory-bill is one species that can benefit from benign neglect. Bottomland forest acreage and maturity are increasing and there is a greater realization of the importance of large snags in bottomlands. In retrospect I think I and others were foolish to have given up on the ivory-bill. We bought a narrative about a specialized bird that clung to a precarious existence in one last refuge, until it was finally destroyed. It’s a poignant tragedy and I think we in the conservation community sometimes become enamored with poignant tragedies, rather than looking at the issues honestly and scientifically. In fact I think the species is slowly recovering and will continue to do so. Some of us will continue in our efforts to document the species, quietly and patiently. Stay tuned. 

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One reason for posting this, is because I’ve had the thought of doing more such transcribed interviews (I simply send out a list of questions that the respondent replies to at their leisure) and so IF there are individuals you would particularly like to see interviewed feel free to say who?  Of course no promises that they will consent to it, or that I will get around to it. 

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-- Keeping the Faith.... In Our Ignorance --

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Apologies, that as much as I’m trying to look forward (and for new material!), I keep falling back into the past 😕.  I don’t even remember half of the stuff I’ve written over the years so was a bit (pleasantly) surprised to stumble upon these paragraphs I put on paper over 25 years ago after the David Kulivan Louisiana claims, but well before all the Big Woods hoopla. Yeah, it’s more than a tad sloppy sentimental, but it still touches me today:

"In the biological sciences what we don’t know still far exceeds what we do know, and what is mysterious far exceeds that which is understood. It is only our faith in our small scrap of knowledge that permits people to doubt the further existence of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. What we need in this case is to put more faith in our ignorance! --- to acknowledge in short that we know too little to draw firm conclusions.
Photographs we have of Ivory-bills show a creature so vital, so wild, so determined, as almost to belie the possibility of their vanishing from the face of the planet. The will to live, the urge to reproduce, are among the most compelling drives in nature, and no doubt the Ivory-billed Woodpecker possessed these as much as any creature (bird artist Eckelberry wrote of its “rigor” and its “almost frantic aliveness”, and Alexander Wilson noted its “noble and unconquerable spirit”), such that it would seek with all its energy, facility, and acumen to overcome Man’s trampling upon its home and somehow, somewhere, in some way, simply continue on out of our view, aloof to our intense curiosity.
Indeed, in the farther recesses of my intuition and imagination, where sunlight glimmers and woodland shadows dance, I can just hear its clarinet-like toot reverberating, while patches of white flash with every wingbeat like lightning bolts through a forest canopy, and the heart of this most majestic of North American birds beats wildly in defiance of both Mankind and probability. Some may call it wishful thinking, or sheer fantasy, or even simplemindedness on my part, but I simply call it hope... a hope which, like the bird itself clinging tightly to some remote unseen sweet gum tree, clings securely to the human mind and heart, until much more evidence than we currently possess demonstrates once-and-for-all this bird’s survival... or demise."

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— Sighting Reports —

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With so many interested parties globbing onto the Ivorybill story more and more sighting claims keep appearing (from recent to long ago)…. few of which have enough detail to get taken very seriously….

So while some may follow up on such reports, most serious birders won’t bother when reports begin seeming a dime-a-dozen.

IF you’re going to claim a sighting for this iconic species and wish to be taken seriously by experienced birders/scientists try including as much of the following info as best you can:

1)  the year, approximate date and time of day, location (as specific as you’re comfortable stating)

2) the type of habitat (type of trees, terrain, underbrush, weather, how remote from human activity)

3) was bird flying, perched, on ground, on trunk; if perched was it feeding, pecking, moving…. and how far away, and seen for how long, by how many people

4)  any sounds from the bird; describe

5)  What specific markings make you believe the bird was an Ivory-billed Woodpecker (be as specific & descriptive as possible); and if there are significant reasons you ruled out similar species mention them.

6)  How much (if any) experience do you have actively birding; how much experience viewing Pileated Woodpeckers… Alternatively, if not a birder, how much time/experience do you have in the woods. One aggravating experience over the years has been the number of claimants who assert they “know” Pileated Woodpeckers, but when shown enough pics admit, “oh I didn’t know they could look THAT similar” or, “oh, I didn’t know they got that big,” or “I had no idea they could flash that much white when they flew” etc. etc. 

There’s a simple reason why most of the birding community is so skeptical of IBWO claims — because long-time birders are verrrry experienced with birding mistakes/misidentifications… and not a single IBWO claim in decades has, no matter how quick the followup, been verified (and many are found to be mistaken). 

A hugely disappointing aspect of the USFWS public comment period on IBWO delisting was the number of respondents who sent in reports of seeing IBWOs, enclosing crystal clear pics... always turning out to be Pileateds… and the USFWS, in their obtuseness of not even responding to comments (and providing teaching-moments), failed to even inform respondents that no, that is a Pileated. With dozens of Pileated photos now strewn across the internet, labeled as Ivory-bills, the mistakes are doomed to continue. :(((

7)  anything else about the bird’s behavior you noted (how it moved, how it flew, how it interacted with other birds -- flight style is actually quite important but something observers easily miss)

8) also, of course explain the circumstances under which you encountered the bird — were you searching for IBWO, just out birding in general, out recreationally (hiking, biking, camping, hunting, boating, etc.)

9)  try drawing a sketch immediately of what you saw (…I have to admit I’m not a huge fan of these quick awkward hand-sketches that people/non-artists turn in, and would prefer a good verbal description, but many like such depictions)

IF this list seems long, realize it would all be second-nature to most experienced birders to include such details anytime reporting an unusual species sighting.

