-- FWIW --

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For what it's worth, while biding time, just a bunch of still pics of Pileateds in flight that I've brought together, mostly from Flickr (but a few others as well):

might actually start with this pic of a leucistic PIWO in Texas that I stumbled across:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gregpage/4724996515/

the rest are all normal PIWOs...

an entire set from Dan Pancamo:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pancamo/sets/72157623987550086/with/4577193144/

and a set from Lillian Stokes here:

http://stokesbirdingblog.blogspot.com/2006/03/pileated-woodpeckers.html

the rest are individual shots, in no particular order:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthew_sileo/2447851002/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dotlyc/5110551210/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pancier/2648697891/

http://tinyurl.com/2cvdy2a

http://www.flickr.com/photos/laurameyers/5038986980/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/11750646@N02/3846513027/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/scott2403photos/4868861963/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26522901@N08/3941796370/

http://www.toledo-bend.us/enlarge.asp?caption=Pileated+Woodpecker+in+Flight&pic=gallery/woodpecker/IMG_5032w

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jrnikon/4526488445/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/donaldsducks/2990028577/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/imagehunter1/5108833094/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ah_pics/3512990714/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/earl_reinink/4541431351/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/earl_reinink/4541431237/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/earl_reinink/4541430943/in/set-72157623157372620/

(if any of the links don't work properly let me know; haven't tested them all)

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-- Satellite Searching --

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A reader sends in below link to a story on using satellite lasers to pinpoint forest habitat with the tree size and density favorable to Pileated Woodpeckers (ground searches still needed to find individual birds). The work cited is actually done in Idaho, far-removed from the American Southeast, and I suspect by now, from both ground and air searches, we already have a pretty good idea of the forest habitat throughout the Southeast that best matches the Tannertype-profile for IBWO habitat (IF that profile is even accurate), but still one-more potential technological tool for the IBWO search, if needed:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11867165

All of this reminds me that I still haven't heard anything further about any specific involvement of "BirdLife International" in the IBWO search after they announced over a year ago that they'd be focusing some efforts on several dozens species including the Ivory-bill. If any of you Brits (a Brit sent in the above link) know anything further about that storyline let us know.
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-- Auburn Back Up --

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The Auburn Choctawhatchee search pages are back up now here:

http://www.auburn.edu/academic/science_math/cosam/departments/biology/faculty/webpages/hill/ivorybill/

[...someone a few posts back was asking where details of Tyler Hicks' sightings could be found; they are included here:
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/science_math/cosam/departments/biology/faculty/webpages/hill/ivorybill/FieldNotes2006.pdf ]

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-- Project Coyote Update --

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The latest update from Mark Michaels of the Project Coyote team in La. is now posted as a pdf, focusing largely on bark scaling/chips in their area, along with other analyses:

http://www.south-run.com/coyote/MAMNov2010Report.pdf
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-- "Ghost Bird" DVD --

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Scott Crocker's documentary "Ghost Bird" is now available on DVD:

http://tinyurl.com/2efyqxy

http://tinyurl.com/27oc9x5 (Amazon link)

Addendum: I see that in honor of the Crocker DVD release, Amy over at "Magnificent Frigatebird" blog is promoting her Ivory-bill T-shirts to all you Holiday shoppers! If you 'believe,' 'want to believe,' or are just 'wild about Ivory-bills,' check 'em out:

http://tinyurl.com/2daz9v8
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-- Computer Graphic Animations --

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Here's some short animations of Ivory-bills in flight, from a former Cornell computer graphics student, first showing a skeletonized IBWO, and then two brief swamp scenes (ALL animations):
(I'm not vouching for how accurate or realistic these are, but perhaps someone will find them useful?)

Fola Akinola: Show Reel 2008 from Fola Akinola on Vimeo.

Best to go to Vimeo to view in larger format, or simply click on full-screen button above (arrows button).

ADDENDUM: I assume this work by Akinola must somehow be related to the work I've previously reported on by Jeff Wang at Cornell, which was ultimately inconclusive, but which researchers had hoped might show an IBWO to be a better match than a PIWO for the Luneau video bird. This longish, but interesting article summarizes much of that work of Wang et.al.:

http://tinyurl.com/2926ptz

....and on a sidenote, apologies to readers who are awaiting more interviews... they're not trickling in as fast as I'd surmised. I'll be sending out some reminder-notes in a few days to folks who said they'd likely take part, or, if you read this you can take this as a reminder! :-)
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-- And Now For Something Completely Different... --

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"I can levitate birds... but nobody cares."

