-- For What It's Worth... --

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A massive new genus of palm tree is found hiding in plain sight in Madagascar (perhaps for 80 million years):

here and here.

.......................................................

Elsewhere on the Web:

Yet another sad, inexplicable Bald Eagle story here:

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20080116/NEWS/801160583/1418/RSS03

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-- "Stalking the Ghost Bird" --

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Michael K. Steinberg's (now of the Univ. of Alabama) volume "Stalking the Ghost Bird," about the historical search for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker in Louisiana, is now available for pre-order (March release).

...............................................................

Elsewhere on the Web:

here some footage all of us who feed squirrels, er uhhh, birds, can relate to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWU0bfo-bSY

and tragic, odd, gory story of Alaskan eagle deaths here:

http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/262449.html

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-- Cornell Posts --

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Cornell has a new page at their site for following their current search season here.
I've placed a link to their Arkansas Search Log in left-hand margin links.

And Bobby Harrison's Ivory-billed Woodpecker Foundation has begun its own blog here.

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-- Arkansas Interview --

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Here a public broadcasting report/interview on the Ivory-bill search in Arkansas; includes Alan Mueller mentioning his sighting from last year and some new strategy for this season. Worth a listen (~10 mins.)
[Thanks to Ross Everett over at IBWO Researchers Forum for passing this along.]

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-- Auburn Update --

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Latest update from Auburn's Dr. Hill here on the Choctawhatchee search, officially renewed now in a leaner, scaled-back form.

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-- Mobile Team Update --

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Cornell's Mobile Team has posted an update recounting their December movements:

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/ivory/current0607/0708TravelLogs/MSTlog/document_view

Some nice pics along the way, but nothing new IBWO-wise. I assume by now they've moved on from Louisiana's Atchafalaya, but not totally clear from the post.

Otherwise, things pretty quiet from the official searches.

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-- 'nother Mississippi Searcher --

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Article on another Mississippian looking for the Ivory-bill here.

Thus far the search has taken him "through Morgan's Brake, Tallahatchie County, Dahomey, Malmaison, Delta National Park, Panther Swamp, Anderson Tully, Mahannah and St. Catherine Creek." While "down the road, he plans to branch out through the Desoto National Forest, the Pascagoula River and the Bogue Chitto River." Cornell's Mobile Search Team should be in Mississippi this month as well.

................................................................

From the Web Grab Bag:

Author Michael Pollan has a fresh new book out: "In Defense of Food" --- looks to be excellent, especially for anyone who has enjoyed his prior writings. And biologist David Wilcove is out with "No Way Home" on the disappearance of migratory animals.
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-- John Arvin on the Search --

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John Arvin speaks about the IBWO search in Texas here.

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-- hmmmm... --

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Just noticed that the ACONE (remote computerized camera system) folks in Arkansas have posted an additional pic from back in March 2007 up at their site, here:

http://www.c-o-n-e.org/acone/controversy.htm

Before you get too excited be sure to read the accompanying comments below photo.
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-- A Holiday Reading --

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In this season of miracles, in a time of conflict between science and religion, and debate over the state of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers, just a reading today from astronomer/physicist Chet Raymo, one of my favorite science/nature writers, focused on the Red Knot (a well known western hemisphere shorebird) --- appropriately enough from his 1998 volume entitled "Skeptics and True Believers," another book I recommend to all (passage highly edited for brevity's sake):

"...Now here is the astonishing thing... The young red knots, by the thousands and without adult guides or prior experience, find their way along the ancient migration route. From northern Canada to New England's Atlantic shore, across the Atlantic Ocean to Guyana and Suriname, then down along the eastern coast of South America, arriving precisely at those feeding grounds along the way where they are sure to find food. At last they join their parents and others of their species on the beaches of Tierra del Fuego for the southern summer.
"How do they do it? How do the young birds make their way along a route they have never traveled to, a destination they have never seen? How do they unerringly navigate the long stretch of their journey over featureless sea? We know exactly what the red knots accomplish --- where they go, when they arrive... But how the uninstructed young birds accomplish their epic feat of navigation remains mysterious...

"This much is certain: A map for the journey and the instrumental knowledge to follow it are part of the red knot's genetic inheritance. Each bird begins life as a single fertilized cell. Already, that microscopic cell contains the biological equivalent of a set of charts, a compass, a sextant, and maybe even something akin to a satellite navigation system...
"How can a map of the globe and the skill to follow it be contained within a cell too small to be seen with the naked eye? Medieval theologians are said to have debated how many angels can dance on the head of a pin; in the flight of the red knot we are engaged with a mystery more immediately present but no less marvelous...

