— Another One Passes On… —

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Add one more individual to the history bin of the grand Ivory-bill saga…

Mark Michaels and others send word that Bob (Robert, Rob) Russell Jr., retired from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, died suddenly on Sunday June 30 at 73 years of age. Bob was a long-time, intrepid, optimistic Ivory-bill searcher. I only spent a few days with him close to 20 years ago in the aftermath of the David Kulivan Pearl River sighting, and then had occasional emails back-and-forth over the years. At that time I believe he was working on an Ivory-bill book, which may have been pre-empted by the later Cornell excitement in the Big Woods of Arkansas and the mini-flurry of books which followed that. 

Bob always had a couple of intriguing Ivory-bill stories to tell, though never with quite as much detail or documentation as I was hoping for (he was a long-time birder and searched for other rarities as well). I often couldn’t tell which stories to take most seriously, but at least his optimism was a bit contagious. Writer/birder and fellow Minnesotan Laura Erickson described Bob as “one of the kindest, warmest people I've ever known, a great birder, a total optimist (he never lost hope that an Ivory-billed Woodpecker was lurking somewhere) and lots of fun, too.”

If/when I come across a more extensive obituary of his life I may add it on here.

ADDENDUM:  here is one online obituary for Bob (if folks know of others feel free to pass them along):

https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/saint-paul-mn/robert-russell-8767800#remembering

...and Mark Michaels sends along this tribute from Bob's long-time friend/columnist Jim Williams:

http://www.startribune.com/remembering-a-longtime-bird-advocate/513095212/

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-- Recap, Nothing Much New --

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Another media article out of Louisiana on the Project Coyote effort:

https://www.wwno.org/post/search-controversial-woodpecker-continues-louisiana

...mostly re-hash of history of the search effort, brought a bit up-to-date by the end, but no new findings reported.

ADDENDUM:  Mark Michaels comments on the story here:
https://projectcoyoteibwo.com/2019/05/16/a-look-back-and-a-look-ahead-project-coyote-on-wwno-seasons-end-and-future-plans/

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-- Persistence --

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Mark Michaels points us to this nice current article on the ongoing search/hope for Ivory-bills (perhaps a bit unfortunate that it gets published on April 1, but oh well!):

http://www.wagmag.com/the-holy-grail-of-birds/?fbclid=IwAR29lV-H7aVUCyQh0lcIQZRTAqIP4V25osgHQnSSSbi3bE0WC9K9HFevX8k

(One small bit of new info from the piece, I hadn't previously heard, is that Mike Collins is said to be writing a book based upon his claims/experiences.)

Meanwhile, over at their “Kints” blog (and with a little assist from woodcarver Dean Hurliman) the Carlisles have posted some wonderful Mississippi photos! ;)

https://ibwos.blogspot.com/2019/03/in-dreams-23-march-2019.html

Soon the forests will fully sprout out, the winter search season will be over... yet again, and Ivory-bills, IF they exist at all, will have maintained their Holy Grail status.

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-- R.I.P… Bill Thompson III --

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Not Ivory-bill news, but feel I should pass along the sad news that Bill Thompson III, husband of Julie Zickefoose (painter of and writer about IBWOs), father of Phoebe (22) and Liam (19), long-time publisher/editor of Bird Watcher’s Digest, podcaster, author, and music-lover, passed away from pancreatic cancer on Monday at the age of 57.

His last update (March 23/24) on his “CaringBridge” site is here:

https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/bt3updates

Some tributes here:

https://www.birdwatchingdaily.com/news/birdwatching/in-memoriam-bill-thompson-iii/

He'll be deeply missed, but he had a rich, fulfilling, if too-brief, birding life, and spread the joy of birds (and many other joys) to all who entered his sphere.

The world would be a better place if we could all contribute so much cheer in 57 years.

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-- Springtime Updates --

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Mark Michaels has a new post up for their Louisiana search, including more details on methods/criteria being employed, and a further mention of the attempt to attain analyzable DNA from scaled bark.

They have swapped out their first set of audio recording devices… he mentions, but doesn’t go into detail, obtaining “preliminary results” from the deployments, so I’m not sure if that means all audio has been reviewed already or more likely is still underway? I imagine another post for specific putative audio findings will come later.

https://projectcoyoteibwo.com/2019/03/25/trip-report-march-5-17-2019/

And Jackson Roe, at his blog (in Arkansas), also recently entered another post wherein he speculates about the suitability of Western Cuba for IBWOs.

https://ibwosearch.blogspot.com/2019/03/overlooked-cuban-ivory-billed.html

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-- End-of-month Miscellany --

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Jackson Roe asked me to note his latest endeavor at the Wattensaw WMA (Arkansas) to lure IBWO with a home-made Ivory-billed model:

https://ibwosearch.blogspot.com/2019/02/2019-decoy-camera-trapping-for-ibwos.html

Short video showing his set up here: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsnC_FSuIzc

Models have been used before. Other than Bobby Harrison thinking he had lured an IBWO on at least one occasion with one, I can’t recall any claimed successes with them, but always worth a try. Below a couple of the robotic models that have been created or used in the past:

Nothing much to report (in the way of sightings or signs) from a second team of searchers exploring parts of north Louisiana.