Some comic relief... It's Steven Wright's birthday today, so in honor of that:



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-- A Li'l Nostalgia --

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The below link (from the heady days of the 2005 announcement) arrived in my inbox this weekend and I thought it was just one of the many previous radio stories on Brinkley, Arkansas and Sufjan Stevens that I've linked to in the past. But listening to it I don't recall(?) using it before, and it makes for 12 minutes of some pleasant Sunday listening (even though it's old stuff), interweaving Brinkley with Stevens' ode to the IBWO:

http://www.qualitypeoples.com/the-lord-god-bird
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-- The IBL Interviews Commence! :-) --

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Recently, I sent out inquiries, in an "interview-type" format to several people who have played some role in the internet Ivory-bill "story;" a way of getting some wrap-up on where we stand now. I've been pleased at the number who consented to fill out the inquiries and share their views, at this busy time of the year.
Once this first batch is complete, maybe I'll send out more!? At any rate, I'll start the ball rolling with the below responses from David Martin (known to some of you more recognizably as "fangsheath").
Despite coming out of a herpetology background, David has become a meticulous resource of information on all things Ivory-bill over the last 5 years, and as most of you know was a principal in the start-up and running of The Ivory-billed Woodpecker Researchers Forum elsewhere on the Web.

1. C: First, for those who don't know of you David, can you state a little of your background and credentials to put your viewpoints in some context?

DM: I’m not an ornithologist and I wouldn’t even call myself an avid birder, although I certainly enjoy birds as I do everything in nature. I’m a herpetologist. I received my M.S. in Zoology from the University of Southwestern Louisiana (now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette). In Florida I participated in research on the eastern diamondback rattlesnake and Choctawhatchee beach mouse. Later I worked at the Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville, Texas. In Texas I collected important information on rare, difficult-to-document amphibians such as the Mexican burrowing toad, white-lipped frog, and black-spotted newt. I have always had an interest in documenting rare species.

2. C: You had your own area of Louisiana that you were searching for awhile (at least partially on private land as I recall). Are you still spending time there, or anywhere else for that matter?

DM: I continue to conduct ivory-bill searches in southern Louisiana and continue to closely monitor one specific area of private land. This area produced a number of ivory-bill reports from 2005 to 2007. I monitor the area acoustically and conduct periodic forest inventories to determine if there are fresh cavities with promising characteristics. But I also investigate other forests in the parish. It is my belief that present-day ivory-bills are essentially nomadic and will not linger in a given area for more than 5 years, usually less. As far as that goes, most of the ivory-bill pairs in the Singer Tract couldn’t be found in a given area for more than a few years.

3. C: Which Ivory-bill sightings/claims from the last 6 years do you find most compelling?

DM: The Arkansas sightings by Tim Gallagher, Jim Fitzpatrick, Melanie Driscoll, Melinda LaBranche, and Casey Taylor are very impressive to me because they were made by highly competent, very careful observers who were keenly aware of the fact that they needed to eliminate confusion species. However, I think the single most impressive sighting is the one reported by Tyler Hicks in Dec 2005, again a highly competent observer. He saw the bird perched, at very close range, and reported virtually every ivory-bill field mark.

4. C: Which arguments of the skeptics do you find most compelling in arguing for extinction?

DM: Well, the arguments from the supposed inability of the southern landscape to support them after the 1940’s are pretty much worthless as far as I’m concerned. I think they’re based on patently false assumptions about bottomland deforestation in the region and the bird’s requirements. However, one thing does bother me a great deal. Why have no recent searches been able to discover an active ivory-bill roost, despite people hearing and recording putative double-knocks at a number of sites close to sunrise or sunset? This is worrying and is of course connected to the often-raised issue of why no clear imagery has been obtained. I believe it is very unlikely that such imagery will be obtained away from an active roost or nest.

5. C: IF the Ivory-bill persists do you believe there were any major flaws/weaknesses in the official searches that accounts for their failure to confirm at this point?