"In the case of animal navigation, the answer to our question turns out to be quite incredible. The urge to make the red knot's planet-spanning flight, the map of the journey, and the skills to follow it, are written into a DNA molecule in a language of stunning simplicity... The red knot's map and navigational manual are written in a chemical language of only four letters!

"In each cell of the red knot's body, there are identical strands of DNA, about an arm's length in all, a blueprint for making a small russet bird with an urge to fly and the skills to make a 9,000-mile unpracticed journey. Can it be possible?... Believe it or not, several sets of the Encyclopedia Brittanica could be transcribed into the red knot's genes!...

"For some years I have been on the Board of Overseers of Boston's Museum of Science. On my visits to the museum, I always make my way to the ten-foot-high model of a segment of DNA. To my mind it is the most extraordinary exhibit in the museum... I stand in front of this partial strand, gape-jawed at the beauty, at the simplicity --- a simplicity out of which emerges the astonishing diversity and awesome complexity of life. What I feel as I stand before the model cannot be adequately put into words. Call it reverence, awe, praise --- in short, the full range of religious feeling.
"Nothing I learned during my religious training is more wondrous to me than the flight of the juvenile red knot... Such real-world mysteries inspire my awe far more than the so-called miracle on display in the cathedral of Turin. In the red knot's story we catch a glimpse of a God who never lifts his hand from his work, and who leads everything to the purpose for which it was ordained. As the British writer and cartographer Tim Robinson observed: Miracles are explainable; it is the explanations that are miraculous."

--- Every waking moment, of every day, I would argue, we all witness things (which we blissfully take for granted) that are far more miraculous than the continued existence of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers could ever be argued to be. Such is life... In this season of joy and wonder may we all come to recognize some of those daily miracles continually before us, which dwarf the debate over the Ivory-bill, the outcome of which is yet to be known, no matter who or how many, prematurely consider it settled.

A Merry Christmas to all, and best wishes for a 2008 full of surprises... and awe.
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-- Chit-chat --

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Some IBWO chatter over on BirdChat this week here, as well as a brief thread on Rich Guthrie's earlier (April) Ivorybill sighting in Arkansas this year can be found here, (little over half-way down).

.............................................................

Elsewhere on the Web:

A list of year-end science book recommendations from John Brockman here:

http://www.edge.org/documents/books07_index.html

ADDENDUM: Museum specimens of Ivorybills here:

http://bryanholliday.blogspot.com/2007/12/ivory-billed-woodpeckers.html
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-- Mobile Team Travel Log --

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Cornell's new Mobile Search Team's travel log has been posted on the Cornell site, actually going back to their start in November:

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/ivory/current0607/0708TravelLogs/MSTlog/document_view

A bit surprised to see they headed over to the Tyler, Texas area to start things off before heading to Louisiana's Atchafalaya region where, in another slight surprise, they say they will spend a month's worth of time.
I'll change my Mobile Team blog link in left-hand margin to the current travel log (from last year's log).
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-- Cornell Team --

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Cornell's team for the 2007-8 IBWO search effort, including their new Mobile Search Team, listed here:

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/ivory/current0607/0708searchteam/#mst

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-- "Dear Virginia" --

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S'pose it's time to repeat another post from a previous December (hmmm... could it become a Christmas tradition):

In the spirit of the season just quoting a few lines from the famous letter written by a newspaper editor in 1897 to a young girl who's 'little friends' informed her there was no Santa Claus:

"Dear Virginia:

Your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except what they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge..."

To all the searchers out there, don't let 'little minds' get ya down...
.........................................................

Elsewhere on the Web:

If you missed Bob Simon's wonderful "60 Minutes" feature (last Sunday) on conservation biologist's Bruce Beehler's work in the remote Foja Mountains of Indonesia (...or just want to watch it again), it's available via a video link from this page:

http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/60minutes/main3415.shtml

(click on Dec. 16 "Garden of Eden" story)

Another Foja video, somewhat prefatory to the "60 Minutes" piece, is here:

http://www.conservation.org/campaigns/Pages/foja_video.aspx

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-- Yaaaaawn --

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Not expecting much in the way of Ivorybill news through the holidays, so just another rerun piece from one year ago in which J. Jackson focuses on the Suwanee River region of north Florida (rated by the World Wildlife Fund as one of the "top 10 coolest places in North America") as potential Ivorybill habitat:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/12/061215-woodpecker.html
..............................................................................................

