— 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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-- Off-topic, But Too Cooool Not To Pass Along --

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 Probably safe to say that Snowy Owls are among every birder’s favorite creatures. This very odd-colored one (nicknamed “Rusty” by admirers) showed up in Michigan recently:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/11/science/snowy-owl-orange-michigan-rusty.html?unlocked_article_code=1.3U4.rLUB.X_DLEj4qSr5F&smid=url-share

(if the above NY Times article is not accessible for you, here's another, earlier piece:

https://www.mlive.com/environment/2025/02/rusty-colored-michigan-snowy-owl-turning-heads-likely-a-genetic-mutation.html )

Auburn’s Dr. Geoffrey Hill, of some Ivory-bill notoriety, but also an expert on avian feathers weighs in believing the unusual coloring is most likely from dye or coloring applied somehow externally to the feathers. Bird researcher Scott Weidensaul agrees with the notion of external application (possibly de-icer fluid somewhere along the way), but others are less convinced of the external argument and lean toward some sort of biological or genetic interpretation. I'd tend to go with Dr. Hill here, and against the mutation-hypothesis... but we may well never know for sure. :(

(IF anyone does come across a more definitive explanation for this bird let us know; I haven't kept up on the story.)

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ADDENDUM 3/24:

I've yet to see any definitive explanation for this bird's coloration.... and given how repeatedly the bird has been seen, am a little surprised no one has yet come up with a single feather dropping from it -- one examined feather ought be sufficient to tell if the red hue is applied to the surface or intrinsic to the feather. This paragraph, at the end of one article, seems reasonable to me:

"Birding Wire note: It is interesting to note that when you study the photograph of the Snowy Owl in flight, taken by Julie Maggert, you can see that the plumage covering the underside of the owl is normally colored, while the orange-red coloration covers most of its anterior side of its wings and tail, its back, and its head, including parts of its face. This might suggest the owl was somehow sprayed from behind and it turned its head to the rear during the process. This would underline the possibility that the owl was accidently sprayed with de-icing fluid at an airport, especially considering that the open expanses of airports are seemingly a preferred wintering area for some Snowy Owls in the eastern Great Lakes region, as indicated by SnowStorm tracking information."

-- Funereal? -- +Addenda

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Not sure how I’ll wile away time here between now and the 20th-year July anniversary of the blog, with so little expectation of significant IBWO news to come. Maybe dabble in more politics, with the country barreling full-speed ahead toward the allure of fascism (and a significant portion of the populace seemingly quite enthused about it)😟. Won’t be at all surprised if Heir Orange Fuhrer chooses to shut down the USFWS or at least alter its mission…. maybe change it to the USGS (United States Golfing Service) for purposes of draining and clearcutting all those yucky, worthless southern swamplands and converting them to gorgeous, manicured, money-makin' golf courses for the super rich!… because one thing we surely lack in this country is enough golf courses... to bury our mistresses & ex-wives on… "Log, Baby, log" may soon carry the same rhetorical flourish as "Drill, Baby, drill," forests being worth a lot more logged, than maintained as habitat for creatures that no crony of Donald Chump would ever think worth seeing.

Anyway, for now, moving along, I'll just close out January with a couple of quotes... starting with this favorite rumination from Henry Beston that I've posted multiple times before:

“We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals. Remote from universal nature and living by complicated artifice, man in civilization surveys the creature through the glass of his knowledge and sees thereby a feather magnified and the whole image in distortion. We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate for having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein do we err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete, gifted with the extension of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings: they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth.” 

And lastly, these poignant words that long-time Ivorybill enthusiast Mike Brown posted on Dwight Norris's IBWO FB page awhile back, quoting William Shatner who had flown into space on a Jeff Bezos rocket:

“I had thought that going into space would be the ultimate catharsis of that connection I had been looking for between all living things — that being up there would be the next beautiful step to understanding the harmony of the universe. In the film 'Contact,' when Jodie Foster’s character goes to space and looks out into the heavens, she lets out an astonished whisper, 'They should’ve sent a poet.' I had a different experience, because I discovered that the beauty isn’t out there, it’s down here, with all of us. Leaving that behind made my connection to our tiny planet even more profound.

It was among the strongest feelings of grief I have ever encountered. The contrast between the vicious coldness of space and the warm nurturing of Earth below filled me with overwhelming sadness. Every day, we are confronted with the knowledge of further destruction of Earth at our hands: the extinction of animal species, of flora and fauna . . . things that took five billion years to evolve, and suddenly we will never see them again because of the interference of mankind. It filled me with dread. My trip to space was supposed to be a celebration; instead, it felt like a funeral.”

Wish I could pass along something more positive, but I'm sympatico with Shatner in that mostly what I feel these days (for both the IBWO, and, my country) is grief and dread..... 

