-- New Article From "Nature" --

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Online article from "Nature" recaps where the Ivory-billed Woodpecker recovery program is now (purportedly a new "recovery plan" is "on the verge" of approval)... and it ain't particularly pretty.

A few choice quotations below (with the usual precaution that sometimes reporters get things wrong):

"...the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is on the verge of approving a final recovery plan to manage the species. The plan will lay out a conservation strategy, including what habitat should be preserved — all for a bird that many prominent ornithologists have given up on."

"But after five years of fruitless searching, hopes of saving the species have faded. 'We don't believe a recoverable population of ivory-billed woodpeckers exists,' says Ron Rohrbaugh, a conservation biologist at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, who headed the original search team."

"Jerome Jackson, an ornithologist at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers who serves on the FWS's ivory-billed woodpecker recovery team, says that a draft recovery plan from 2007 is 'incredibly biased'. In his view, the plans have overemphasized evidence of the bird's existence to shore up political support for saving it. 'I don't think I'm going to be happy with the final plan either,' he adds."

"Meanwhile, experts are dealing with protests by Daniel Rainsong, a landscaper based in Ames, Iowa, who says he recently photographed an ivory-billed woodpecker near the Sabine River in east Texas. Rainsong filed a formal complaint earlier this month alleging ethical and financial misconduct, because biologists he approached would not come with him to the Sabine region to confirm the sighting so that he could collect a $50,000 reward.
Rohrbaugh says the Cornell team will release an analysis of Rainsong's photo in about a week."
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-- Worth Reflection --

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With independents still searching actively in several states across the Southeast, it's worthwhile from time-to-time to reflect back on the inspiring words of those historical figures who, without debate, saw Ivory-billed Woodpeckers over 65 years ago at their Singer Tract toehold in Louisiana. First the words of Roger Tory Peterson upon encountering them there in 1942 (from his "Birds Over America" volume):

"By noon, we were back at the spot, down the road, where we had seen so many diggings the day before. We would make another sortie before throwing in the sponge. Hardly had we gone a hundred yards when a startling new sound came from our right --- an indescribable tooting note, musical in a staccato sort of way. For a moment it did not click, but then I knew --- it was the Ivory-bill ! I had expected it to sound more like a nuthatch; it was much more like the 'toy tin trumpet' described by Alexander Wilson or the 'clarinet' of Audubon. Breathlessly we stalked the insistent toots, stepping carefully, stealthily, so that no twig would crack. With our hearts pounding we tried to keep cool, hardly daring to believe that this was it --- that this was what we had come fifteen hundred miles to see. We were dead certain this was no squirrel or lesser woodpecker, for an occasional blow would land -- whop! -- like the sound of an axe. Straining our eyes, we discovered the first bird, half hidden by the leafage, and in a moment it leaped upward into full sunlight. This was no puny pileated; this was a whacking big bird, with great white patches on its wings and a gleaming white bill. By its long recurved crest of blackish jet we knew it was a female. We were even close enough to see its pale yellow eyes. Tossing its hammer-like head to the right and left, it tested the diseased trunk with a whack or two as it jerked upward. Lurching out to the end of a broken-off branch, it pitched off on a straight line, like a duck, its wings making a wooden sound."

And next, the haunting words of artist/birder Donald Eckelberry back in 1944, describing what was to become one of the last fully-accepted Ivory-bill sightings, a lone female in the same Singer Tract:

"She came trumpeting in to the roost, her big wings cleaving the air in strong, direct flight, and she alighted with one magnificent upward swoop. Looking about wildly with her hysterical pale eyes, tossing her head from side to side, her black crest erect to the point of leaning forward, she hitched up the tree at a gallop, trumpeting all the way. Near the top she became suddenly quiet and began preening herself. With a few disordered feathers properly and vigorously rearranged, she gave her distinctive double rap, the second blow following so closely the first that it was almost like an echo -- an astonishingly loud, hollow, drumlike Bam-bam! Then she hitched down the tree and sidled around to the roost hole, looked in, looked around, hitched down beneath the entrance, double-rapped, and went in."

