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Here is what James Tanner wrote about overhead looks of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers distinguishing them from Pileateds:
"The important field character is that the white on the wing is on the rear half. By comparison a Pileated is stocky with shorter wings, the tail is slightly forked, and the white is on the front half of the wing.
To summarize, the position of the white on the wing is by far the most reliable field character at all times."
Is that clear enough for anybody? The leading edge is NOT a good indicator (stop depending on paintings in field guides by people who never saw the bird in the wild); moreover, the primaries are highly variable from bird to bird, and people do not notice bills in rapid overhead flights when they're trying to focus on body features, and even if they did, bill color depends on light and shadows and movement, not to mention you primarily only see the lower mandible from below (I can imagine how many different answers I'd get for the color of a Great Blue Heron's bill from observers viewing from below).
Again, I stand by what I've stated previously: IF John Agnew's sketch is reasonably accurate of what he saw (and by that I principally mean the depiction of the white secondaries) there is little realistic option but that it be an Ivory-billed Woodpecker; if the sketch is inaccurate than we cannot know what he saw without knowing the specific inaccuracies.
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John Agnew turns in a loose description, sketch, and report of an Ivorybill sighting and already gets savaged for its imperfections in some internet quarters. If a field sketch and/or notes are too textbook, mind you (as in the David Kullivan case), they're accused of being falsely concocted. If they are rough (from a fleeting sighting) with possible errors they are too poor and shouldn't even be reported, say some. Don't report good sightings, they're not believable; don't report weak sightings, they're not worth it... Deja vu, for 60 years. Some of the statements seen around the Web critiquing John's report border on nonsensical, while masquerading as "science."
Yet NOT a single critiquing individual suggests what the bird sketched by John would be if not an Ivory-bill.... because there is NO reasonable alternative. I have no idea how accurate John's sketch is of what he saw, but, IF accurate, there is no other North American bird candidate the drawing could likely represent except an Ivory-billed Woodpecker (...so of course skeptics presume, in their perverse reverse thinking, it simply can't be accurate).
While skeptics accuse searchers of acting on anticipation, expectation, and wishful thinking, amazingly it is many skeptics at this point who have handcuffed themselves to a single viewpoint, locked into rigid expectations and preconceptions, long ago abandoning any real objectivity... and calling the kettle black.
When Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler radically argued that the world was heliocentric (Earth going around the sun), Ptolemy and his followers simply produced increasingly complex models of epicycles upon epicycles and spheres upon spheres to show that any new data could be accounted for in a geocentric model (Earth as center of universe) --- there was always a possible counter-explanation to heliocentrism. Some modern-day skeptics' roots go back a long way.
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Dr. Greg Lewbart and wife, part of last season's Choctawhatchee search team, were interviewed on an NPR station today, available here:
http://wunc.org/tsot/archive/sot0312a08.mp3/view
Elsewhere on the Web:
Artist John Agnew, who had the Florida Ivory-bill sighting reported previously, has a website for his general artwork here (some nice stuff):
http://www.angelfire.com/id/wildscenes/
The California Great Horned Owl nest on webcam has hatched out at least one baby by now, though Mom is usually covering the helpless nestling from sight:
http://www.cs.csubak.edu/owlcam/camera.php
And here, some good news (maybe), and some bad news.
