-- Some Good News In Bird Conservation --

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Parrot species represent some of the most threatened bird species on Earth, but good news recently from the American Bird Conservancy for the South American Yellow-eared Parrot climbing back from the brink of extinction:

http://tinyurl.com/6b7pm8h
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-- Cuban Ivory-bill --

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Read elsewhere on Web that Dr. Giraldo Alayon, a renowned Cuban ornithologist/naturalist and one of the last people to see the Ivory-billed Woodpecker in Cuba back in the 1980s, is currently writing a book on the Cuban IBWO.
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-- American Melancholy --

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A little off-topic today...



...with thoughts/prayers for the latest victims of American violence.
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-- Bit of Housekeeping --

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First I should probably link to the latest "I and the Bird" birding blog-carnival, since this edition links to my interview with Stephen Lyn Bales:

http://www.birdingisfun.com/2011/01/i-and-bird-141.html
(it is filled, like all editions, with a variety of good birding-related links)

And well-timed, for my recent interview with Mr. Bales, I just noticed there is a 1st edition of James Tanner's "The Ivory-billed Woodpecker" monograph currently up for sale at eBay, for any of you IBWO-book-antiquarians (who have some bucks to spare!):

http://tinyurl.com/275e7tv

For those few who were affected by the recent blog-glitches here related to the Internet Explorer browser, thanks for your patience with the matter (I didn't receive a single "Hey dorkhead, your %$!@*&! blog is all screwed up!!?" email at any point. ;-))
I've put in a fix for now to have text show up in IE, but there are still other issues that I may re-try addressing one day. ...And let me just say that there is no amount of evil that could befall Microsoft and Internet Explorer that would suffice from my standpoint for their sloppiness! --- I'll reiterate that Firefox, Chrome, and Opera seem to be the favored browser choices these days, and there's Safari for the Mac --- IE is just a sloppy, slow-loading, insecure, unstable, poor-quality browser (other than that of course it's fine-and-dandy) that people put up with 'cuz it came with their machine, but almost never deliberately choose anymore --- But enough soapbox!
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-- Interview - Stephen Lyn Bales --

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Another "Ivory-bills Live" interview is finally here, this time with the author of "Ghost Birds" (a book I highly recommend), naturalist Stephen Lyn Bales. I very much enjoyed Stephen's answers to my questions, and think you will too:

1. CT: For those readers who aren't familiar with you can you say a little about your background and credentials, and what brought you to the James Tanner story?

SLB: I'm a naturalist at Ijams Nature Center in Knoxville, Tennessee, a member of the local chapter of the Tennessee Ornithological Society (TOC) and a nature writer. Nancy Tanner is a member of Ijams and TOC; I've known her for years. In the fall of 2005, I was finishing the manuscript for my first book Natural Histories for UT Press and having lunch one day with Nancy when conversation drifted to her late husband Jim. Stories about Tanner and his search have fascinated me for years and all of a sudden I realized I should attempt a book about his ivory-bill studies and asked Nancy to help me. Such is the way that these projects usually begin.

But before you write a book, you have to find a publisher. I had been already working with UT Press, I approached them and they gave me the go ahead. Since, Jim Tanner taught at UT for over 30 years, it seemed like a natural fit.

2. CT: Your book puts a little more "flesh" on several of the names long associated with the Ivory-bill story. I particularly found the portrait of J.J. Kuhn interesting, almost semi-heroic. Besides Tanner which other figures did you develop a special admiration or respect for from your research?

SLB: Albert Brand’s story is tragic. A self-made man, he was able to retire from his first career as a stockbroker when he was only 39-years-old and begin a second career as an ornithologist. As a student at Cornell he developed an interest in the fledgling science of recording birdsong, which led him to publish two pioneering books, Songs of Wild Birds, which included two small 78-rpm phonograph disks and, in 1936, More Songs of Wild Birds, containing three disks and 43 bird songs. (I have a copy of the second.)

Because Brand had money, he helped plan and finance the 1935 Cornell Expedition and would have accompanied Allen, Kellogg and Tanner all the way but his health collapsed. That must have been heart breaking, to be on the threshold of such a great adventure, and not be able to go. Brand’s name perhaps would have become synonymous with recorded birdsong, he was already on the forefront, had he lived to complete other projects but his health never improved and he died of kidney disease on March 28, 1940. He was only 51-years-old.