DM: I think there are a number of flaws, but the single most important one is an excessive dependence on Tanner’s statements about ivory-bill foraging and habitat use, some of which are plainly contradicted by recent and historical data including his own. I have the utmost admiration for Tanner but I focus much more on his data than his conclusions. There has been a strong tendency to look for “Singer Tracts,” and reject areas that do not fit that mold. There has also been an excessive focus on public lands. Ivory-bills may reject public lands for nesting precisely because they are public. The amount of secluded, mature private forest in Louisiana is unappreciated by many.

6. C: You likely hear various things through 'backchannels' that aren't made public. Have you heard anything (no need to say what) that especially sustains your hope for the species, and might give others more hope if they knew about it?

DM: My own studies have produced results that give me great hope, even though I have not seen the birds myself. In my study area, I found a group of very unusual cavities in one particular area in 2007. This area is within a “funnel,” a relatively narrow strip of forest connecting 2 large blocks, and it was in this area that a number of ivory-bill sightings were reported from 2005 through 2007. These cavities still appeared active in 2008, and more evidence of the presence of ivory-bills was obtained. Since 2008 these cavities have clearly become inactive, and the landowner has not reported ivory-bills in the area. In intensive inventories of almost 3000 acres of forest in the general area I have yet to find anything like this group of cavities. Much of my search effort is devoted to finding another such group.

7. C: You've been one of the more staunch defenders of Cornell's interpretation of the 'Luneau video.' How confident do you feel that the bird in that clip is likely an Ivory-billed Woodpecker, or have any of the various skeptics' arguments altered your confidence in that?

DM: Actually, there are aspects of the Cornell interpretation that I disagree with. For example, I think it is quite likely that the bird’s wings are open in frames showing light color at around the time of launch. However, I do consider the Luneau video compelling evidence of the presence of at least one ivory-bill in the area at the time. There are things about the bird that were not even noticed by Cornell which I find difficult to explain if the bird is a pileated. I have yet to see a pileated video that even approaches this one in a number of respects. How hard can this be if the bird is a pileated? Of course if someone were to produce such a video, my opinion would change.

8. C: You were one of the founders of the Ivory-bill Researchers Forum on the Web, a site that pays a fee for its upkeep and maintenance. With Ivory-bill interest fading, and especially if no major news breaks this winter season, are you concerned at all about being able to keep that site running? And if it is taken down at any point will there be any sort of archive that interested parties can search for certain information or past discussions?

DM: We don’t anticipate any problems keeping the site going. We have a core of supporters and I think it’s important for anyone who might see an ivory-bill to have a place to go to where they will not be subjected to haranguing and vitriol. I certainly don’t miss the hoopla associated with the 2004 “rediscovery.” The data I collected on rare amphibians in Texas will never be published. That is fine with me. It is in the hands of those who need it. It took years of patience and persistence to get some of those nuggets and I expect no less from the ivory-bill. I think many people have found the forum to be a place where they can find like-minded folks. Once they do so they often move on to using conventional email. That is fine too. The forum will still be there.

9. C: Can you name anything from the last 5 years that stands out as the most surprising or unexpected happenstance (either good or bad) for you from your involvement with the Ivory-bill saga?

DM: Just when I think I’ve heard all of the surprising and bizarre stories about ivory-bills, a new one seems to pop up. There are the fairly well-known cases of people like Neal Wright, Bill Smith, and the more recent one of Daniel Rainsong. In many of these cases I have access to far more information than the average ivory-bill researcher, and some of them are completely unknown to all but a few. Often, more information adds greatly to the bizarreness factor. I often imagine that a compilation of these snippets would be most entertaining, but it would require breaking a lot of confidences. I will mention one example although I won’t use the fellow’s name. I interviewed a man a few years ago who claimed to have seen an ivory-bill nest in St. Mary Parish, La. when he was a teenager, around 1970. Note that this is the same general time that Fielding Lewis took his famous photos. He said that he had even made sound recordings of the birds but they had been destroyed in a fire. The man said that he had walked up to the nest at one point and saw large white grubs at the base of the tree which had apparently been dropped. He showed me the general area. This swamp, like many in St. Mary Parish, is extremely difficult to penetrate and virtually no one ever does so. What is truly astounding about this guy is that he had never heard of Fielding Lewis, had no idea about his photos, and was completely unaware that there was any recent controversy surrounding ivory-bill. One of the hardest things for avid birders to understand is that most people who spend lots of time outdoors do not read birding literature or browse birding newsgroups or fora. Many of them have never heard the name ivory-billed woodpecker. In a few cases they have apparently seen the bird and can describe it quite accurately, but either have no name for it or use a local name such as indian head woodpecker or poule de marias.