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Finally, an update (reporting to the end of Feb.) from Cornell's Mobile Team covering time spent in the Pearl River region (Louisiana) followed by week or more around the Pascagoula (Mississippi), one of the favored spots from last season. They are apparently now in southern Florida (unless they've already left to travel further north) and possibly areas that didn't get much coverage last season (no Ivorybill encounters reported thus far):
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/ivory/current0607/0708TravelLogs/MSTlog/document_view
Feel the need to address one other issue lest it be confusing to others out there. The John Agnew sighting linked to yesterday includes a sketch of the underwing of the bird he saw, which some, elsewhere on the Web, are erroneously claiming is a WRONG sketch for an Ivory-bill. There may or may not be problems with John's report, but the sketch is reasonably dead-on! This matter has been discussed at length before; the underwing as perceived in the field will not necessarily (or even usually) match the depictions done in field guides which are based upon museum specimens in the hand; in short, the white along the leading underwing edge (prominently depicted in field guides) doesn't necessarily appear to a typical observer. Professional artist Julie Zickefoose (among several) explained it over two years ago on my blog as follows in reference to a famous Arthur Allen photo of the IBWO:
"Here's what's happening in that photo, and in life:
The famous (and only good) Arthur Allen photo of the flying ivory-bill was taken from beneath, with bright overhead lighting. As such, the white secondaries and inner primaries are illuminated and clearly read as white. The white lining of the underwing, which includes the underwing coverts and feathering along the ventral surface of the patagium, does not appear white in this photo because it is in shadow, and the light is not shining through it. If you look at any photo of a flying bird, taken from below and brightly lit from above, light is able to pass only through the flight feathers along the trailing edge of the wing, since there's only one layer of feathers there. Light really can't pass through a patagium, since it's heavily feathered, and there's skin and bone to further block that light. So, confusingly, this "wing lining" appears dark in the photo. But rest assured that Roger Peterson and other careful bird painters did get it right. And field guide plates emphasize local color rather than artifacts of light, because their mission is to show what color the bird actually is, rather than the color it may appear to be."
How many white primaries an observer might be expected to see in a flapping Ivorybill overhead is also difficult to know, given that, by far, most of the white is confined to secondaries in the underwing. And one thing is for sure, Agnew's sketch, as drawn, certainly couldn't have depicted a Pileated Woodpecker, but yes, it does fairly match an Ivory-bill.
As I've said before, with so many liars or fools apparently out there (in the skeptics' assessment), it's a wonder any data from Christmas or spring bird counts is ever taken seriously given its wholly unrigorous nature. Show me a report of 20 Starlings on a Christmas count and I'll give you a dozen different ways that report might be false or mistaken (yet with no verification whatsoever, most of us will accept the report no questions asked... because birding ain't rocket science and never will be).
To end on a lighter note, Martin Collinson, has produced one fine hat for birding (spiffy!!) at his site. If he can just have it done in green camo maybe it could become requisite attire for swamp searchers everywhere... or... maybe not.
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New update from Auburn's Dr. Hill here, reporting further possible auditory and brief sight encounters of Ivorybills in January (including possible double sighting on Jan. 12 --- observer's description of one of those 2 sightings is further linked to here). Nothing new that will excite cynics, nor any photos attained, but enough to maintain high interest in the Florida panhandle site.
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...made ya look...
okay, this large, black-and-white critter captured on film is NOT avian, but rather a rare wolverine, photographed by remote research camera in California, where many thought the species was extirpated (last documented sighting going back to the 1920s). hmmmm.... has a familiar ring to it. The story here:
http://oregonstate.edu/dept/ncs/newsarch/2008/Mar08/wolverine.html
And, speaking of birds, here a story on "Beck's Petrel" being rediscovered after an 80-year absence:
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/03/07/europe/EU-BRITAIN-SCI-Britain-Lost-Bird.php
Meanwhile, Bill Pulliam on his blog (which touches on Ivorybill subject matter on occasion), takes issue with one of Mike Collins' claims from last year here:
http://bbill.blogspot.com/2008/03/some-old-news.html
.... a happy birthday to Mike, by the way, who turned 50 today, or as I'm sure he'd rather not think of it, a half-century-old as of Friday.
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Elsewhere on the Web:
I've never actually been a huge fan of John James Audubon's paintings (although I certainly recognize their historical value), but for the many who are, his complete bird paintings have now been posted online by the University of Pittsburg here:
http://digital.library.pitt.edu/a/audubon/
Probably, my personal favorite from his work is his lively rendition of a certain fascinating extinct southern species (no, NOT the Ivorybill).
