==> THEblog devoted, since 2005, to news & commentary on the most iconic bird in American ornithology, the Ivory-billed Woodpecker (IBWO)... and sometimes other schtuff [contact: cyberthrush@gmail.com]
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Epistemologists long ago explained why it's impossible to be certain about the nature of reality... then physicists explained why uncertainty underlies all science... and now a neurologist, Dr. Robert Burton, explains, in terms of brain chemistry, why certainty is a mirage:
Colorful Fielding Lewis, whose claims of Ivory-bill encounters in Louisiana in the 1970s could never be confirmed nor disproven died a week ago at age 78. Lewis persuaded premier ornithologist George Lowery Jr. of the reality of Ivory-bills in Louisiana in 1971, only to taint Lowery's reputation in the process. Tim Gallagher devoted one chapter ("The Boxer") of his book "The Grail Bird" to the Louisiana character here (courtesy of Google).
One of Lewis's famous controversial photos of an Ivory-bill near the Atchafalaya leads off (and is colorized)this Dec. 2001 Birding Magazine article by birder Jim Williams.
Lewis's own book "Tales of a Louisiana Duck Hunter," which includes some of his Ivory-bill accounts, is available here. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
David Luneau reports that a newly-fashioned "peeper-cam" (essentially a camera at the end of a pole) has been devised for use in the Arkansas IBWO search, checking out prospective woodpecker cavities.
Geoff Hill will be using newly-designed vibration-triggered cameras from National Geographic in the Florida search to better, and more selectively, capture images at prospective woodpecker sites in the Choctawhatchee.
And Bobby Harrison reports he will be setting up both still and animated (head-moving) IBWO decoys in January in his pursuit of Ivory-bills in Arkansas.
Finally, I believe Alan Mueller's ARK. team will be making greater use of recordings and double-knock sounds than was done in the past to try and attract the elusive quarry. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Just a couple more seasonal offerings today:
Some more seasonal music for the Holiday...: (George Winston's "The Holly and the Ivy" arrangement)
And another blogger has posted this old 25-min."Twilight Zone" Christmas episode (it's 50's-ish schmaltzy, but so-be-it, still classic). (P.S. -- if you're a Rod Serling fan, most all the old Twilight Zone episodes are available on the Web, for free, at various sites.)
A scientist and his wife are driving out in the countryside. The wife turns to her husband and says, "Oh look over there... those sheep have been shorn." To which the scientist-husband replies: "Why yes, on this side." --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Scott Crocker, producer of the independent documentary film, "Ghost Bird," is interviewed on a local NPR station here.
[ A few folks have emailed to ask what's up with IBWO Researchers Forum website, which seems to be down... I don't know, so if anyone can shed light on that feel free to send a comment here, or maybe it'll be back up before most of you read this post (Addendum: it's back up now.). (Oddly, the Ivory-billed Woodpecker Foundation website also went down for about 24 hrs. a couple days back.) There have been a number of general internet glitches in the last week, so possibly it relates to that??? ] --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I've been trying to encourage USFWS's Bob Russell to send me an updated list of his top places to look for Ivory-bills, since Mary Scott's website, which previously included such a list, was taken down. He hasn't had time to do that as yet, but with a new search season getting underway, folks might enjoy perusing his old Top Ten list (2006) which I located at Mary's former site using the internet "wayback machine," and can be viewed here. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mary is the rather non-conventional/controversial Ivory-bill searcher who many credit with actually instigating in many ways the widespread interest in modern searches for the species (she formerly ran the popular BirdingAmerica website, which she has since taken down). Tim Gallagher devoted a chapter of his book, "The Grail Bird," to her. The "Bob" she repeatedly refers to in the film clip is "Bob Russell" of the US Fish and Wildlife Service and another long-time Ivory-bill researcher.
Addendum: well, leave it to Google; just discovered parts of "The Grail Bird" are online, including the chapter on Mary, here. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
While we await for news from what could be the last large scale season of searching for the Ivory-bill, here's a relatively recent YouTube addition pertaining to the search in Arkansas:
The nearly 2-hr. original Cornell rendition of this story presented to the AOU back in 2005 that started it all is available on YouTube as well:
On a different note, I continue to get some comments/emails asking about the fate of Mike Collins' IBWO paper: I have no special information, and presume Mike will post at his site if/when he has further specific details worth mentioning (I'm guessing there may be some resolution with the possibility of publication within the next 3 weeks, but that's STRICTLY a guess on my part). In the meantime, for any who missed it at the time, here an interview Mike did with another blogger a year ago:
The irrigation plan (from the White River) for Arkansas farmland is back on track after a lawsuit stalling it (largely due to Ivory-bill concerns) has finally been dismissed. The legal doings are actually a bit convoluted and hard-to-follow, but story here.
Meanwhile, Cornell plans to start its new search season in early January (this is separate from Alan Mueller's USFW effort in Arkansas -- already underway).