And maybe lastly, those eternal words from Jerry Jackson, that still apply: "The truth is out there."
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-- "Ghost Bird" Podcast --

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Today, just a year-old podcast interview (from Steve Moore's "Birdwatch radio") with Scott Crocker, producer of "Ghost Bird":

http://www.birdwatchradio.com/audio/bwr019_20090317.mp3

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-- More Fiction --

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For your entertainment today, just a fun little piece of short O.Henry-esque fiction, entitled "Eating Ghosts," offered up over at another blog:

http://tinyurl.com/ycjz7hv
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-- Upcoming... and SNL? +addendum --

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If you happen to be in Minnesota or Tennessee, a couple of upcoming events of potential interest:

1) Eastman Nature Center holding an open house at 1:00pm Saturday, February 13, to introduce the public to the Whitney H. Eastman Archives. Whitney Eastman (1888-1979) was well-known for his Ivory-bill searches/claims in Florida in the 1950's.
The Archives are catalogued into a searchable computer database and will be available for public access and study at the Eastman Nature Center by appointment. If this interests you plan to attend this free introductory session.
The Eastman Nature Center is located in the northwest suburbs on the west side of 5,000-acre Elm Creek Park Reserve, at 13351 Elm Creek Road, Dayton, MN 55369. To reserve a seat on Feb. 13, please call the nature center at 763-694-7700.

2) Ijams Nature Center in Knoxville, Tennessee, is hosting Stephen Lyn Bales at 5:30pm on Feb. 11, at its "Science Cafe," talking on "Ghost Birds: Jim Tanner and the Ivory-bill." Bales discusses his upcoming book "Ghost Birds" about Dr. James T. Tanner's 1935-41 study of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. This is of course the same book I mentioned a brief while back, as tentatively titled "James Tanner and the Ivory-bill" (a title I actually prefer, but then I'm not the mass public!)
Register for the event by calling 865-577-4717, Ext. 10.

(If any readers attend either event and care to send in a report feel free.)

==> And in other news (...and I use that term loosely), Joe Hepperle has a somewhat silly Feb 4 update at his site reporting that a planned expedition to the the Sabine River basin by authorities and Rainsong had to be "scrubbed," and then closing by saying, "The season (and Dan's available time) for mounting a confirmation expedition yet this year are rapidly coming to an end." (Oh my WHAT a surprise!) Apparently no $50,000 reward for the Iowa boys, this year. [Joe has now altered the wording of the Feb 4 update as I figured he might, so below is a copy of the original wording; and I also have a copy of the original press release, since that too may disappear from the internet at some point.]
Man, if only there was a "Saturday Night Live" program just for birders!...

Addendum: The original verbatim Feb 4 entry from JH prior to alteration:

"A new expedition (with personnel from several independent Organizations) that was in the advanced planning stages had to be scrubbed because the other participants refused to wear the appropriate camouflage covering, and they insisted on using a motor-boat to get in and out of the area. The season (and Dan's available time) for mounting a confirmation expedition yet this year are rapidly coming to an end. Stay tuned..."
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-- Sir David, Ya Gotta Moment --

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[For newbies still showing up here for the Sabine River claims, coverage of that story began on Jan.19th and follows intermittently from there on... I'll have a postscript (written over a week ago!) to the story, when it finally ends.]

I've always sort of whimsically wished that David Attenborough and his crew would get involved in the search for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. On TV they usually accomplish their tasks in an hour or less ;-)) So for today just a little vintage footage of Sir David at work (Attenborough's almost 84 years-old now, but can probably still show the young whippersnappers how it's done!):




( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK6nlsOZpuU&feature=related )
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-- Will There Be A Rainsong Swansong --

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One suspects that Daniel Rainsong may be changing his name yet one more time when this whole episode is over (and without any $10,000 check to cover all his expenses)...
THANK YOU to all who have sent along pieces of information to me about various phases of the case. You never know when some one tidbit will be new to me or a crucial straw in tumbling this quivering house of cards (more like a house of phlegm!). I still don't know why authorities haven't made some official closing statement on the matter unless they are truly seeking to gather enough hard evidence for formal prosecution, rather than let the lad go free with a simple public flogging as so often happens. Or possibly they are trying to determine if this is a one-man show, or if others (J. Hepperle?, R. Goldstein?) are to some degree complicit, rather than mere dupes in the process? (BTW, CheyAnna Donaldson, mentioned in the initial press release, is an innocent bystander in these shenanigans).
Don't know if the photos will ever see the light of day either, which is unfortunate, since some craftsman, whittler, or store salesperson just might recognize his own handiwork or sales goods on display in them pics. I think it more likely that Joe H.'s weblinks to this story will magically disappear at some point, than that the photos will appear.
What a sordid shame it will be if 10 years from now the greatest legacy or memory in a lot of minds from the entire 5+ year search for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker is this foolhardy tale... told by a Mr. Rainsong, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