3. CT: Your discovery (with Nancy Tanner) of additional photos of "Sonny Boy," the juvenile Ivory-bill, received a lot of publicity. Other than that, what were the most unusual or surprising findings you made in the course of researching the book?

SLB: Without a doubt, Jim’s 400-page field journal. Tanner donated it to Cornell a few years before he died in 1991. (Twenty years ago this month.) Most of it was handwritten, notes and maps he scribbled in the field or after a long day in the swamp. His handwriting wasn’t always easy to read, but I worked my way through it one page at a time and really felt I relived his peregrinations with him.

4. CT: Even given a 3-year period and all of his skills, with so much time spent at the Singer Tract and in Ithaca, NY., I've always found it difficult to imagine how Tanner could have adequately searched the rest of the Southeast for hideouts of the Ivory-bill. From your study can you say what level of confidence you have that he sufficiently explored all areas to reach the final conclusions he did?

SLB: He actually spent very little time in Ithaca those three years. Tanner put in long days on the road, month after month. I think it is safe to say he did everything humanly possible for one man to do, up before daylight and out all day until dark plus he had to pack in supplies to wherever he was at the time.

I do think his assignment was too broad and his time-frame too brief. He was asked to 1) Learn all that could be discovered about the historic range of the ivory-bill, 2) Discover where they still could be found, 3) Study the ecology of the species: what was its favorite foods, how did it raise its young, where did it nest and roost, what kinds of trees did if prefer, in short, learn everything possible about its life history. All in three years. This put him constantly at cross-purposes and must have pulled him apart, having to first: stay in one place observing ivory-bills and second: travel extensively throughout the Gulf Coast states searching as many locations as possible. If such a study were commissioned today, ten or more people would be assigned to the task.

5. CT: Your book focuses on Tanner's 3-year study in the late 1930s, but he didn't pass away until 1991. Can you say a little more about what his involvement was with Ivory-bill claims over the last 50 years of his life?

SLB: Books are assigned parameters by editors. My contract called for a manuscript of no more than 300 pages, 85 percent of which about Tanner’s field years. This gave me a time-frame of 1935 to 1941. But I know that Tanner remained outdoorsy after the war, explored the nearby Smoky Mountains constantly for birds, albeit not ivory-bills. He did take many canoe trips down the same rivers and others in the South during his vacations. On these, he was always searching for signs of IBWOs.

6. CT: A little more specifically, I've previously referenced (on my blog) Herb Stoddard's claims for IBWOs in Georgia. Did your research indicate whatever thoughts Tanner may have held towards Stoddard's claims? Or how about his attitude toward John Dennis, another IBWO claimant well past the 1940's, who more clearly seemed to feel some friction with Tanner (and others)? In short, were there any (U.S.) claims in the last 40-or-so years of his life that particularly excited Tanner as to a possibility for IBWO persistence?

SLB: Since my project became defined by the dates 1935 to 1941, I only concentrated of those years of his notes and letters. I was also under deadline, so I had to really focus on that time period. I do not have copies of his notes and letters dated after 1941; the originals should be at Cornell with the rest of his papers. The Tanner/Dennis friction is unfortunate. From what I have read about both men they are very similar. Both believed in spending long hours in the field. The truth is out there; go find it. James Tanner the professor always required his students to spend more time in the field than in the classroom or lab. He was no PhD snob. If he was on campus, his office door was open. Any student could stop by for advice at any time.

I think Tanner always hoped that someone would someday find living ivory-bills that he could go and observe. He was much too humble a man to let his ego stand in the way of the delight of seeing the species once again wherever it was found. What a thrill that would have been for him. In January 1968, after the Dennis report surfaced, Jim returned to the Big Thicket in Texas with Paul Sykes of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Almost 30 years after his initial visit, they found no feeding sign, good habitat or credible substantiating reports. Jim’s belief that the species was not in the area remained unchanged. Tanner and Dennis just simply disagreed. I’m a Colts’ fan; I have a close friend that’s a Packers’ fan. We just agree to disagree.

7. CT: What, if any plans, are in the works for a paperback version of the book? Also, any possibility of a movie (documentary) version of the volume, possibly for TV if not the big screen?