10. C: Anything else you want to pass along to my readers that you think they should know or understand about the Ivory-bill situation at this point?

DM: I think the good news is that probably the ivory-bill is one species that can benefit from benign neglect. Bottomland forest acreage and maturity are increasing and there is a greater realization of the importance of large snags in bottomlands. In retrospect I think I and others were foolish to have given up on the ivory-bill. We bought a narrative about a specialized bird that clung to a precarious existence in one last refuge, until it was finally destroyed. It’s a poignant tragedy and I think we in the conservation community sometimes become enamored with poignant tragedies, rather than looking at the issues honestly and scientifically. In fact I think the species is slowly recovering and will continue to do so. Some of us will continue in our efforts to document the species, quietly and patiently. Stay tuned.

C: Thanks David for all you've done along the way, and taking the time to communicate your thoughts to readers here. We will indeed, stay tuned!

p.s. --- this is sort of an experiment, but if you've been active with the Ivory-bill story in some capacity over the last several years and feel you have something to say on the subject (pro or con), feel free to send me your email address if you'd like to be interviewed for the blog (don't be shy!). I can't promise that I'll go beyond the initial set that I've already sent out, but especially once the holidays are over I may consider more.
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-- Crocker Q & A --

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Here's a relatively recent YouTube upload of Scott Crocker (producer of the independent documentary "Ghost Bird") answering some questions following a showing of his film (~10 mins., but last couple mins. not pertaining to IBWO):



Past and upcoming screenings of the film can be checked from this page at the film's main website (may take awhile to fully load):
http://ghostbirdmovie.wordpress.com/screenings/
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-- Tuesday Sidebars --

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A link that showed up in my inbox a bit ago went to this Arkansas news story about the Freedom of Information Act and the Arkansas Fish and Game Chairman, Craig Campbell:

http://tinyurl.com/27lvkjp

In general not really of much interest to me, except for a few lines that popped out:

"Campbell told the committee the only thing he was still concerned about regarding the FOI was the possibility that releasing public records could harm endangered species. He said that after information was released about the ivory-billed woodpecker’s discovery on the Cache River, 'there were people from England, Spain, Portugal, throughout Europe, throughout the United States, coming in by bus. The woodpecker didn’t have a chance.'"

Where did that come from? Was it just an exaggeration to try to make a point? Or, is my memory off, and there were busloads of Europeans coming to the Big Woods? While there were a lot of visitors, relatively speaking, to Brinkley, AR., my recollection is that there never was the sort of streaming flood of seekers that many had feared an Ivory-bill announcement might bring on; in fact my impression is that Cornell was a bit hard-pressed to even attract the number of qualified volunteers/staff to their Big Woods project as they might've liked to have had on board. Busloads of people? The Ivory-bill didn't have a chance?? Maybe(?) a little hyperbole there (the release of info about endangered species certainly can have drawbacks, but I'm not sure that an influx of those pesky Europeans ;-) is one of them....).

In a totally separate sidebar, I'll just put in a plug for the relatively new ABA birding blog, in case any aren't aware of it. I've been pleased with the variety of writers, subject matter, and posts they are putting out, and after all the recent controversy surrounding the ABA, nice to see them doing a good job with this:

http://blog.aba.org/

Winter is just around the corner, and with it at least some independent searchers (who aren't already in the field) will be heading out in most of the states that had official searches over the last 5 years for yet another, if albeit, slimmed-down look-around (...don't know if that there Iowa boy is still planning on a mid-December visit to the Sabine River as he previously scheduled and advertised for...).
Thanks to all who send me emails about your own private endeavors, even when you don't have a lot of positive or substantive news to pass along; I like knowing what out-of-the-way areas, are at least getting some coverage.

And assuming(??) I have nothing more to post in next 48 hours, a Happy Thanksgiving to one-and-all.
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-- The Elephant In the Room --

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At one point in Stephen Lyn Bales' recent book he writes of James Tanner's concern over frequent inquiries from Louisiana locals about the monetary value Ivory-billed Woodpecker specimens might have. Indeed, through much of their decline their dollar value increased substantially as their numbers decreased. Hunting of Ivory-bills was no doubt routine throughout their North American existence, including even in the 30's when laws may have been more stringent (but hardly enforceable in backwoods swamps).