...A side-note: for any who don't know, Bill Thompson III, long-time birder, writer, podcaster, group leader, editor of "Bird Watcher's Digest," was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer this past December and has been undergoing treatment since. For any who wish to follow his progress, or send a donation or well-wishes check here:

https://www.caringbridge.org/public/bt3updates

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-- Louisiana Deployments --

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Mark Michaels brings folks up-to-date on their La. efforts with this post on the deployment of remote recording units:

https://projectcoyoteibwo.com/2019/02/19/trip-report-february-2019-multiple-units-deployed/

Actually, the one, almost casual line, in the post that most interests me is that they have collected some sweet gum bark scrapings that may be tested for DNA.  The chance of detecting IBWO DNA of course is slim indeed, and despite working in genetics ~15 years, I’m not even sure what the viability of detecting woodpecker DNA from bark scaling is? If they even could detect Pileated DNA that would be quite fascinating and add another tool to the search arsenal. My guess is that such testing will come up empty. More obviously, bird feathers and bird droppings can reveal identifiable DNA. If there is an expert out there who can fill us in more though about the feasibility of DNA testing on bark scrapings I’d be interested to hear about it…

ADDENDUM:  someone involved writes in to clarify/confirm that the DNA analysis, if done, involves new advances in genetic testing that may or may not be successful in this instance.
(BTW, I'll probably do some sort of short post at end of coming week; if anyone has specific updates they want included with it let me know.)

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-- IBWO Researchers' Forum --

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Just a quick note to say that the IBWO Researchers’ Forum seems to have fixed whatever the issue was with their site and I’ve had no problem bringing it up the last 48 hrs. (after a year of difficulties). So if you had given up on it, you can now try again:

http://ibwo.net

And by the time you read this, Mark Michaels is reporting that his team may have "all the recording devices deployed" at their La. search site (not sure if that means 200 devices(?) or a smaller number). Mark expects to report on this trip in a week-or-so at the Project Coyote site.

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-- Acoustic Monitoring Set For Louisiana --

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Mark Michaels has announced the newest phase of the search endeavor in central Louisiana which involves deploying 200 remote acoustic recording units made available from the National Aviary in collaboration with the Kitzes Lab of University of Pittsburgh, as well as additional technical support, with a hope of pinpointing any IBWO activity in the area:

https://projectcoyoteibwo.com/2019/02/02/an-exciting-new-search-strategy-and-two-newly-noted-calls-from-march-2017/

Deployment begins by the end of this week, and will cover some areas not part of their main search focus, listening for both 'kents' and double-knocks. Of course acoustic data gathering has been carried out before, never leading to definitive photography or video (despite putative sounds), but Mark notes:

"The technology has advanced considerably since the organized ivorybill searches in the early 2000s."

If by any chance such an approach led to finding Ivory-bills one can only begin imagining how many other locales would need to be similarly monitored. :)

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-- New Year, New Post --

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Sorry for long news-less spell but just not catching drift of any new significant information that isn’t readily available on the Web (and the occasional non-credible tweet of an Ivorybill sighting on Twitter doesn’t cut it ;). 

Anyway, a long-time IBWO seeker retired from USFWS, informs me he'll be leading a small group to several key areas of La. over upcoming weeks, and is also giving the Big Cypress and Myakka River areas in Florida another look.

Wouldn’t get expectations too high, but at least good to know that some additional serious searching will take place early in the year, when leaves are off the trees and any remaining IBWOs ought be actively out-and-about seeking mates, courting, nesting, carrying on, and basically easier to spot (and photograph!) than at any other time of year.

I occasionally hear from folks who are spending a 3-day weekend somewhere looking for IBWO, but if anyone else is doing some more extensive independent searching over the winter months and wants to let me know, feel free to drop a line with whatever details you're willing to share (even if you're unsuccessful I'm interested to know what areas are even getting any attention these days).

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ADDENDUM for proprietors of the IBWO Researchers’ Forum site & anyone having difficulty accessing that site:

Recently I discovered slightly more info on my year-long difficulty accessing the IBWO Forum site (probably 9 out of 10 attempts with either Safari or Firefox browsers fail for me; Chrome used to be equally bad, but recently succeeds slightly more often). Anyway, I recently dug a little further on Chrome after getting the message that there was “No page information” for the Forum site and got these further messages:

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“It means that the website prevented Google from creating a page description, but didn't actually hide the page from Google.If you own this page you can improve this result either by letting Google read the page to create a good description, or hiding the page entirely from Google Search results. Read below to learn how.
The page owner partially blocked this page from Google, so we couldn't create a good page description. Unfortunately there's nothing that we can do ourselves. If you know the site owners, tell them they are blocking Google with a robots.txt file, which prevents Google from creating a page snippet.”

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So apparently some sort of robots.txt file is the root of the problem (though I don’t know how easy that is to locate?); have also recently realized that the Forum site is still under a http:// url listing rather than the https://. that is now commonplace (I don’t know if that is a source of any difficulty?). And still not clear to me why access might differ from one computer to another, or from one ISP provider to another???

