-- "a drop in the bucket" --

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When a $50,000 reward was offered in Arkansas for photographic evidence of an Ivory-billed Woodpecker that led researchers to a live bird, it was not entirely clear if that reward applied only to the state of Arkansas or to any state wherein the species was documented (which certainly made more sense). This article in a South Carolina paper implies the latter is indeed the case.
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-- Of Birds and Basketball --

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An occasional sighting claim here, an auditory encounter there, and the usual paucity of updates from Cornell or the USFW 8-[ ... This search season is proceeding much like the previous three. With even fewer searchers in the field, fewer acres being covered, and fewer remote cameras in operation, it's difficult to imagine that the next two months will pull off what the last three years have failed at... indisputable photographic or video evidence for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker (though several states are still involved and one would like to believe that the search is a bit more honed and focused than before). We await a 'buzzer-beater.'

Several key skeptics of the past seem to have dropped from the radar at the very time one might expect them to be taking parting shots; their silence is deafening, or is it all just too boring and tiresome for them by now; the essential arguments in this debate, afterall, have changed little in the last 60 years, let alone the last three.
Should the season end with no more to show than prior search years, it will be left to the few independent searchers out there, with limited time and funds, to continue the quest, including Bobby Harrison's Ivory-billed Woodpecker Foundation --- if you wish to receive their email newsletter send them an email requesting such at: ivorybillwp@aol.com

2+ months to go... including what U.S. basketball fans know all-too-well as March Madness. . . .
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-- A Bird In the Hand... --

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I wasn't going to mention the story of the "extinct" Worcester's buttonquail being found... and eaten (it's whirling around the Web well enough without an assist from me), but now John over at DC Birding Blog has reported it with a wonderful coupling to, and old quote about, the Ivory-billed Woodpecker that I have to link to.
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-- IBWO Researchers Forum --

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Those who assiduously follow all-things-Ivorybill likely already know that one of the recent topics of discussion over at IBWO Researchers Forum has been potential drumming (or tapping) patterns for the Ivory-bill possibly heard in the field by searchers or recorded in Cornell's original (and only confirmed) soundtrack of Ivory-bills from the Singer Tract (1930s), available here:

http://macaulaylibrary.org/audio.do?id=6784

Bill Pulliam weighs in with his thoughts on the matter here.

I'm all for pursuing all leads and forms of analysis. My only precaution being that the Cornell recording represents a single example from a miniscule sample of birds at one isolated location 70 years ago, and I'm not willing to assume that the tape is NECESSARILY technically representative of remnant birds left today in other parts of the country, separated by several generations from the birds recorded... BUT, that tape is all we got, so of course, by all means use it (and I think there is reason to believe that rapping or drumming patterns would change less over time than "kent" sounds might... still, very small sampling size). So have at it.

The other focus of attention lately over at the IBWO Forum has been a recent possible (brief) sighting claim for 2 Ivorybills in the Congaree (S.C.) by one of the independent searchers there. The Cornell search team is scheduled to be in S.C. in mid-March anyway; we'll see if the latest claim gets them there any sooner. S.C. remains near the top of everyone's list for best potential IBWO habitat in the entire Southeast; whether there are birds there to utilize it, time will tell.
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-- ....And Waiting --

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Auburn's Dr. Hill has updated his site to re-summarize the 2008 Choctawhatchee season, and bring folks up-to-date on current activities, while continuing to express optimism that their new vibration-detection cameras stand a greater chance of capturing an IBWO on film than previous remote cameras (subject to various failures) did.

So far as I can tell there have been no plans to re-deploy the ACONE cameras in the Bayou de View area of Arkansas for this search season, since they were last taken down (they suffered from mechanical breakdowns and from difficult accessibility during flooded times). If someone knows otherwise please let us know. (Some automatic Reconyx cameras are still in use there.)
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-- While We're Waiting --

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In the event you've got way too much free time on your hands ;-) :

Bill Pulliam has pulled together for easy accessibility his various analyses of the original Luneau video in a recent post here:

http://bbill.blogspot.com/2009/02/summary-of-my-luneau-postings.html

For opposing points of view:

Louis Bevier's original analysis of the matter is still up below (...so I guess he hasn't changed his mind yet ;-)) :

http://web.mac.com/lrbevier/ivorybilled/Identification.html (several pages)

And Martin Collinson's study of the matter as published in an open access journal is here:

http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1741-7007-5-8.pdf

What I stiiiiiiiiill have not seen anywhere are the conclusions of an extensive analysis Cornell did on a computer-generated, digitized Ivory-billed Woodpecker in flight, to see how it would match up against the pixels of the bird in Luneau's video. If anyone can fill in the results of that analysis, I'd appreciate hearing of it.
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-- Jackson Speaking --

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Dr. Jerome Jackson will be leading off the Conservancy of Southwest Florida (Naples, FL.) speaker series next Thur. (Feb 12, 6 pm.) on the topic, "In Search of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker" --- same as title of his book on same topic. Jackson is a professor at nearby Florida Gulf Coast University, and of course is one of the most longstanding experts on the species. I suspect he'll have some comments on the current search for the IBWO in southwest Florida. Talk is "free to members"... not clear to me if non-members are able to attend for a fee or not (or you can pay $35 to join).
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-- Computer Reading --

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Parts of some Ivory-bill related books available online at Google Books site:

"In Search of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker" by Jerome Jackson

"Wild Echoes" by Charles Bergman (Ivory-bill material beginning on pg. 220)

and material from Christopher Cokinos' "Hope Is the Thing With Feathers"

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-- Misc. --

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Mike Collins is back in the Pearl for another ongoing search season.

Mary Scott has reposted a small portion of her former BirdingAmerica site here.