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Latest Cornell Arkansas search team update is now posted here (though ends as of Feb 14, almost 3 weeks ago):
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/ivory/current0607/0708TravelLogs/ARlog0708/document_view
Reminiscent of some of the Mobile Team posts, it's a bit long on dietary information and a tad short of anything much Ivorybill-wise! Also, oddly neglects to summarize in any way the prior helicopter searches, which barely get a mention, though played up earlier on.
I suspect this means a Mobile Team update will follow shortly as well. The Mobile Team has apparently backtracked to the west from their last posted Alabama location, as one might've expected. They would appear to have a lot of ground to cover in the next couple months.
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First, a quick note re: the Great Horned Owl webcam in California I linked to awhile back. Mama Owl has been diligently sitting on 3 eggs for several weeks and the first baby ought to hatch out any day now, so you may enjoy monitoring the festivities and childrearing as they unfold here:
http://www.cs.csubak.edu/owlcam/camera.php
Been over a month since Cornell's last updates, and approaching two months since an Auburn update. In the past, some have hoped that such time lapses might imply SOMEthing significant happening, but I've heard nothing positive coming from Arkansas quarters, and usually such previous silences merely reflected a lack of anything worth reporting. Would be nice to know exactly WHERE Cornell's Mobile Team unit is at this point, though.
Anyway, lack of news gives me more time to clutter up the left-hand margin of the blog with more schtuff. So I've added a very short blogroll of the following bird/nature blogs which I check in on semi-regularly (and BTW, most of these DON'T share my opinion on the IBWO):
http://birdstuff.blogspot.com
John Trapp's blog remains a favorite of mine for it's quirky, unpredictable subject matter and style. Not the standard sort of bird blog, so won't be everyone's cup-of-tea, but then that's what I like about it. Also contains a useful, extensive blogroll of other bird sites.
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http://www.birddigiscoping.com/blog.html
"Mike's Birding and Digiscoping Blog," another of my favorites and widely-read around the Web; hardly needs mention here. It's title however may scare off some who have no interest in digiscoping, so worth noting that Mike covers a lot more than optics and photography at his site, though many especially seek his advice in those areas. His digiscoped pictures are always a delight, but my own favorite posts are his thoughtful word essays on birds and our relationship to them. Enjoy...
................................................................
http://thedrinkingbird.blogspot.com
A relatively new, and somewhat oddly-titled blog; focuses a lot on North Carolina birding, somewhat limiting its audience (but does touch on other subjects), and the writing is consistently excellent and witty. Worth a read, just for the wordsmithing (as well as good info available), if you've never stopped by before.
...............................................................
http://proregulus.blogspot.com
If you love British humor (and don't all Americans!?) British scientist/birder Martin Collinson gives you a serving of it every week on his blog. As a British site, his precise subjects may not always be of interest to American readers, but his style will usually plant a smile on your face.
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http://pinesabovesnow.blogspot.com
Not a bird blog, but writer Julie Dunlap's "pinesabovesnow" blog (the title being a phrase from Aldo Leopold) focuses on good nature writing to recommend to its readers. Something I for one can't get too much of.
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http://www.bornagainbirdwatcher.com/
Have just added John Riutta's 'Born Again Bird Watcher' blog to the mix. Why not! Again, a blog that hits upon slightly different topics from the more standard bird-news blogs.
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And then below the brief blogroll I've also listed a few commercial sites on the Web, of possible interest to readers.
hmmmm... maybe next I'll add a daily Sudoku puzzle. . . .
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While biding time, just another book recommendation.... Many know by now that despite spending most of adulthood in the biological sciences, my real bias runs towards the physical sciences. I'm especially fond of writers, few and far between, who are able to clearly communicate both the complexity and underlying basics of science to the layman. No one does this any better, nor in a more pithy yet engaging manner, than award-winning writer K.C. Cole. Her 2003 volume (which I only recently came upon) "Mind Over Matter: Conversations With the Cosmos" is a wonderful compendium of 90+ simple but trenchant essays on scientific matters.
