-- Tanner Redux --

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While awaiting summary info from this season's searches, may be worth reviewing some old quotes from James Tanner's 1942 monograph on the species (all italics added):

"The chief difficulty of the study has been that of drawing conclusions from relatively few observations, necessary because of the extreme scarcity of the bird. My own observations of the birds have been entirely confined to a few individuals in one part of Louisiana... the conclusions drawn from them will not necessarily apply to the species as it once was nor to individuals living in other areas. The difficulty of finding the birds, even when their whereabouts was known, also limited the number of observations. Especially was this true in the non-breeding season. With these considerations in mind, one must draw conclusions carefully and with reservations."

"The dominance of cypress in the bird's [Florida] habitat is a condition not found outside of the Florida region. Another difference is that Ivory-bills in Florida frequently fed in the pine woods bordering the swamps, something that has never been recorded in the region of the Mississippi Delta and only rarely elsewhere."

"There is no one type of forest that is the habitat of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker; it varies greatly in different sections of the bird's range."

"Hunting for localities where Ivory-bills were, and in those localities trying to find the birds, was like searching for an animated needle in a haystack."

"Winter and early spring are the only good seasons for investigating Ivory-bill habitats. Leaves are then off the trees, allowing good visibility and hearing, the birds are quite active and noisy, and the cooler weather makes work in the woods pleasant. Work in the summer is practically a waste of time because of the dense vegetation, silent birds, and depressing heat."

"Ivory-bill sign shows as bare places on recently dead limbs and trees, where the bark has been scaled off clean for a considerable extent. Pileateds do some scaling too, but it is usually confined to smaller limbs and to those longer dead. Freshness of sign can be judged by any appearance of weathering, which will soon turn bare wood a grayish color. Extensive scaling of the bark from a tree which has died so recently that the bark is still tight, with a brownish or reddish color to the exposed wood showing that the work is fresh, is one good indication of the presence of Ivory-bills."

"All the Ivory-bills that I have ever seen I located first by hearing them call and then going to them."

"Considering the maximum abundance of the Ivory-bill to have been one pair per six square miles, of the Pileated to be six pairs per one square mile, and of the Red-bellied to be twenty-one pairs per one square mile, the relative abundance of these birds would be one Ivory-bill to thirty-six Pileated to 126 Red-bellied Woodpeckers."

"Considering all the evidence, I believe that Ivory-bills were not sedentary birds, but sometimes wandered considerable distances....
Furthermore, the Ivory-bill is well adapted to traveling for long distances. It is a strong flier with a fast flight for a woodpecker, and individuals have been observed feeding over several square miles."

"The Ivory-bill's habit of feeding and living almost its whole life in and near the tops of trees makes it very unlikely that any mammal could prey on one."

"The flight of the Ivory-bill... is strong and usually direct, with steady wing-beats. They can take flight quickly either from a perch or from a hole, springing into the air with very little descent before getting up to speed. They often fly above the tree tops, dodging the trees with very little deviation from their course. In the thick woods it is ordinarily difficult to tell how far the Ivory-bills fly, but I am quite sure that their flight is often extended for half a mile or more... They end their flights with a quick upward swoop and a few braking wing-beats, usually landing on a vertical tree trunk or slightly inclined limb."

"The wing-feathers of Ivory-bills are stiff and hard, thus making their flight noisy. In the initial flight, when the wings are beaten particularly hard, they make quite a loud, wooden, fluttering sound, so much so that I often nicknamed the birds 'wooden-wings'; it is the loudest wing-sound I have ever heard from any bird of that size excepting the grouse. At times when the birds happened to swoop past me, I heard a pronounced swishing whistle."

"The notes of the nuthatches are the only bird calls I know that sound like the voice of an Ivory-bill; the Ivory-bill's calls are much longer and pitched higher than the calls of a White-breasted Nuthatch, are more in the range of a Red-breasted Nuthatch."

"Ivory-bills are not social or gregarious birds; they have apparently always lived in solitary pairs, and as long as the birds can mate, they are capable of reproduction and increase. With small numbers, inbreeding could occur, but there is no evidence that this would be harmful. Large numbers are not necessary for the continued existence of the Ivory-bill. Even though it would be better and more promising if the birds were more abundant, still they are not, and if we are to make any attempt to save the species, we must be satisfied in starting with a few individuals."

--- May it be so. . . .
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-- Cornell Summary Upcoming --

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At their website, Cornell is promising to "soon" post a summary of the past search season (...of course in the Ivory-bill arena the word "soon" often seems to be used in a way sharply different from common parlance ;-). I assume this will be a preliminary summary, primarily involving info from the Arkansas teams regarding that state and various stops in Tenn., MS., Fla. Any info from other searches in S.C., Texas, Choctawhatchee, LA., GA., IL., likely not included, but that's just a guess.