Elsewhere on the Web:

some "cyberbirding" resources listed here:

http://kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com/sports/stories/1375974342.html

a birdwatcher's guide to global warming here:

http://www.abcbirds.org/newsandreports/globalwarming/birdwatchersguide.pdf

Speaking of which, not sure where the statistics came from, but Martin Collinson, mentioned previously on his blog, that in Nov. 2006 Tom Nelson had 37 posts on IBWOs, generating 450 comments, but in Nov. 2007 the very same blog posted 247 entries, mostly on global warming, and generating only 12 comments. Would seem that the choir Tom once preached to has largely abandoned the pew!

yeah, I'm a sucker for Snowy Owls, so another nice shot of one here, as this irruptive season for them continues (although this particular shot is actually from 2 years ago):

http://www.birddigiscoping.com/2007/12/snowy-owls.html

Since I've been noting some books lately, might as well mention Jonathan Rosen's "The Life of the Skies," due out in February --- I've been mentioning it elsewhere around the Web, sight unseen. Just based on Rosen's past writings would expect it to be a wonderful read and tribute to American birding.

Finally, if you're looking for some great birding and traveling in the new year you can't do much better than Ventures Inc., headed by superb bird guide Simon Thompson (Tyler Hicks of IBWO fame is also on staff), based in western North Carolina, but leading tours all over the southeast and world. There is a south Florida outing at end of January and a Congaree Swamp trip in May, and more varied offerings in-between. Check them out here:

http://www.birdventures.com/home.htm

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-- Jackson On the Pearl 5 Years Ago --

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This is the first sentence of this particular post. And this is the second sentence. The fourth sentence will read as follows: "An old (2002) Jerry Jackson article on the Pearl River area here". An old (2002) Jerry Jackson article on the Pearl River area here. The sentence you're reading now precedes the next sentence. This sentence contains thirty-six letters. The prior sentence is true. The previous sentence has twenty-five letters. The previous sentence is true. That last sentence is false. All of which makes the previous sentence true. And the sentence following the last sentence is this sentence. All for today (I'm exhausted). That could've been the final sentence for this post, but it wasn't. Neither is this. This is.
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-- Collins Interview --

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Interview with Pearl River searcher Mike Collins here.

..................................................................

Elsewhere on the Web:

For those dreaming of a white owl:

http://www.rrstar.com/homepage/x1091756958

The Jim Stevenson saga continues:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ent/arts/gray/5370342.html

A book I'd not heard of previously, but looks interesting, and possibly a good Xmas gift for young ones interested in birds (as well as older ones) here and here. Good reviews on Amazon (who says it is currently out of stock).

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-- Secrecy... Not Likely --

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Not sure if it's because of my prior post or because of some discussion going on over at IBWO Researchers Forum, but a few emailers are asking if IBWOs have already been documented and for their protection, basically, it is being kept secret for now. Little chance of that!

Search agencies recognize how widespread skepticism has become and any conclusive documentation arising will likely be made publicly available as quickly as proper channels allow --- funding, public interest/support, reputations, and any possible salvation of the species, pretty much requires rapid disclosure. That doesn't mean precise locations and all other information would be released, but certainly conclusive photos or film would --- even the prior fear of 100's of clamoring birders traipsing into an area, in retrospect, now seems misplaced (the vast majority of birders lack the backwoods skills, gear/equipment, or even funding and time-off from work, to make extended sojourns to such areas --- still, it only takes a few unthinking or ill-intentioned individuals to ruin a situation for everyone else). So, though skeptics have had a 'chilling effect' on the widespread dissemination of less-than-definitive information, conclusive documentation, if obtained, will likely be released relatively quickly, after review by all pertinent agencies (and for those who have been asking, the Auburn 2007 Choctawhatchee summary will be out in due time, delayed only by certain vagaries of publication, not 'top-secret' findings).

Personally, I'd still look to the Gulf corridor stretching from Florida to Louisiana for the first possible IBWO documentation, but certainly others pin high hopes for an earlier find in Arkansas or South Carolina. An official North Carolina search will likely commence in January in the southeast region of that state for the first time, as well. A lot remains to be done, even with funding and interest fading. Possibly yet, an independent searcher will surprise me and accomplish what those with academic and government resources have thus far failed at, and get the first incontrovertible photo.

Maybe I should end with the final stipulation that though I trust folks I hear from, there's always that remote possibility that I'm misled and indeed something more definitive is going on behind the scenes, undisclosed (especially to bloggers ;-), that I'm unaware of --- but I'd be amaaazed... Put your hopes on the forthcoming season, and not on any extraordinary new disclosure from previous searches.

.............................................................................

From the Web Grab Bag a couple more stories on threatened birds:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071210214707.htm

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/11/041130203945.htm

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