Is the "Ivory-billed Woodpecker" anywhere to be found in this volume... no... but there are points and passages having to do with common sense, observation, complexity, certainty, interpretation, and default judgments, as they pertain to cosmology, particle physics, astronomy, quantum theory, and the like, which do in fact relate to controversies swirling around the swampland's most iconic bird... or so it seems to me.
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Soon we'll be entering the last couple months of this potentially final extensive search season for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. What a ride it's been; full of sound and fury, a cast of characters to fill a novel, books, websites galore, and at least 3 independent films... and, as Yogi B. would say, "it's not over, 'til it's over." Three possible outcomes come easily to mind:
1. Definitive documentation is obtained this season insuring further field work on behalf of the species.
2. Better, but still not conclusive, documentation is obtained (either in the form of multiple, more complete/credible sighting reports, or improved, yet still not definitive, photographic evidence), inflaming even further the division over how or if to proceed... NOT a wind-up to be wished-for, but can't be completely ruled out.
3. No better evidence for the Ivorybill's existence is found this season than already stands from past searches, drying up interest and funding in most quarters for continuance of the effort (except on a small scale, or by independent searchers, and the IBWO Foundation which is committed to the search). Even worse, many skeptics will take perceived failure to document the species in the 2005-8 period as confirmation that the species went extinct in the 1940s; a leap impossible, if not outright foolish, to make.
Time is getting short, and there may be no new ideas to be tried. As always, March - April are potentially two of the best months for Ivorybill searching. Moreover, IBWO reports of the past have most often popped up unexpectedly, out-of-the-blue --- the photo documentation now demanded could likewise come at any moment, from a human or from a 25-day-old automatic camera snapshot revealing a bird never seen by ground searchers, and now long gone from the area... or... it may simply never happen, and that must be recognized.
Just a couple of points I'd reiterate:
1. MOST of the concentrated effort looking for Ivorybills the last few years has been in Arkansas' Big Woods and Florida's Choctawhatchee region, two areas that historically, hardly registered as locales to look for IBWOs. More recently South Carolina's Congaree and Texas' Big Thicket, regions with much greater past IBWO gossip, have been focused on. But other areas of historical significance may still not have received the attention they need (though Cornell's Mobile Team and other independents are checking most of them out --- again I'd be thinking in terms of central and south Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi).
In short, negative results from Big Woods and Choctawhatchee, two areas not of great interest 5-6 years ago, threaten to curtail interest in other areas, not to mention casting an even greater cynical pall on future sightings turned in and meeting with knee-jerk ridicule.
2. I forfeited most hope some time ago that the Ivorybill could be saved even if found. The search for the IBWO is for me a largely scientific endeavor now to prove once-and-for-all how easily a large bird can evade detection (as defined by conclusive photographic documentation) for 60 years; to demonstrate that scientific hubris, and non-empirical, conjecture-slathered hubris alone, is what has backed the notion of IBWO extinction.
(Not to be mis-understood here, I'm all for making efforts to save the species, even if they are doomed in the long run, just as I'm all for efforts to save C. Condors and Whooping Cranes, or Blackburnian Warblers for that matter, all of which, given enough time, are no doubt doomed, despite temporary upticks in their populations). We treat human beings when they are sick even though we know eventually they will die; species can be treated with that same consideration, despite the demise they ultimately face.
3. Finally, some folks (or, in the case of Cornell, institutions), claiming sightings, have put future reputations and credibility on the line for this bird, even more-so than those of us who argue persistently from a keyboard on its behalf. For them especially, a definitive conclusion to this saga (which of course means documenting the bird!), is needed lest they be sequestered to a limbo-land of doubt well into the future.
In short, even with a negative outcome in the next 2-3 months (and I still have significant hope for this season), there are reasons not to abandon the effort altogether, though the chorus for pulling the plug on public funding will swell. And "believers" must be realistic about the widespread perceptions at this late date, if no documentation is forthcoming.