BTW, George Butler's independent film, "The Lord God Bird" is showing (appropriately enough) at the Little Rock, Ark. Film Festival which begins today for 4 days. (Simultaneously, it's also playing at the Tallahassee (Fla.) Film Festival).

Elsewhere:

Another SAAAAAD bird story here regarding white-faced ibis in Calif. DON'T read if you're prone to depression!!
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-- Tall Tale --

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Well, there's not much else IBWO-wise to link to at the moment, so for your reading entertainment this tale of an IBWO encounter farther (than usual) up the Pearl River in mid-Mississippi a decade-or-so-ago:

http://www.clarionledger.com/misc/blogs/Outdoors/pjohnson/2008/05/peckerwood-big-foot.html

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

Elsewhere on the Web:

Martin Gardner, one of the best science-oriented essayists around, has a new volume, "The Jinn from Hyperspace: And Other Scribblings--Both Serious and Whimsical," another collection of various of his writings from other publications.

And in case you missed The World Series of Birding... well... ComedyCentral DIDN'T:
(hat tip to DC Birding blog for this old clip)

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=106128&title=the-world-series-of-birding

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-- Just A Note --

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Bad luck continues....

Dr. Hill's talk in Macon, GA. tonight has been cancelled due to severe storm damage in that area. It will be rescheduled for the fall.

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-- Memphis Article --

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A Memphis article recounts the Ivory-bill debate here.

With this search season winding to a close, Dr. Jerry Jackson, who possibly more than anyone is responsible for keeping hope alive for Ivory-bills into the 1990's (though a critic of recent claims), is increasingly pessimistic, saying, "I think it would be something short of a miracle if it is there," and adding, "I think that any betting person would have to say that it's probably extinct."
Allan Mueller of The Nature Conservancy and others involved with the search counter with their belief that recent claims are real and only the elusive photograph or video is yet to be achieved.

Addendum:

p.s. -- I recommended another nestcam site of storks in Germany to readers a few days back, and apparently most folks using Internet Explorer cannot pull the site up (without getting an additional plug-in or some-such) --- puhhleeeze, do yourself a favor and download the Firefox browser here, and give Internet Explorer a quiet funeral.
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-- Around the Web --

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Some more nice bird photography here :

http://www.richardettlinger.com/

Not that we didn't already know it, but UN affirms that migratory bird populations are plunging here :

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=26605&Cr=biodiversity&Cr1=

And more bad news here (Whooping Cranes abandoning nests) :

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=749206

We'll end on a positive note with this wonderful story of an American Avocet rescue here (worth a read if you're a bird-... or... a dog-lover).
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-- Couple a Notices --

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Notice here that Auburn's Dr. Geoff Hill will be speaking on Monday to a Georgia Audubon chapter about "recent possible sightings and what is being done to find any remaining [IBWOs]."

And here it's noted that Nancy Tanner (James' widow) will be "sharing her experiences from the 1940s observing the behaviors of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers among the Louisiana bayous," as keynote speaker of the Camp Sherman, Oregon Woodpecker Festival June 6-8.
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-- Thursday Rambles --

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Entertaining story of woodpeckers breaking into jail here.

And not-so-entertaining story of possible things to come here.

Pretty pics (digiscoped images) from Mike McDowell starting here :

http://www.birddigiscoping.com/avian.html

...or, re-visit (I've listed this site before) Kim Steininger's stunning photography here:

http://www.birdsbykim.com/

And finally, as a non-avian pick-of-the-day these stories on the duck-billed platypus genome being decoded here and here. (...Talk about a creature whose existence is improbable!)
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-- In the Meantime... --

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Not expecting much in the way of IBWO news prior to release of any preliminary summaries from this year's searches. Several search groups probably won't have public releases (only reporting their results directly to the IBWO Working Group), and the timetable could be slow for the few that do. In the meantime, this blog may simply revert to being 'just another bird blog' reporting on other avian matters if IBWO news is lacking.

For starters, here are a few more nestcam sites to hold your interest during this lull (the California Great Horned Owls have now fledged and left from camera-view; it was fun watching them grow into juvenile delinquency prior to departure, but here are some others) :

Barn Owls here.
Bald Eagles here.
Storks in Germany here.

Some books of possible interest:

"The Wisdom of Birds" by Tim Birkhead; a British-based volume and another historical look at ornithology that looks intriguing, to be published later this year.

And a non-avian book recently recommended by Julie Zickefoose (that's good enough for me) :
"Silent Thunder: In the Presence of Elephants" by Katy Payne
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-- Final Search Team Post --

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Yaaaaaawn....