In his work (with 2 other authors), "The Travails of Two Woodpeckers," Noel Snyder writes openly that significant restrictions to human activity, especially hunting, would be needed to insure any conservation chances for Ivory-bills IF they were ever confirmed in a tract of habitat (not because hunters, in general, are irresponsible or law-breaking individuals, but because it only takes a couple of bad apples to have a devastating effect on such a small species population). Yet, few in an official capacity want to voice that concern out loud; just not terribly PC to do so.

Indeed, agencies in charge, seem intent on saying they can work with hunters and other recreationalists to maintain freedom of access and use of land, while also protecting any birds in question. Uhhh, sure....
Ivory-bills, if ever found in numbers in a locale frequented by the public will almost certainly, on occasion, be poached, and even strict access restrictions could only diminish such law-breaking, not end it, given this bird's allure. That is the world we live in, where a dead, stuffed IBWO, in certain circles, holds more value than a living, breathing one. Indeed, one wonders how many may already sit atop mantelpieces or in attics of out-of-the-way ramshackled domiciles of the rural south... such is the acquisitive instinct simmering deep within humans.

For a whole school of reasons I've already heard before, many will lambast any suggestion that public land holding Ivory-bills (if ever found) ought be cordoned off from most human activity, as best as physically possible; yet anything short of that is likely just a hopeless spinning-of-wheels and pretend IBWO conservation. Still, realistically neither political correctness nor practicality will likely ever allow it to happen --- the hunting community and its cohorts aren't to be meddled with by their tepid and weakly-empowered counterparts/accommodationists in conservation (in fact, attempts to control such human activity/behavior probably only lead to fiercer backlash against such controls). Instead, most likely, we will cordially dance around the elephant... while it stomps out remaining birds.

In closing, I'll quote these passages from the Snyder volume:

"Focusing on the values of preventing habitat loss and encouraging the public to believe that successful conservation of ivory-bills can be achieved without significant sacrifice of hunting privileges on lands where ivory-bills occur may be politically attractive because these policies minimize immediate opposition to conservation efforts. But efforts limited to such policies may well be too timid to be effective in conserving the species... for a reasonable chance of success with ivory-bill or imperial woodpecker recovery, it appears essential that the needs of remnant populations for safety from shooting be recognized and accommodated in a truly effective manner....

"We submit that until ivory-bill and imperial populations are truly out of extreme endangerment, no losses to shooting and other depredations should be tolerated in recovery efforts, and this does indeed mean exclusion of shooting activities from confirmed use areas by whatever means may be feasible. The reserves at Aransas in Texas and Red Rock Lakes in Montana that appear to have been crucial in allowing recovery of the whooping crane and the trumpeter swan, respectively, were established specifically to conserve these species by protecting them from shooting, rather than to promote traditional hunting activities. It is only prudent to assume that such protection would be essential for any ivory-bill or imperial population unambiguously rediscovered today."

....of course the operating phrase above is "unambiguously rediscovered" --- for now, this entire post is moot unless a confirmed room with Ivory-bills in it is actually found.
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-- Thank You, Stephen Lyn Bales --

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With Christmas around the corner I'll throw out another plug for Stephen Lyn Bales' recent book, "Ghost Birds," on the work of James Tanner at the Singer Tract (and beyond). This is a volume that any naturalist, birder, and certainly Ivory-bill enthusiast, on your list will likely relish. There has never been such a full and detailed treatment of James Tanner's IBWO research.

Almost everyone agrees (even those who discount some of his conclusions) that James Tanner's 3-year study of Ivory-bills in the 1930s, is one of the finest pieces of natural history study in ornithology. Bales' book is a natural history... of Tanner's natural history, and much of it enthralls.
The first third-or-so of the book is on the original 1930's Arthur Allen-led Cornell expedition to the Singer Tract in search of Ivory-bills (that Tanner was part of), and the remainder (and best part) of the volume covers Tanner's own classic 3-year study that followed thereafter, as he traveled the south in a Model A Ford, in search of his ghostly subject.