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ADDENDUM 2/19:

So far over 3400 personnel have been fired from the US Forest Service and another 1000 from the National Park Service, while USFWS has lost over 400, during this methodical, deliberate, even diabolical weaponization of the US Gov’t. being carried out by perhaps the most transparent and pathological
demagogue in US history in pursuit (apparently) of a 4th Reich using the Government as his personal piggy-bank (I doubt any actual savings from all this 'cost-cutting' will ever be seen by American taxpayers, but only by their oligarch overlords).  Personally, it seems pretty obvious where this dystopian insanity is all headed and how it will end, but you can use your own imaginations (if bulldozers start showing up at national refuges though at some point, don't say I didn't warn you). 

And here is a piece on the the USFWS:

https://www.refugeassociation.org/news/2025/2/14/eodwispvhseybqgjow291z3k5wxerh

ADDENDUM 2/23:

It’s a shame with so many devastating problems in the world in need of attention that we in America have to spend time saving our own country from essentially slipping into the Dark(er) Ages, but, we do (and in certain ways it is already too late; innocent citizens will die in the months ahead merely defending democracy, freedom, and the Constitution. For any not aware, below are some of the national protests coming up shortly (Feb. 17th one obviously already passed, but ‘buy nothing,’ “economic blackout” Friday coming up soon Feb. 28):

ADDENDUM  3/10:

And now this update regarding the 280 million acres of national forests and protected public lands under Gov’t. management:

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-clear-cutting-national-forests/

The final conclusion of the article:

“In other words, the executive order aims to allow the logging industry to bypass environmental restrictions found in the Endangered Species Act and National Environmental Policy Act.

"The executive order did not explicitly mention the environmentally damaging practice of clear-cutting. However, the reduction of environmental regulations like the Endangered Species Act and National Environmental Policy Act would certainly make it easier for a logging company wishing to clear-cut a forest to gain the necessary approval from the government.”

 

-- New Year, Will It Be Same Ol' Same Ol'? --

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1)  In just 6 more months the blog celebrates its 20th anniversary (…if it makes it that long), and I’ll probably depart regular posting at that point (almost have already!) given the political darkness I expect to befall the country well before then.😕  With so few searchers, sporadically searching so few areas in any rigorous systematic way and with limited resources, it’s hard to imagine a positive or definitive outcome over that time period, when a species has already proven itself so capable of evading human encounters (if it persists at all).

I always remember asking Bill Pulliam about IBWO prospects in a certain area and him casually saying that if they existed there they deserved to be left alone -- if they had made it this far along, they could continue to do so (…until perhaps their numbers might rise to a point of being more easily detectable). Make no mistake, the problem of actually protecting this species (from human hordes), if ever found, may indeed be just as great a problem as locating them has been for 80+ years. In short, conclusively documenting the species, while cause for some celebration, would really just be the start of yet the bigger issue/debate over what to do next???... perhaps just as acrimonious a squabble as what we’ve already been through.

Anyway, always hoping for the best, or at least some sort of surprise, but realistically, have very low expectations for the next 6 months.

2)  About a year ago I inquired of Dr. Chris Haney if his wonderful volume (that we all love), "Woody's Last Laugh" would have a second edition, and he said that he didn't oppose it but there were no current plans for doing so. So I inquired again recently and haven't heard back, but assume the answer is the same. I'd actually like to see a different publishing house take the book over, do better editing, and add an index at the end (but I don't know what, if any, contractual obligations Chris may be under).  Moreover, at a minimum, Chris would probably need to include material on the USFWS hearings and on some of the Latta-group Louisiana claims.... as well as any number of other claims/storylines from the last couple years he might want to add to a new edition -- i.e., a second edition wouldn't necessarily be an easy/simple task for Dr. Haney depending on his own time constraints. In any event if you want to write the original publisher encouraging them to do a new edition, feel free (in case it has  any influence). Their website, with a contact link, is here:

https://www.collectiveinkbooks.com/changemakers-books/

 The original volume was already almost 500 pages though, and there's a limit to how many pages the mass market will bear, so again, considerable editing would be crucial.  Unless or until Chuck Hunter produces an Ivory-bill volume, Haney's is the most comprehensive one we have, with prolific footnotes almost as vital as the main text.

[UPDATE:  just today (1/7) I heard from Dr. Haney that, lo-and-behold, a recent meeting with the publisher to discuss a new edition WAS in fact scheduled but missed due to weather/travel issues, and he's not sure when it will be re-scheduled (the individual travels internationally). So sounds like something is in the works, hooray!]

3)  Speaking of.... In the last month, Chuck Hunter has posted further occasional long Ivory-bill history posts on a couple of the IBWO Facebook accounts (from Dwight Norris and Fred Virrazzi). I won't link here (just trying to minimize historical material), but I do hope most of you catch his detailed, informative postings, which take care to indicate what is established 'fact' and what is more speculative or debatable in our Ivory-bill knowledge.

4)  About every other year I link once to Sufjan Stevens' haunting ballad to the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, and since I didn't link in 2024 may as well start this melancholy year off with it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-GDRP8eAtg

Enough for now.... (maybe another post before end of month, IF my head doesn't explode on Inauguration Day).

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