Anyway, after reading the above, I brought up the Bing search engine (instead of Google), searched for “ibwo.net” on it and when it was brought up clicked on it, and that accessed the site for me! (I tried some other search engines, but they didn’t immediately work consistently, while Bing worked fairly well) — probably worth trying for anyone else having repeated difficulties with access to ibwo.net

— Report and Suggestions From A Searcher —

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Soon the leaves will be off the trees and we’ll be headed into prime winter IBWO search season. John Williams, “Motiheal” on the Ivory-bill Researchers’ Forum, asked me to direct folks to two of his previous long posts there that detail a couple of his past trip experiences and ideas for search methods, focusing on tape playbacks.

The posts are here:

http://www.ibwo.net/forum/showthread.php?p=6985#post6985

http://www.ibwo.net/forum/showthread.php?p=6776#post6776

[Note: Due to some glitch I actually have a great deal of difficulty opening the Forum site these days; IF you too experience problems accessing the site or these two particular links I won’t be able to help you, other than to say keep trying at random times.]

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-- Choctawhatchee Redux --

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Mark Michaels reports on a claim from the Choctawhatchee:

https://projectcoyoteibwo.com/2018/08/20/the-choctawhatchee-a-detour/
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-- IBWOs in Your Backyard or Den --

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Several of you already have received Iowan Dean Hurliman’s handsome, hand-made life-size craftings of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. He recently wrote me to explain that he would likely only complete 8 more of these beauties, and will be looking for homes for them.

He then sent along the following message that he requested I print verbatim, which I am happy to do:

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

“And then the man he steps right up to the microphone

And says at last just as the time bell rings

Goodnight, now it’s time to go home

And he makes it fast with one more thing”

       “Sultans of Swing”  — Mark Knopfler

Last Call For Free Flying Ersatz IBWs

Currently, I have 8 IBWs ready for assembly and paint.  However, after August, I’ll no longer have internet access.  So if you want a bird—scroll back to Sept. 2015 for particulars.  If you’re tardy—call or write.

Thanks gracious ct for the use of your blog.  Because of it, over 50 of my IBW carvings will be on display in private hands and public institutions where they may play a small part in a greater appreciation for our beleaguered natural world.

These final words from poet Dylan Thomas are directed to the undaunted believers and searchers.  But most of all, to the “Lord God Bird”, itself: 

    Do not go gentle into that good night…

            Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Dean S. Hurliman

Burlington, Iowa

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Here is the Sept. 2015 post to which Dean refers (and which includes his email for contact purposes).

https://ivorybills.blogspot.com/2015/09/ibwo-wood-carvings-wow.html

Dean sent me a list of the public sites/institutions that have already received these gorgeously-crafted pieces, and it’s thrilling to know that such life-like visages will be keeping the IBWO alive in peoples’ minds long after this saga is over.

I certainly hope his last 8 treasures find fitting homes as well…

And with only 8 available I recommend contacting him soon for all the specifics.

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ADDENDUM:  At the very end of the below post you can see two of Dean's beauties that were received recently by a couple of intrepid Mississippi searchers:
https://ibwos.blogspot.com/2018/09/walking-melkors-road-11-september-2018.html

-- A Summary From Louisiana --

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Mark Michaels summarizes 9 years (thus far) of IBWO searching in central Louisiana (Part 1):

https://projectcoyoteibwo.com/2018/06/29/evidence-part-1-project-coyote-2009-2018/

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-- Animatronic Delight --

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In case it's the best we ever get, may as well post this ;) :

http://tinyurl.com/yakrjj3h

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-- Jackson Roe in Arkansas --

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Some will remember almost 10 years ago a young Jackson Roe and his father searching for IBWOs in the Big Woods area.  Jackson recently notified me that he is back at it in Wattensaw and has renewed blogposting here:

http://ibwosearch.blogspot.com/?view=classic

He was particularly interested in getting opinions on some trailcam photos of 2 distant birds in his 5/29 entry. As usual not good enough for conclusive identification, though I don't think they're Ivory-bills; but feel free to send Jackson your own thoughts, questions, ideas.

By the way, I'd be interested to hear who else is still doing any regular searching (and how often) in the Big Woods area (perhaps Mike Brown???), since I no longer hear much from that area at all, though I'm sure some individuals do at least sporadically venture there.

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-- Louisiana Doings --

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You can read Mark Michaels' latest encounter with a woodpecker in central Louisiana (with more to come later)… and, with a person-of-interest here:

https://projectcoyoteibwo.com/2018/04/28/sunset-sighting-april-27-2018/

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-- Mike Collins' Latest --

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Mike Collins has a new piece out on the use of drones to search Ivory-bill habitat:
http://www.mdpi.com/2504-446X/2/1/11/htm

(...haven't yet thoroughly read it myself or perhaps I'd say more)

Mike has uploaded various drone flight examples over different areas to YouTube, including this example from the Choctawhatchee region:



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