Some readers may find parts of the book to read like a tiresome travelogue, but for anyone entrenched in the Ivory-bill saga, many parts are stirring, almost sending chills up the spine, as one immediately imagines being there and experiencing the sights and scenes of the dank swamp and bottomlands. There is lots of new information, and entertaining anecdotes, as Bales basically recounts his story by meticulously digging through Tanner's daily journals and notes. The fleshing out of J.J. Kuhn, Mason Spencer, and other IBWO-related figures and southern ways, is fascinating at times.

Chapter 20 (and part of 21) is a lovely sidebar on the courting of Jim Tanner and his wife-to-be Nancy (who later joined him in treks to the Singer Tract to see Ivory-bills). We also have Nancy to thank for encouraging Stephen Bales to compile and write this wonderful history, that we are all richer now for having. (James, BTW, died in 1991; his widow Nancy is in her nineties and still active --- I'll link once again to this older post of a Nancy Tanner visit to Julie Zickefoose's home: http://tinyurl.com/25laktm.)

I also, especially like that Bales includes an Appendix listing Tanner's travel itinerary for his entire 3-year study (1937-9), including how long he stayed in each search area. As I've noted here in the past, other than the Singer Tract, there were very few areas that Tanner ever stayed in more than 1- 4 days at a stretch (although he often made multiple visits), and it is difficult to fathom how even someone as skilled and knowledgeable as Tanner, with modest equipment and techniques, could have adequately surveyed many of these areas in such brief sojourns. (Many question whether the weeks/months spent by modern search-teams were sufficient to adequately cover areas of the just-ended 5-year search.)

Anyway, we all know the end of the story, with Tanner's and Audubon Society's inability to save the habitat where they suspected remnant IBWOs might hang on, as America headed into war and a war economy. No matter how many times I read it, the poignancy never lessens. So many times, and in so many ways, we failed this bird... and of course many, many others.

Bales' writing throughout is both matter-of-fact and touching, with a clear and appropriate reverence for James Tanner the individual, and his life-work. I highly recommend the volume for the growing library of Ivory-bill must-have reading.

I've not actually seen this volume yet in any bookstore, but it is readily available online (it is from a university press, and I'm not sure how widely it is being distributed).

Bales' blog for the book is here: http://ivorybillwoodpecker.blogspot.com/

[It occurs to me, as an aside, that perhaps I should note that Bales' book has no connection to the similarly-titled Scott Crocker independent film, "Ghost Bird," which has been making the rounds now for awhile, except that both deal with Ivory-bills.]
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-- Coming For All Bird Fans --

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Main website for movie:

http://www.thelegendofpalemale.com/HOME.html

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-- "A Beautiful Moment," Indeed--

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Gloom versus hope... (again, off-topic IBWO-wise):


After thinking about Passenger Pigeons for awhile I browsed various bird news websites looking for some POSITIVE news related to birds... difficult to find amidst the plethora of negative reports. But did finally settle on a short uplifting blurb regarding California Condors... some hope for these birds that are so magnificent and beautiful in their ugliness!:
http://tinyurl.com/27n958v

(image via Wikimedia)
In turn, this reminded me of an old favorite article, that always gives me a chuckle, from earlier days of the Condor release program. I've actually run this before here in the distant past, but will do so once again:
........................................................

"Cocksure Condors" By Bob Saberhagen Californian correspondent
Filed: 09/09/1999

"PINE MOUNTAIN — When former Sierra Club national chairman Les Reid helped pass the 1992 Condor Range and Rivers Act to provide habitat for the endangered California condor, he never thought he would have them in his bed. Monday, while working at the computer in the downstairs den of his rustic Pine Mountain home, the 84-year-old environmental activist heard noises coming from the top floor. There Reid was greeted by eight giant California Condors cavorting in his bedroom. They had ripped through the screen door leading from an outside deck of the hillside home nearly 6,000 feet above sea level.

One bird was carrying Reid's underwear around in his mouth, he said. "It was a beautiful moment," said Reid."They just stood there looking at me. They weren't afraid of this old white-haired gentleman." The group in Reid's bedroom was part of a gang of 15 young birds that invaded the mountain community a week ago and decided to stay. The 15 are among only 29 of the huge vultures flying free in California, part of a recovering population that totals only 167 after nearly becoming extinct in the 1980's.

Dubbed the "The Wrecking Crew" by biologists chasing them, the wandering birds have spent the past few days making their presence well-known to residents of the mountain community south of Bakersfield. But so far, to the dismay of some residents, a team of biologists from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's California Condor Recovery Program has been unable to chase the endangered birds back to the wild.