[Having said all this, it may be worth noting that there is always the remote possibility that Ivory-bills actually exist in the Sabine River Basin, just someone would need to find and photograph them.]
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-- Live Hummingbird Nestcam --

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Might be cold where you're at, but it's sunny in southern California, and time to raise a family:


Video clips at Ustream

( http://www.ustream.tv/channel/Hummingbird-Nest-Cam )
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-- The IB Woodpecker Helps Avoid a Depression --

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Changing subjects, for a moment....

The role of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker in saving America from financial collapse! :-):

This article tells of the pressures on finance guru Henry Paulson (a birdwatcher no less) at the peak of America's credit crunch and financial crisis. But here's the pertinent passage:

"During infrequent interludes of downtime, Paulson tried to relax by going bird-watching -- while travelling on government business, he sometimes found a few hours at foreign summits to go off in seek of a glimpse of the local avian species. But even birds weren't enough to take his mind off work during the week of Bear Stearns' collapse. Paulson writes that he and his wife took an evening off to go and see "The Lord God Bird", a documentary about the ivory-billed woodpecker, at the National Geographic Society. As he struggled to make small talk with environmental movie enthusiasts, Paulson was scolded by his wife for discourtesy."

And this article quotes directly from Paulson's memoir:

"That evening Wendy and I went to the National Geographic Society to see The Lord God Bird, a terrific documentary on the ivory-billed woodpecker, a bird so spectacular it made people say Lord God!! Normally, I would have enjoyed this immensely, but I was preoccupied with Bear Stearns. Every time one of our friends from the environmental community came over, I would look right through them. Wendy got really upset with me.

“I understand that you’re under pressure,” she said, “but that’s no excuse for not being courteous to people.”
“I am being courteous to everyone,” I protested.
“You aren’t saying anything to them except ‘Hi.’” I apologized, adding, “I’m worried about the world falling apart!”

Never underestimate the reach of the Lord God Bird into the halls of power.
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-- Throwin' Down The Gauntlet --

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So far as I can tell, the Rainsong/Hepperles have now done everything necessary to legally insure their claim to an Ivory-billed Woodpecker sighting, and the photos that demonstrate it!!! (Hip hip hooray... yawn). There is no reason left for secrecy, confidentiality, or holding back on their part --- their legal standing (about which they were so concerned), is established...

I therefore challenge them, in fact triple dog DARE them, indeed IMMMPLORE them, to now place the two splendid photos in question on the internet (or direct the proper investigators to do so) for the world to see and judge and comment upon (hey, Joe, think how many more hits your wacky website will get if you upload the pics --- I absolutely, positively GARRR-AN-TEEE it!! ...just no fudgin' with 'em beforehand, OK).

Let the games begin...

(someone wake me up if he actually has the gumption to do it...)
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-- Waiting --

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While we await for authorities to resolve the Rainsong situation, Radd Icenoggle (great name, by the way!) takes a stab at categorizing bird hoaxes of the past in this blog post:

http://tinyurl.com/yb7z3ly

Meanwhile, FWIW, here are a few other tangential webpages that might harbor teensy elements of pertinence to the Sabine River story... or, NOT:

http://www.gamblingphd.com/gambling-psychology.htm

http://tinyurl.com/yblyse5

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/15_minutes_of_fame

http://tinyurl.com/6qa7ar
(Clifford Irving was sentenced to 2 years of jail-time for his money-scheming book hoax --- sometimes the best avenue a claimant can take is to make a full and public apology, in exchange for walking away, before evidence is gathered to prosecute for fraud/jail-time.)

(p.s. -- if this case hasn't been closed by the end of today I'll issue my own challenge-of-sorts to the situation come Monday... stay tuned.)