Without details, what we simply end up with is more mockery heaped upon the ‘believer’ community. :(

p.s.... IF perchance you actually get a clear photo of your subject, before splashing it on the internet (and risk looking foolish) try finding a member of any local birding club or Audubon chapter who can likely identify it for you and explain the field marks.... of course if it IS an IBWO they will probably suffer cardiac arrest on the spot!

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— Numbers & Nostalgia —

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Just looking at some numbers and nostalgia today, strictly of interest to me (so won’t be offended at all if this is a yawner to you!). Google sends along various statistics on blogs which I usually barely notice, but recently began taking note of.

According to Google the blog has had around 1,125,000 pageviews in its lifetime — I’m not even sure exactly what this really means since I think a lot of those “views” are simply webbots going around cataloguing “content” on the internet (but not sure). Or possibly also spammers, scammers, or hackers trying to get in? I do see that Mike McDowell’s once popular birddigiscoper blog, that started a little before mine (I think), has a similar ~1,243,000 views. While I don’t take the raw numbers Google sends me too seriously, I am interested in the relative numbers or ratios involved: i.e., IF Google says I have 500 views one day and 100 on another day, I do wonder why there may be 5x more readers that one day — is there something in the news or on the Web to account for that, or someone linking to me, or what? Sometimes I haven't a clue!

In the early days/months of this whole saga (and early days of blogging) I didn’t even realize (until someone pointed it out to me) that this blog was one of THE most trafficked of all American birding blogs.  At least in the top 5 any given week. Back then, Mary Scott’s “Birding America,” was perhaps #1, and she too was an IBWO advocate of some fame, who encouraged me a lot. Her blog, like so many others from that time, eventually dissolved (and that included a number of other blogs touching on the Ivorybill story -- HEY! "Ivory-billed Septic" are you still out there somewhere ;) Though there are still some hugely popular blogs around, the heyday of blogging is passed with so many more options now available on the Web for information-presentation, especially visual and auditory.

Another oddball stat I only recently noticed from Google is that I’ve done 1685 posts thus far (an average of ~7/mo., despite not that many in recent years), and to my amazement have had almost 4000 comments! Comments have been rare ever since the Big Woods & Choctawhatchee searches closed down, so I was flabbergasted that nonetheless in total there have been over twice as many here than posts, because of the heavy ‘discussions’ in those early years (back in the day when even the likes of David Sibley, Louis Bevier, and other key names would occasionally weigh in). Emails too have dropped off considerably, so even though the topic still interests people (Dwight Norris's FB page on Ivorybills now has almost 10,000 followers!) the crowd I was most in touch with has somewhat drifted away. Of course we all know what it would take to bring them back into the fold.... well, except for the deceased ones :(  Every winter (the prime searching season) hopes ring out from some that THIS may be the year we get definitive evidence, and every year some proclaim or predict that that evidence is now just around the corner... It's like being on an endless merry-go-round and seeing the same signposts over and over again, but without much progress made, just going in circles. Still, even with perhaps fewer and fewer people searching fewer areas in any serious or extended way, at least technology is improving and just might yet strike paydirt. IF so, as I've said before, the real story to be told, won't be that we found Ivorybills, but rather how in the #@*&! did we miss them for this long!?

Anyway, as I've sometimes mentioned before, I originally envisioned this blog lasting for 1 or 2 years, covering the revival of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker in Arkansas if not elsewhere. And here we are 20 years later scratching our heads???.... I guess, as they say, be careful what you wish, or plan, for.....

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-- Facebook --

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Since I’m not expecting much news near-term that I think important enough to post about here at the blog, I am testing out Facebook for less important postings here:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61561193462258

(Like many) not really a fan of FB (nor its oligarchic head honcho 😦), but of course it’s beaten out all its competitors leaving few options. Currently, am not accepting any friend requests and hoping to limit overall involvement with it…. but, we’ll see.

In the unlikely event that any readers here don’t already know, there are several “Groups” (both ‘public’ and ‘private’) on FB exclusively focused on the Ivorybill debate, with Dwight Norris’s being the largest and most active (over 9000 members at this point):

https://www.facebook.com/groups/179784035376368

Other IBWO groups are easily findable as well, including one geared to skeptics (70+ members):

https://www.facebook.com/groups/220897210949459

I realize a lot of folks by now have abandoned FB, so even public "Group" postings will not be accessible to you without an account.... [but correct me if I'm wrong?]

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ADDENDUM  3/30:

Speaking of Facebook, just came across this short video there which I like as an example hinting of how PIWOs can knock off large bark chunks going after food sources (the bark does not appear at all tight, but the ground below may simply be strewn with large pieces):

https://fb.watch/yF7mz_JpKH/

Occasionally folks send me pics of worked/stripped trees with large bark slabs below in hopes of IBWO presence…. not necessarily so…..

-- Drone Technology --

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Don Scheifler has been using drones for awhile now aiding an Ivory-billed search effort in La.  He’s recently shared some of his work on FB. I’ll just link to a couple of his examples for now:

This one gives a good indication of the drone technology camera potential (the bird involved is of course a Pileated, but nice camera work):

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1EJHaPr4T9/

…and this one is a wonderful demonstration showing thermal detection (bright dots on the left) of two creatures, which turn out to be (on the right) identifiable PIWOs:

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Yb1MSN4gV/

Great work Don; thanks for sharing!

(If anyone has technical questions about the specs of Don's equipment or his technique send them to me and I'll pass along to him, if you are not able to contact him directly.)

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