SLB: Once a manuscript is turned into the publisher, it’s out of his hands. From that point on, the book belongs to the publisher. They own it. Whatever happens next is up to them. I assume if the hardback sells well enough, they may produce a paperback. But sometimes that can take years.

8. CT: Are you planning or working on a new book project now?

SLB: Writing a book is a long, tedious process, hours and hours and hours. Since I have a day job, I write early in the morning, at nights, on weekends and use vacation days. For every hour you put in, that’s an hour you do not get to spend with your family, or hike a trail in the Smokies, or repair that leaky gutter over the front porch. I’ve spent much of my free time the past seven years writing the two books. That’s a lot of hours. But once you become an author, and understand how the process works, I suppose you are always thinking about other projects. I’m sure I’ll write a third, I’m just not sure what or when. I’ve been pulling together material for a sequel to Natural Histories, but here again, I have to find a publisher willing to give me the go ahead before I commit myself to the long hours to would require to complete.

9. CT: Is there anything else you would want my readers to know about the Ivory-bill story from your vantage point and research?

SLB: It’s a wonderful, bittersweet story, a story of hope and of sorrow. It’s obtained a mythical standing. I feel honored to have been able to flesh out in more detail, one of its chapters: Jim’s story.

Unless you have actually seen an ivory-bill recently, you have to wonder: Is it extinct or not? As I write in my preface, “And there the magnificent bird teeters, one zygodactyl foot in the here and now, the other in the hereafter. For over one hundred years, the grave has been dug, but no one can confidently fill it in. Dressed in black, we stand around the gravesite with no final corpse to bury.” Let’s hope there never is a final corpse. No Martha the last known passenger pigeon, or Incas the last known Carolina parakeet.

You often see the word “hope” associated with the ivory-bill. We all hope it’s still tucked away out there. Scott Weidensaul’s book The Ghost with Trembling Wings is filled with such stories. I’ve spoken to many people who feel they have seen it. Their stories are very believable. As Tanner would say, “If your observations do not match the books, go with your observations.” But getting the evidence to convince others is how science works. We all wait for that truly non-contestable photo. We’ll all breathe a sigh of relief and do back flips when it appears.

Jim Tanner came to believe they were extinct, BUT he hoped he was proved wrong. And he was very sincere in that desire.

CT: Thank you Mr. Bales for your illuminating answers here, and giving the birding/naturalist community such a wonderful reading experience with your book; wishing you much success in the future.

ADDENDUM: just occurred to me that I should've given a plug to Mr. Bales' own blogs somewhere in this post:

http://ivorybillwoodpecker.blogspot.com

http://stephenlynbales.blogspot.com/

http://talkingnature.blogspot.com/

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-- Happy 2011 and Techie Problems --

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JUBILANT NEW YEAR!!... sorta (when technology isn't a pain-in-the-...)

...heard from a few folks about the odd recent glitch of blog-text being invisible on posts here until one drags the cursor across the area making it appear (also, the heading/title and left-hand side-column may not be appearing properly)... mostly a problem for people using Internet Explorer, but if anyone is having similar problems with any other browser please let me know that. Luckily things appear fine in most browsers and for most readers.

Also, if anyone is using IE and having NO such problems with the blog, please let me know which version you're using, although I suspect all versions are affected.

My first suggestion is to switch to the Firefox browser (or other choices) in place of IE (for more reasons than I care to discuss! -- ya shoulda done so long ago ;-)). Here's the free download site for Firefox:

http://www.mozilla.org/

If you're using IE it may also help some to reduce the size-view to the smallest size that is still readily legible for you. I'll be working on the problem, but have no idea if/when I'll figure out the corrective measure needed.

If one of you HTML (or it may be a CSS problem?) whizzes can describe for me what to look for in the source code to find and correct this sort of problem (invisible text; post-titles & footers are fine) please email me (cyberthrush@gmail.com) --- so far as I can tell, I only played with 2 lines that seemed to initiate the problem, and off-hand I don't see the problem in either line myself. Oy veyyy....
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-- Ivory-bill Books etc. --

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DOH!! I should've thought to do this BEFORE Christmas, but oh well... here's a link to an Amazon listing of major works they offer dealing with the Ivory-billed Woodpecker:

http://tinyurl.com/2akr497

My personal favorites continue to be:

"In Search of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker" -- Jerome Jackson
"The Ivory-billed Woodpecker" -- James Tanner
"The Race to Save the Lord God Bird" -- Phillip Hoose

with these two runner-ups:

"Travails of Two Woodpeckers" -- Noel Snyder, David Brown, Kevin Clark
"Ghost Birds" -- Stephen Lyn Bales

One book listed, published this year (at $76 in paperback!!!) I'm totally unfamiliar with:

"The Ivory-billed Woodpecker" edited by Frederic Miller, Agnes Vandome, John McBrewster

If anyone can fill me in on this recent volume (and why the price!?) please feel free to comment below or email me.
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-- Stephen Bales News Piece --

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Knoxville news article on Stephen Lyn Bales (author of "Ghost Birds")

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2010/dec/29/ijams-naturalist-details-adventures-with-ivory-bil/
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-- IBWikipedia --

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Over the years I've evolved from a skeptic of Wikipedia to a user/believer in it. I use it almost every day now for basic information, yet still remain wary of it for more technical or detailed information... or for controversial topics (nor do I ever contribute to it). So, oddly, I hadn't looked at the Ivory-billed Woodpecker entry in a long, long time, but had occasion to today and was pleasantly surprised at how good an overview of the IBWO situation it gives (still missing lots of details and technical stuff, but a good general overview, compared to what it was some years back).
If you've not followed it, worth a gander here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivory-billed_woodpecker

There is also a discussion page for the above main-article page, which includes at least a few added bits of interesting material, including a July 2005 sighting in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, mentioned toward the end:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3AIvory-billed_Woodpecker

Hey, with luck, perhaps there will be future significant edits yet to come.
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-- Pileated Scaling... --

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Last week over at IBWO Researchers Forum, Mark Michaels requested help for his ongoing study of Pileated Woodpecker bark-scaling characteristics:

http://www.ibwo.net/forum/showpost.php?p=5628&postcount=592

[ I think you need to be a member of the Forum to contact him through there, or you can probably contact him through the Project Coyote site linked to in left-hand column here; or, if you can't find another way to reach him and genuinely believe you have something of interest for him, send the info along to me for forwarding to him.]
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-- Merry Christmas! --

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I used this once before at Christmas; am using it again (a bit somber, but still too lovely to pass up):




Where I live we're expecting the first White Christmas in almost 65 years, before the day is over... I s'pose some things just take that long. ;-))

Merry Christmas to all!
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-- The Crossley ID Guide --

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Too late for Christmas, but... Richard Crossley's much-anticipated new field guide (to eastern North American birds) is due out in February (...maybe in time for my birthday! ;-))

I"ve been interested in the volume since reading about it at "10000 Birds" blog over a year ago:

http://10000birds.com/could-this-be-north-americas-best-id-guide.htm

More here (although this site is partly under re-construction):

http://www.crossleybirds.com/gallery/THE-I-D-GUIDE-coming-soon

Nice 8-minute video of Crossley talking about the guide on this page:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Crossley-ID-Guide/Richard-Crossley/e/9780691147789

And a Facebook page also devoted to the guide:

http://www.facebook.com/CrossleyIDGuide

Finally, the Amazon link here:

http://www.amazon.com/Crossley-ID-Guide-Eastern-Birds/dp/0691147787

Many of us hardly need yet another field guide added to our shelves, and I don't know if the book can possibly live up to all the hype it's received on the internet and elsewhere, but it's the first new field guide I've anxiously anticipated in a long, long time. 2011 is looking up already!

[Ohh, and will the Ivory-bill be in it?... I'm doubtful, but have no idea!]
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-- Twittersphere --

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Am now dabbling with a Twitter account for "cyberthrush," just to have in place in the unlikely event that there is breaking news on the Ivory-bill front at some point to put out quickly --- Twitter is very effective for communicating news with speed and immediacy, though not in-depth. More likely I'll be using it for mundane bird, IBWO, or nature tweets (...or Steven Wright witticisms ;-), if I use it much at all. For those who follow Twitter, the link button is in left-hand column.
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-- Just Playin' --

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Ngrams from Google is all the addictive rage these days, simply checking written word usage over the last couple centuries in all sources Google has catalogued. So of course had to check out "Ivorybilled Woodpecker":











Surprised though to find that, in spite of the last 5 years, "Passenger Pigeon" still blows the IBWO away:











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-- 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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