Harking back to a blog post from over a week ago, it is probably better to keep expectations low, and be happily surprised by a positive outcome, than to hold expectations very high and then have to slink from them come May. Plenty of possibility remains, but time and patience run thin. What would appear to be needed at this late point in the game is not so much skill, or technology, or planning, or foresight, but plain, old-fashioned... luck!
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One of the technological side benefits to come out of the organized search for Ivorybills has been the deployment of the computerized ACONE camera system to the search in Bayou de View --- to capture automatically on film, over a relatively wide field-of-view, birds meeting specific size and profile parameters that fly into view. I've been impressed with the capabilities and results achieved with this robotic system. Other automatic camera systems (whether time-lapse or motion-activated) have various potential problems associated with them that this system bypasses. And there are always potential flaws with ground searches, helicopter searches, stakeouts, and the like. The ACONE system, pointed at a likely flyway for a long enough period of time, would seem one of the soundest (and most efficient) techniques employed in this entire effort.
But of course the bird must still fly in front of the camera, and it is discouraging indeed (specifically for the Arkansas search) that in close to a year-and-a-half of application the ACONE system, directed at what seems like just such a logical flight path for the bird, has failed to capture an Ivorybill on film. I find this possibly more dismaying than the scarcity of results from all the other efforts of on-site people combined, which I think easier to explain away. Possibly, it is a system that can remain in place in selected locales for a period of time even in the event that at some point ground searches are suspended (depending on funding). Whatever the final outcome of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker search itself, the honing of the ACONE system is to my mind one of the very positive by-products of this whole endeavor. It is a tool likely to have future uses in contexts which are not even foreseeable as yet.
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Unencouraging update on the South Carolina Congaree search here:
http://www.thestate.com/living/story/323078.html
(again, I've never been overly hopeful of finding the species in S.C., but a lot of folks have been --- the official search there continues 'til May, and there are independent searchers as well).
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Nothing much new Ivorybill-wise to report. By now I expect that helicopter searches of Arkansas' Big Woods are concluded, with little of significance to pass along (just my surmise). Nor anything recent from Cornell's Mobile Search team (...but they usually post right after I say there's nothing new from them :-)
From notes I've read or received, the Texas Partners In Flight meeting demonstrated further support to complete ongoing search efforts for the IBWO. Despite some skeptics' implications that no reputable birders/scientists remain who believe in the species' existence, actually several acknowledge that likelihood, and far more remain in the agnostic camp of it yet being an unsettled question.
I'll sign off with another quote from Jonathan Rosen's work:
"The urge to kill and the urge to conserve live side by side, they are our heritage, and the ivory-bill somehow carries our double burden on its black-and-white back. But so does birdwatching itself. My forays into Central Park are, as much as my trip to a Louisiana swamp to look for a possibly vanished bird, part of a larger journey the country itself has been making since its earliest days with increasing urgency. All this no doubt sounds grandiose, but then, birding isn't trainspotting."
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"Birds have always been emblems that shuttled between the natural world and the man-made world, between science and poetry, between earth and sky. But the ivory-bill is even more of an in-between figure --- flying between the world of the living and the world of the dead, between the American wilderness and the modern wasteland, between faith and doubt, survival and extinction. No wonder the bird has taken on a sort of mystical character."
-- Jonathan Rosen from "The Life of the Skies"
I've sometimes proposed that happiness in life is a matter of expectations: if you hold your expectations high you will be thwarted, disappointed, and frustrated along the way, but if you simply keep expectations low, then joy will follow when things turn out much better-than-you-expected!!!
So it was with some trepidation this weekend that I snapped up a copy of Jonathan Rosen's new homage to birding, "The Life of the Skies," because, having touted it for months on the Web, sight unseen (but based on his previous essays), I was afraid it might not live up to my expectations.
What a relief!!... It is (for me) as expected --- the richest overview of birding I've seen --- not the science, nor sport, nor even art or history of birding, but richest (I would almost say, delicious) overview of the sheer spirit and joy of birding (and more)!