While many locals marvel at their graceful daily flights over the village, others are not so pleased. The giant vultures, averaging 20 pounds each with wingspans of 9 or more feet, have been soaring from home to home at the higher elevations, startling several occupants with destructive, noisy — and messy — visits to their decks and rooftops. Homeowners report the birds have destroyed patio furniture, potted plants and insulated wires. They've also torn up roofing shingles while leaving huge amounts of droppings in their destructive wake.

Recovery team members have been in hot pursuit, chucking pinecones at them when they land, but the birds just flee from house to house. Their apparent lack of fear toward humans has Fish and Wildlife biologists concerned for the safety of the group. The birds were born in captivity in San Diego and released over the past three years in Lion Canyon near New Cuyama in northern Santa Barbara County.

"If they keep this up they could end up back in captivity," said biologist Mike Barth who, with team partner Tom Williams, has spent the past several days trying to convince the birds to leave the area and shy away from contact with humans. Pine Mountain resident Patti Fields resorted to squirting them with a garden hose after they ignored her shouts, but they continue to return to her home each time biologists flush them from another. "I just scrubbed the deck the day before they first showed up," she said, her nose wrinkled at the mess on her roof and wooden deck. "They sound like an army marching across your roof."

The birds can drop a cup or more of excrement at a time, Williams said. While undesirable, the group's behavior is not all that unusual. Condors have in the past been known to frequent areas populated by humans.
"It's normal for juveniles to hang out together and they have a tendency to tear things up," Williams said.
This group recently spent some time in the Stallion Springs area of Tehachapi, where Fish and Wildlife workers are presently going door to door telling people not feed or encourage them. They have also visited homes near Lake Cachuma. Recovery program officials said they are being tolerant — for now.

"We're hoping that when they start breeding they'll stop this kind of behavior," said Deputy Project Coordinator Greg Austin. "We don't want to see these birds doing these things. Right now we're giving them some slack." Austin said the birds, ranging in age from 2 to 5 years old, will reach sexual maturity at age 6. Only 167 California condors are in existence today. They were near extinction in 1987 when the last of 22 remaining wild birds were captured and placed in a captive breeding program. So far, 49 condors have been released to the wild since 1992, when the first 13 were released. Twenty of those are presently in Arizona with the remaining 29 in California.

Ideally, biologists prefer the California-released birds remain within the 467,000 acres of habitat in the Los Padres National Forest provided for them in the Condor Range and Rivers Act. Outside the wilderness the birds face a host of urban dangers. Condors have died drinking anti-freeze, by electrocution after landing on power poles, and others have become ill eating carrion containing lead bullets. Many of the problems have been solved by using aversion training methods, including use of mock power poles that jolt them with a low voltage shock. But this group of juveniles seems to have forgotten lessons taught in the negative conditioning classes, especially the portion regarding fear of humans.

Among other perils they face here is the possibility they might collide with power lines during their low-level flights through the community. "They can spread their wings and electrocute themselves," Barth said. Austin said efforts to train the birds are being thwarted by well-meaning people who feed and encourage their presence.
Officials ask that residents stay at least 100 feet away from them. "If they approach, clap your hands and yell to scare them off," said Williams. Above all, don't feed them, he stressed.

Williams said condors normally feed up to twice weekly on the carcasses of deer, cattle and other large, dead animals found in the wilderness. Officers said they will continue attempts to persuade the birds to leave the area where their activities will be constantly monitored. "We're going to keep tabs on them, document where they go and what they're feeding on," Williams said. "We just want to keep them out of trouble," he added."

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-- 'Another Heaven and Earth Must Pass' --

Not Ivory-billed, but pulling at same heartstrings....

Below page with a photo of ghostly captive Passenger Pigeons in a Chicago aviary, circa 1896, was recently posted to BirdChat:

http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/whi/feature/passengerpigeons/

(Look... and... sigh....)