Final post from Cornell's Arkansas 2007-8 Search team now up here (I assume the final Mobile Team post will be forthcoming as well). Again, nothing of note IBWO-wise --- indeed one is almost left to wonder what was the purpose of these logs, given how little IBWO-related comments/conclusions were offered. Even simple negative information that would be worth knowing (i.e., 'Area B showed no signs of possible Ivory-bill activity and isn't deemed worth further exploration') was rarely rendered. Assuming the prior newspaper report of 20+ IBWO "encounters" earlier in season is accurate(?), were all of these from non-team members (independent searchers or members of public, and if so, of what level of credibility???), and what will be made of them. Will be interesting (or maybe not) to see what the take-home message from Cornell's Arkansas summary report will be this season. Reiterating my own guess from a prior post, I think 2 or 3 states may have some interesting things to report, but Arkansas is likely to not be among them.
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-- Ark. Followup --

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A poster over at IBWO Researchers Forum notes an Arkansas Democrat Gazette article (requires subscription) which cites an Ivory-billed sighting by David Carruth of the Arkansas Wildlife Federation from about a month ago (if I understand the timing correctly), as well as 23 "encounters" from Oct. 2007 to Feb. 2008 in the Big Woods search area.
This was all part of the evidence presented in the case against the previously-referred-to irrigation project proposal. Until Cornell fleshes it out with more details, difficult to tell if this is simply information as part of a complete legal brief, or substantive claims that will be given significant weight in their final summary report. Apparently, no pics accompanying that legal brief :-(

On a sidenote, I'm hoping to have Bob Russell write up an updated list of the most promising Ivory-bill search locales for use on my blog since his previous 'Top 10' list is no longer available at the 'BirdingAmerica' website that Mary Scott has taken down. Maybe available later this month.
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-- Arkansas Season --

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Today on the state birding listserv, Alan Mueller of the Cornell team responded to an inquiry about this season's Arkansas' searches as follows:

"The IBWO searches this year were hampered by the high water, but they did go
on. We had to skip some areas we wanted to search because 1. it was not
possible to get to sites early in the morning or to stay late in the evening
because of increased travel time caused by high water, or 2. the high water
made trips too dangerous. We searched spots we could get to, not the best,
but the best that could be done under the circumstances."

Maybe by month's end we'll get some sort of preliminary summary of sightings and signs from this season that were considered significant.
Meanwhile a $420 million Arkansas irrigation project remains on hold while Ivory-bill matters continue to be sorted out.
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-- Weekend Follies --

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Little IBWO news so just some miscellany for the weekend:

Something for all you Puffin lovers (i.e., EVERYone) here.

Article on potential effect of lead shot on humans here.

Webcam of Peregrine Falcon nest with chicks at University of Pittsburg here.

...and don't forget the rapidly-growing California Great Horned Owls here.

Martin Collinson, on his blog, first made me aware of this list for (in)sanity-maintenance that's apparently been humming around the internet for awhile in slight variations.

Oh yeah, and lastly this bumper sticker seen recently on a car in front of me:

"I called Bush a moron, before it became cool to call Bush a moron"
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-- April Ends --

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Artist, writer, speaker, Indy film aficionado, and sometime birder, David Sibley, was recently spotted at a film festival showing of Alex Karpovsky's docu-drama about the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, perhaps satiating his discreet infatuation with the elusive nemesis species ;-))) :

http://www.picusblog.com/2008/04/woodpecker-movie.html

The film's next showing, BTW, will be this coming weekend, May 4, during the Maryland Film Festival in Baltimore, for any others similarly obsessed...

Meanwhile, Cornell's Mobile Team has updated their travel log. Annoyingly, they continue to chatter much about non-IBWO related matters, while revealing little as to their judgment of various habitat and locales. I assume places visited are being scored or ranked in some manner as to their suitability for Ivory-bills and the advisability of more intensive future searches, but from the log posts one can hardly tell if this is the case... or is it possible they are not finding any areas worthy of further time and effort??? A lot remains to be sorted out for next year's scaled-back efforts.
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-- Tanner On the Imperial --

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Found this 1964 paper by James Tanner on his 1962 search for the Imperial Woodpecker in Mexico an interesting read:

http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Auk/v081n01/p0074-p0081.pdf

or same piece here in html format: http://tinyurl.com/3qa8xy

Especially interesting that he concludes that hunting, and not habitat loss, is the principal reason for decline of this particular species.