And in the "I-get-email" Dept. a reader sends along this link to a YouTube video, just in case you're in the need to see something depressing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxM5falj_WI&feature=bz302
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-- Rosen Essay --

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Not Ivory-bill-focused, but nice essay from Jonathan Rosen here.
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-- Hard and Soft Science --

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Here.
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-- Remembrance --

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Today marks the 23rd anniversary of the tragic loss of the Space Shuttle Challenger, and a few days ahead (on the same day as this year's Super Bowl) comes the 6th anniversary of the loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia. In their honor:



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-- Mississippi Yearning --

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Happy January 21st: The first day of the rest of America's life!.... :-)


Lately, a certain amount of chatter has referenced searches for the Ivory-bill in Mississippi. I've frequently noted MS. in the past as one of the top 3 states (IMO) for IBWO potential, along with Florida and Louisiana. FL. and LA. have received so much past focus, that in some ways MS. with less historical attention, yet much good inter-connected habitat, is all the more attractive. Some of the recent, ongoing work being carried out there is outlined here:

http://ntweb.deltastate.edu/mbonta/Ivory-billed%20Woodpeckers.htm

(not included above is work being carried out by Cornell's mobile team or other searchers at the far south end of the state, which may even harbor the best habitat)
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-- NEW Day In America --

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Jan.20, 2009 (...no IBWO news)

Couple of tributes in honor of today's inauguration:






...and lastly, a 60's classic that just feels fitting:



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-- Pressing On --

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The previously-cited open access article is swirling around the Web on science sites, blogs, and news pages. I'm always a bit (pleasantly) surprised when these open-access IBWO studies get such widespread attention. I s'pose it has something to do with the controversial nature of the topic and the general interest this bird attracts (some of PLoS's problems in dealing with Mike Collins' paper I believe have to do with the controversial nature of the subject matter as well --- a great thing about science is that it encourages putting all ideas/evidence out there on a table for all to shine a light on and judge, rather than assuming the correctness of a few, or even assuming that 'truth' can always be fixed in stone).

For the last two years I've seen routine skeptical remarks to the effect that no serious, or credible, or intelligent birder/scientist any longer considers the prior IBWO claims valid, nor sees any possibility for the bird's persistence. In actuality, amidst wide pessimism, there have always been scientists who view the species' existence as possible, and many others who are simply sitting on the fence awaiting more study --- they just don't happen to be as loud and vocal as the naysayers on the Web who feed off each other to render an impression of unanimity when there is none. A skeptic/commenter to a post below chimes in that this whole affair "has ruined so many reputations".... almost causes one to wonder how many reputations would be ruined if the Ivory-bill were to be conclusively documented?
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-- Catching Up --

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The latest open-access internet paper related to the Ivory-bill search making the rounds comes from the University of Georgia and concludes that as few as 5 pairs of Ivory-bills from the early 1900's are all that would be needed for the species to subsist until today. The paper attempts to evaluate the longevity of small bird populations, specifically for "rare large-bodied woodpeckers," given various demographic assumptions. They analyzed various scenarios (in the worse case, extinction resulted within 7 years) to demonstrate the higher-than-acknowledged possibility of the Ivory-bill persisting to today (of course for some of us, the possibility of IBWO persistence is obvious from common sense and the examples of other creatures, without all the statistics and empirical analysis applied ;-)).
The research was funded by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, some of whom are directly associated with the IBWO Recovery Team, so I'm sure the paper's conclusions won't be taken seriously by many who have largely made up their minds on the subject... to whom the authors may one day say, 'we told ya so.' Summary of paper here, if you don't want to read the full academic version.

Speaking of online papers, my current understanding is that Mike Collins' IBWO flight dynamics paper may yet appear over at PLoS at some point (working through some administrative matters) though I don't know a timetable (if Mike or anyone else knows otherwise or has more details feel free to send along a comment/clårification).
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-- 4 Months Left and Counting --

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By April 30 of this year it will be 4 years since Cornell made their incredible announcement beginning this long, bumpy, winding journey. Essentially, there are about 4 months left to move the Ivory-bill agenda forward. If nothing is found in these 4 months more substantial than what is already on record in support of Ivory-bill persistence, then official searching, funding, and most interest will die a solemn death (independent searchers will carry on their efforts as money and time allows). More individual sightings, blurry video, and auditory recordings won't do (so proclaimeth from on-high the skeptically-inclined). An indisputable photo or carcass are needed (...where is Mason Spencer when we need him -- juuust joking); or at bare minimum, a prolonged sighting by multiple credible observers.

By April's end this blog will hit about 1000 posts for its lifetime... averaging (to my amazement) about 5 posts per week since inception, seeking to inform, entertain, and... yes, annoy, certain readers, and forever preaching "patience" for the strenuous task of documenting individual birds in difficult, expansive terrain. The final push is on now to attain the level of documentation that will satisfy all, and time is running short, for the searches, for patience, and... for the birds.

I'll be busy with a conference this weekend, and may not post the next few days ('til Sun. evening anyway?), so please, pleeease all you searchers, whatever you do, DON'T find the Ivory-bill this weekend, okay! ;-))
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-- Chill Out --

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Not too surprisingly I've gotten some inquiries about the post/no-post flap from a couple days back, including one suggestion that perhaps it was just a hoax or some sort of gambit to re-boost interest in the IBWO. I can safely assure folks it was not any sort of hoax, but a sincere report of possible sightings of the Ivory-bill at a non-disclosed location, which is being further pursued. Beyond that, I'll likely have nothing more to say about it unless the parties involved have more to report publicly. For now, there are at least a couple other claims I'm probably more interested in getting additional details on than the one yanked. And with only ~ 4 months left in this season's search, one hopes more details will be forthcoming.

Anyway, it's been a rough few days; time to just chill out with Matt Harding's old viral video:



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