Early on in the volume, Rosen notes something obvious, that I hadn't really thought much about before: birds are almost the ONLY wild animals most people encounter anymore on a regular basis throughout their lives; we have so exterminated, or removed from our environs, all the others; and of course birds themselves are declining rapidly as well. They are in some sense our single remaining thread to a world long gone. It is a sad thought, and the lingering thought that I think cloaks the entire remainder of the book with poignancy.
Way, way back when Annie Dillard's "Pilgrim At Tinker Creek" came out, Publishers Weekly wrote, "This book of wonder is one of the truly beautiful books of this or any other season... which, on any page, offers a passage one can scarcely wait to share with a friend. It is a triumph." ...Pretty much ditto for Rosen's newest volume.
Moreover, though I knew Rosen had looked for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker at Pearl River several years back, one pleasant surprise was discovering what a prominent role the IBWO would play throughout his current work, at beginning, end, and popping up repeatedly in-between, even when not the topic of focus.
The book is liberally sprinkled with interesting historical facts, stories, lyrical writing, and unpredictable jumps from subject to subject (if you're looking for a straightforward scientific history of American birding, this is not the book for you). A wide-range of figures appear with wonderful narrative (Audubon, Thoreau, Whitman, Burroughs, Theo. Roosevelt, Alfred Russel Wallace, Robert Frost, E.O. Wilson...); even Jewish mysticism arises recurringly out of the prose. Indeed, while many people don't grasp what I mean (in the left-hand blog column) when I talk of woven interests in "birds, science, and mysticism," Rosen clearly does (and there may be more religious-tinged talk here than will suit some readers' tastes.)
One of the most entertaining chapters (out of many) is chapter 10 where the author essentially addresses the age-old question of, can you be a birder and still be manly (my phrasing, not his, and I won't give the answer here). But everyone will have their own favorite chapters (it's hard to choose). There are pages or passages, as in any 300-page volume, that don't seem to carry their weight as well, but I admire Rosen for even daring to cover such eclectic, wide-ranging ground (there is history, poetry, science, theology, meditation, humor, stream-of-consciousness, and oh yeah, birds, here). I would've enjoyed reading more about modern birding, about Roger Tory Peterson and even Pete Dunne, and many of the current activities of birding, but hey, you can't have it all, and that just doesn't appear to be the goal here (although the book does conclude BTW, just as the original Choctawhatchee IBWO announcement is about to be made).
There are probably a couple dozen lines and passages I'd love to share with you here, but better yet, go get your own copy and select your own passages. No guarantees (readers' tastes vary widely I know), but for my money this is the best bird-related volume I've read in a very long time, and certainly the most unconventional bird book I've seen for awhile. So if you're a bird or nature lover, I recommend buying this book. But maybe more importantly, IF you're NOT a bird or nature lover (but enjoy good writing)... BUY this book (...and become one).
And bravo Mr. Rosen for not disappointing.... (now I need to go read it a second time, for all that I missed on the first go-around).
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[ One itsy-bitsy technical note: When David Kulivan reported Ivorybills at Pearl River in 1999, the various news stories and books that followed, alternatively spelled his name "Kulivan" and "Kullivan" --- unbelievably, this continued for years back and forth (last year's USF&W Draft Recovery Report has the one "l" spelling). At some point long ago I settled on the "Kulivan" spelling because it seemed the more prevalent from the most authoritative sources. Rosen however, who met Kulivan early-on, consistently uses the "Kullivan" spelling, so henceforth I will use that variation in the future (....unless someone gives me good reason to do otherwise). ]
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Another off-topic post today. Recently, at her blog, Julie Zickefoose wrote about how joining the newly-created "NatureBlogNetwork" affected her blogging. The post has evoked a lot of comments and struck a chord with many of us who joined that Network. Rather than eat up more of her space on the topic I'll venture some additional thoughts/rambles here:
In some ways running a blog is a very UNselfish labor of love --- putting out some bit of verbiage day-after-day for a sometimes tiny audience, for no or very little compensation. But, in other ways, I've always viewed blogging as a huge self-indulgence. I'm reluctant to indulge in some of the further contrivances of blogging like carnivals and memes and groups (though I don't find any fault with those who do), but when the NatureBlogNetwork came along it seemed like a really worthy endeavor to help connect individuals, increasingly plopped in front of computer screens, back to nature. (The majority of the 'biggies' on the NatureBlogNetwork are part of the "ScienceBlogs" network, BTW; the rest of us are the also-rans.)