Finally, if you haven't read the comments to the prior post, I believe the gist is that Mike Collins' 'flight dynamics' paper may yet be published by PLoS afterall; time will tell (if I am misconstruing things, or someone knows otherwise, please correct me). ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well, nothing is ever simple in the Ivory-bill world... Mike Collins is announcing that his paper, "Flight Mechanics of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker," has been "pulled" from publication at PLoS. His brief explanation is at his website (12/16 entry). I'd heard about certain problems that had arisen, and that publication would be delayed at least a minimum of two-to-three weeks from last Friday, and I could take an educated guess about some of what transpired, but since I don't know with certainty, won't speculate here. Nothing in this arena much surprises anymore. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What the prior article on population dynamics calls to mind is the most trenchant argument skeptics make in the Ivory-bill debate. Can a creature have relatively few sightings over 60 years, with no sightings followed up by photographic documentation or definitive confirmation, and in fact still exist... OR, can a creature at very low population density successfully carry on reproductively for decades?... (The answer to both questions, singly, is indubitably yes.) But the rub comes in combining the two questions (or as skeptics would say, 'trying to have it both ways' --- can there BOTH be so few IBWOs that they're rarely encountered, and yet enough to be reproductively viable for 60 years) --- the numbers of Ivory-bills must be just great enough (whatever that threshold is) to have at least maintained population stasis over decades (more recently they could be either increasing, or decreasing), and yet scarce enough to help account for the overall paucity of sightings and difficulty of photography. It is a somewhat fine line and balancing act, but yet once again, given the habitat and habits and history of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker (an upper canopy and cavity-dwelling flying creature of deep forest) it is much more plausible with this species than it would be for many others --- indeed, it is easily as plausible, as the notion of every single sighting since 1950 being written off as a 'mistake.' And it is funny how often in nature if something is possible, it occurs (sort of the inverse of 'Murphy's Law').
Finally, in another "stay-tuned" story, Mark Bailey sends along this report of supposedly-extirpated pumas in Alabama.
Addendum: Mark seems to have taken this story down; I assume this means its authenticity (which he was trying to check on) did not check out; or if he re-posts it, I'll mention it again here. Addendum II : Mark confirms now he has determined picture and story to be a hoax. He now has this explanatory post up on the matter. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Speculative, but interesting post here, from a more paleontological viewpoint, about causes of extinction/decline in various species (including the Ivory-bill, which may have been "doomed 12,000 years ago"). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here an open-access published paper using population dynamics/stochastics to argue for how a small population of Ivory-bills or certain other large woodpeckers could persist for many years with few human encounters.
The variables in such an analysis will always be difficult to precisely define or measure (which goes for most ecology/field biology work) and such a study must be viewed with a grain of salt --- I'm sure skeptics will find much to quibble with, including certain assumptions made. And I'm certainly not competent to judge the specific technical mathematics involved, but I don't think there's anything overly profound in the general conclusions reached here, part of which read as follows:
"...based on our model, an initial population size of 5 females would have ensured likely persistence through modern times if annual demographic rates remained at least moderate, i.e., ≥ 1.1 recruited females/adult female and an adult survival rate ≥ 0.8, and their variances remained at most moderate, i.e., ≤ 0.04 for recruited females per adult female and ≤ 0.016 for adult survival rate, (Appendices 2–4). Second, if there were 30 or more females, then the population would likely have persisted despite a relatively strong Allee effect, as long as variance in survival was at most moderate and either survival or fecundity was high (i.e., 1.65 recruited females per adult female or an adult survival rate of 0.9; Appendices 2–4)."
Many years ago I did some simple common-sense paper-and-pencil calculations based on about 24 Ivory-bills starting in the 1940's (at the upper end of Tanner's estimate for the population then, but several folks think Tanner was too conservative), which convinced me that that number of IBWOs could easily have achieved population stasis for many decades (and still be with us), prior to either increasing in numbers or dying out.
In a similar vein, a related blog-post here 3 years back, started with an initial population of just 16 birds to make some points:
The simple point being, under a variety of circumstances, small populations of vertebrate creatures can hang on for a very long time (not growing in numbers substantially, but not dying out either) if certain minimal conditions are met. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'nuther article on the Arkansas search, headed up by Alan Mueller, getting underway this Saturday. Still have heard no official details on at least 3 other states where I assume there will be searches this winter. And (somewhat incredibly) still no official release of a summary report from USFW for last search season. Cornell lists their 2008-9 Search/Recovery Team here (mostly familiar names/faces from past searches, but also a few new names added).
In the entertainment category, a fictionalized play based on the the Ivory-bill wins a competition here. And trailer for Scott Crocker's "Ghost Bird" documentary movie (January release) here.
Not expecting much in the way of news for at least next few of weeks. While skeptics continue to await a photo or video of a bird that can be definitively ID'd as an Ivory-bill, I on-the-other-hand, continue to await photos or video of a leucistic Pileated with white dorsal wing patches that truly mimic the wings of an Ivory-bill, as the only really likely explication for skeptics to hang their hat on for many of the IBWO claims over decades.... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