Some readers, I realize, are fascinated by the whole affair (like craning your neck at a roadside accident) and glad for efforts here to track it (Jan.19 - 28 posts), even if much can't be divulged, but others are already bored stiff and sick of hearing about it. I can only say that hoaxes represent the bottom-of-the-barrel for me and anything smacking of one ought be torpedoed (or vindicated) as soon as possible --- unfortunately, fraudulent storylines can be hard to 100% DISprove --- come to think of it, I saw 3 Ivory-bills fly over my backyard just last week; it vividly sticks in my memory because one of them was carrying a Carolina Parakeet in its beak... uhhh, "prove" that it didn't happen.
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-- Sorry... I Just Can't Resist --

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( http://tinyurl.com/djwqmd )

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-- Into The Weekend --

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Was looking for something upbeat to head into the weekend with, but not much out there, so will just use one of Snowball-the-Dancing-Cockatoo's old videos (always entertaining):



( http://tinyurl.com/djjqu4 )
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-- And Back to Rainsong (More Questions) --

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[Other posts covering the Daniel Rainsong yarn run from Jan. 19 to Jan 26]


Just some questions rhetorically posed to those in charge of the investigation:

What sort of forensic analysis of the photos has been, or is currently being conducted (if any)?

Have any individuals been dispatched to the GPS coordinates for the Sabine sighting site (to look for rope, climbing gear, tools, footprints leading to the tree of interest, whatever, or hey, Ivory-billed Woodpeckers)?

Have you traced Rainsong's travels, whereabouts, timeline, contacts, since he left the Sabine River Basin?

How does Rainsong's storyline match up to that of any claimed traveling partners?

Have all the other frames of Rainsong's photoshoot been studied at this point?

What (if anything) do the timestamps reveal?

Any linkage yet uncovered to still other family members besides Dan and Joe?

Have you interviewed "Joe Hepperle" at length?

How many total prior trips did Rainsong make to the specific Sabine River Basin location before the fateful 2-week holiday excursion?

What are Rainsong's woodworking skills (or maybe plaster-of-Paris)?

(some of these I actually already have partial answers to, but still worth putting in print)

Can't verify it, but according to at least one source (who I'll simply call "DeepBeak" ;-)), Rainsong's storyline has suffered significant inconsistencies under the scrutiny of interrogation. And yet, it appears that investigators are trying to cross all their T's and dot all their i's before making any public pronouncements. Since hardly anyone is taking the case very seriously in cyberspace maybe it doesn't even matter, but I would so like to see this over before the weekend is over, and Mr. Rainsong can go back to dabbling in silly Blackjack theories (or, if this proves to be fraud is it legally prosecutable?).

Over the decades many Ivory-billed sightings have been followed up on within 48 hrs., always to no avail (as far as definitive confirmation), and yet to believe Mr. Rainsong's bravado he is going to lead investigators back to find a lone bird he spotted over 30 days ago in a vast area (actually he DIDN'T spot it, it just showed up when reviewing his film later). If the bird was there it would be an incredible task... with the bird not there, it's more like... an impossible bluff.
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-- Gotta Love the 60's --

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I'm feeling a little nostalgic today, so no birds, just a li'l blast from the past:


( http://tinyurl.com/ybdk95m )
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-- ...In Other News --

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....in other news:

Mark Bailey of "Hog Foot Holler" blog informs me of an upcoming book by wonderful artist Stephen Lyn Bales (in collaboration with Nancy Tanner) that will detail the years of James Tanner's Ivory-bill studies. Sounds GREAT! (tentatively titled "James Tanner and the Ivory-bill," the manuscript was only turned in last December so could be awhile before appearing in bookstores, but I'm sure many readers here will want to watch for it).

Was hoping for the Rainsong story to fully deflate before turning comments back on. There are just certain specifics and details I don't want discussed here (and certain ones I'm sure investigators don't want disclosed either for that matter), and it is easiest to insure that by keeping comments closed. However, I've now turned them back on in 'full moderation mode,' which means they won't appear until approved (and since I'm often away from the computer for 6 - 8+ hrs. a day, understand that can take awhile, and I will be selective).

Bill Pulliam's latest thoughts here:

http://bbill.blogspot.com/2010/01/recent-history.html

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-- Intermission... --

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The Sabine River "claims" are addressed in the previous 14 posts, but for right now just need to chill-out:


( http://tinyurl.com/yetw3t5 )
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-- Winding Down? --

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I've seen enough at this point to believe this entire episode may soon unwind to its ignominious conclusion. As I said back at the beginning, no reason to hold one's breath.
(And sorry, probably won't be responding with any specifics to email questions, but will have much to say when/if the end comes, I'd like to think before end of week, but who knows.)
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