Though I am a birder, I've never thought of "Ivorybills LiVE!" as a 'birding' blog --- my subject is way too narrow and limited (it was originally promoted as "All Ivorybills, all the time," before I let it touch upon other topics). But even with that narrowness, I don't mind thinking of it as a 'nature' blog, because at heart, it really is about Man's relationship to nature as depicted through an iconic bird. I once commented to an acquaintance who runs a general science blog that I could never do what he does because the sheer volume of interesting science stories out there everyday would stymie me --- I'd reach the end of the day still undecided which stories to use! I'm more comfortable with a 'niche' topic that I can delve into deeply, persistently --- and more comfortable spending all day groveling, looking for something pertinent enough to use for that topic!
Some authors have written that blogs, and the Internet more generally, represent the 'dumbing down' of America ('Cliff notes' for the masses more-or-less) --- a generation coming up that will get all (or most) of its news, information, entertainment off a computer screen. There are dangers; it is a bit scary. But these great technological advances have a way of working themselves out for the best over the long haul --- evolution as applied to society and culture. When I first heard of Wikipedia I thought it was the stupidest idea I could imagine, but came to slowly realize it's benefits, and that it will get better and better over time; for all its perils it will evolve and become essential. 'Open source' is THE wave of the future, the wave of our grandchildren, and any who struggle against it are tilting at windmills. We need to monitor its progress, but also get out of its way. When every child in every nation has open internet access, the entire playing field will be leveled as never before in human history... there will be glitches and problems, but the best humanity has to offer will bubble to the surface given enough time. A few folks out there have the prescient vision to see it, and work for it; most of us just hope it is true.
Attending a science blogging conference last month, I knew I was one of the very least tech-savvy people there, but what didn't even occur to me 'til I left the building was that I was also one of the oldest people there... by far. Being surrounded by that youthful enthusiasm, energy, and idealism was infectious and heartening, a respite from my usual profound pessimism over the state of the world and my own country... a comforting flashback, in a sense, to the spirit of the 60's. Blogs are part of that future, that idealism.
Over on Julie's site, Mike Bergin, founder of the NatureBlogNetwork, wrote that he hopes his Network will introduce the "right blogs to the right people" reaching "more like-minded readers." And then he adds, "After that, we take over the world!" ....May it be so ;-)
(....and thank you Julie Z. and your wonderful commenters for inspiring this post)
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"Humminbird" over at an Ivory-bill thread on BirdForum reports that there is a "half day session" on the IBWO search during Saturday's "International Partners in Flight conference in McAllen, Texas," including "papers by Hill and some of the Cornell team." Probably nothing too new, but possibly some updates on the Texas search in particular.
--- Actually, I've found the program now and here is the description for the above session:
"There are continuing questions from people about the progress of the search, related
research, funding, and the status of pledged recovery efforts of the Ivory-billed
Woodpecker. This session would give us an opportunity to provide information to
interested participants from a wide geographic area. A 30- minute discussion at the
end will address “Where do we go from here?""
General website for the conference is here: http://www.partnersinflight.org/events/mcallen/program.htm
[ p.s. - if you're not already familiar with Partners In Flight, they're a conservation group definitely worth checking out. ]
ADDENDUM: a reader (thanks) points out to me a page of abstracts for all the talks/posters at the conference here:
http://www.partnersinflight.org/events/mcallen/PIF_McAllen_2008_Abstracts.pdf
VERY large pdf, with huge number and array of abstract topics; in a quick scan I noticed about 5 pertaining to the search for IBWO, so if you're lacking for reading material this weekend....
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