And many more pics from the same wonderful historical gallery here:

http://tinyurl.com/2cq6w6h

"The beauty and genius of a work of art may be reconceived, though its first material expression be destroyed; a vanished harmony may yet again inspire the composer; but when the last individual of a race of living beings breathes no more, another heaven and another earth must pass before such a one can be again." --- William Beebe, The Bird, 1906



(pics from Wikimedia)
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-- Briefly Noted --

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Bobby Harrison posts a pic of an Ivory-bill and nest (taken from Florida ~1890) in an Alabama museum:

http://ibwfound.blogspot.com/2010/10/ivory-billed-woodpecker-specimen.html

What I find most intriguing is the size of the nesthole as measured by Bobby... quite small. Possibly it reflects the huge variability in IBWO cavities (further downgrading them as a diagnostic tool), but I'm wondering if there is anything that might be done to a museum artifact (to preserve it) that could possibly have shrunk the hole-size??? (Doesn't seem likely, but anyone know?)
Several people have sent me pics of cavities over the years, many of which I quickly dismissed as looking too small (though difficult to judge size from a photo), but now I wonder...

On a side-note, a reader alerts me that the Auburn Choctawhatchee webpages have been taken down (I presume they're still available on the "Wayback Machine," but haven't looked); a somewhat sad happenstance/omen?. Will the Nature Conservancy and Cornell IBWO pages slowly disappear into-cyber-thin-air over time as well....?

ADDENDUM: I've now heard from someone who previously worked with Dr. Hill and has been in touch with him, who says that the Auburn pages/material are in the process of being moved to a new server and are only 'down' temporarily; should be back up once the changeover is complete; hopefully that is the case.
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-- Musing Over The Past --

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more idle thoughts....

Many years ago, shortly after David Kulivan's claim of a pair of Ivory-bills near the Pearl River, I chanced to be at a David Sibley book-signing. As David signed my copy of his field guide I asked him quickly what he thought about the likelihood of the Ivory-bill's persistence. His reply was that given the millions of birders now in America and the large size of the Ivory-bill, he didn't believe it could've escaped detection for this many decades. It was a (simplistic) response I'd often heard, but had expected something better from David. With a stream of Sibley acolytes behind me though there wasn't time to debate the point or see if he could flesh out a fuller reply. He was polite, but his cynicism seemed evident way back then.

But at that time it didn't really matter how many millions of "birders" there were if 99% of them never spent any significant time in Ivorybill-like habitat in their entire lives. And it doesn't much matter how large IBWOs are if they spend most of their lives split between the upper canopies of remote dense forest and the inner sanctum of tree cavities. But such is the Rorschachian nature of ornithology that some of us see a country full of ardent birders who have well-traveled/inventoried our woodland habitat, and others of us see a countryside 99% devoid of birders 99% of the time, with our avian knowledge only scratching the surface...

Still, that was 10 years ago. David Kulivan's claims were never substantiated (and Mike Collins' claims from the same area also await validation/acceptance by others), and after 5 years of the first-ever large-scale, organized, focused searches specifically for the Ivory-bill in select areas, only very limited results have followed... Sibley's pessimism carries at least a little more weight now than it did 10 years ago, when only spotty searches had been conducted. His view is a long way from a slam-dunk, but the whole IBWO story does, unfortunately, seem left 'twisting, twisting slowly in the wind' (in the prescient words made popular during the Watergate era).

The USFWS map of some major IBWO claims since 1944 is here:

http://tinyurl.com/3866w4a

It's certainly unlikely that the species could really be spread across the Southeast (even in tiny populations) in a manner depicted by such dots. But it's difficult to choose the viability of certain areas over those of others, especially when the last five years of effort don't seem to strongly point us in any particular direction?

...One night, some weeks ago, for no particular reason, I searched "Zapruder film" (the epic film-capture of the JFK assassination) on YouTube and looked over many of the clips... slow-mo, zoomed-in, raw footage, enhanced footage, digitized footage. Theories still abound to explain JFK's murder, from the mundane (supporting the Warren Commission Report of a single lone assassin) to the complex, to the outright crazy (...or seemingly so). I could've watched those Zapruder videos all night long, so mesmerizing (and full of controversy) are they... in a macabre sort-of-way... unresolved questions almost 50 years later.

...David Luneau's video is often called the "Zapruder film" of ornithology. Just a little bit closer, or a little bit sharper, or a little bit longer, better view, and perhaps this debate would already be over. Instead, just enough brevity, fuzziness, uncertainty, that opinions abound, with no resolution in sight, and yet the temptation is to re-watch it over and over again. Like the film clip out of Dallas, Texas, so long ago, it continues to haunt some of us. There is good reason this bird is deemed the "Ghost Bird."

...and 'tis the season of ghosts and goblins!
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