... on a sidenote, a poster at IBWO Researchers Forum notes that the automatic ACONE cameras at Bayou de View (ARK.) have been removed due to incredibly high water levels there. I would think this would mean that many, maybe even all, the Reconyx cameras in the area also had to be removed by now. After a prolonged period of drought throughout much of the southeast many IBWO search areas have been heavily flooded over off-and-on this season.
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-- Of Some Note --

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I've always been pleasantly surprised by the fascination people have with Albert Einstein, not just his science (which most of us can't deeply-understand), but the rest of his life as well --- indeed Time Magazine named him, among quite a panoply, as 'Man of the Century,' and repeated biographies of him become best-sellers.

In American birding we have our own 'Einstein' of sorts: This is the 100th anniversary year of Roger Tory Peterson's birth. I dare say no matter which side of the Ivory-bill debate a person stands Roger, with his many talents, is likely one of one's heroes. Last year, "Roger Tory Peterson: A Biography," by Douglas Carlson, came out to very favorable reviews. During a stop at the bookstore this weekend I was 'pleasantly surprised' again to already find another new biography of the man who started it all for so many of us: "Birdwatcher: The Life of Roger Tory Peterson," by Elizabeth Rosenthal. May the treatises on his wonderful life and accomplishments, which made being an oddball kid with a fancy for birds, not so oddball for later generations, keep coming. Attention that is well-deserved, and might one day rival John James Audubon for whom there also exist a surprisingly long list of popular bios.

[ Roger Tory Peterson Institute here: http://www.rtpi.org/?page_id=20 ]

"Reluctant at first to accept the straightjacket of a world I did not comprehend, I finally, with the help of my hobby, made some sort of peace with society." -- Roger Tory Peterson

Over a year ago on this blog I suggested a bumper sticker that I thought had some merit: "WWRTPD" (What would Roger Tory Peterson do?) Yeah, its audience would be limited to be sure, but I'll offer it up again, free for the taking, should anyone wish to run with it in this year of honor for a man who instructed and inspired us all (...and BTW, who, unlike most others, kept the Ivory-billed Woodpecker in his field guides to his very end ;-)))
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-- Sunday Meditation --

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Just some passages from astronomer Chet Raymo today taken from his 2003 book, "The Path: a One-Mile Walk Through the Universe" :

"...however one chooses to romanticize what in retrospect seems a fetching life, it is impossible to reclaim it... Technology -- with its awesome potential and perils -- is here to stay.
The inventory of Earth's living species currently stands somewhere near 2 million. There are almost certainly at least ten times as many species that have not yet been described and named --- the true number of species may be more than 100 million. Many of these are inevitably doomed by human population growth....

All life --- the whole glorious parade along the path --- depends upon the photosynthesizers... With the invention of photosynthesis, life plugged into a star, and the battle against entropy was won. The universe continues to run down, as it must, but on the surface of the earth there spreads out a film of highly ordered matter of marvelous complexity and resourcefulness. The one-celled organisms that ruled the Earth 3 billion years ago were no more advanced than the scum that lives on our shower curtains, but that scum had evolved the ability to make carbohydrates with sunlight... Animals developed along a different branch of the evolutionary tree, and it seems unlikely that you and I had photosynthesizers among our ancestors. But the tree of life is a web of interdependence. Green leaves are our necessary link to our yellow star.

...The Arcadian ideal of humans living in harmony with tamed nature did not begin with Frederick Law Olmsted, Capability Brown, or even the supposed Peloponnesian paradise itself (witness the more ancient myth of the Garden of Eden), nor was it discredited by the obscenities of the twentieth century's wars, the Great Depression, or the grimmer excesses of technology. It is a sturdy old myth, and in it we might still hope to combine the Enlightenment, with its confidence in the power of the human mind to make sense of the world, and romanticism, with its belief that all of life is a miracle. Along the one-mile walk of the path, I have found these ostensibly competing tendencies happily fused: order and surprise, artificial and natural, civilized and wild, human self-interest and organic wholeness.
....About half of the earth's land surface is presently exploited by humans, and all of the land and water surface is touched in some way by the waste products of human cunning...
The technological products of human ingenuity represent an inevitable stage in planetary evolution, yet our Arcadian yearnings are dictated by millions of years of pretechnological human evolution. It is a conundrum of human life that our intellects have outraced our instincts; cultural evolution has overtaken organic evolution. Biologically, we are hunter-gatherers who suddenly find ourselves in command of almost unimaginable powers for planetary transformation."

....and lastly this thought from E.O. Wilson:

"If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos. "

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-- YouTube Piece --

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Just an old YouTube offering to tide things over during the current IBWO news lull:




Meanwhile, independent searcher Richard Lyttle is asking for additional help from any volunteers for his efforts along the Santee area in S. Carolina. His website here: http://www.ibwsearches.com/
The official IBWO search in the Congaree is probably winding down about now for this season; don't know if any veterans of that effort care to assist Richard.
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