— Summer Beach Reading Perhaps? —

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With winter search season largely over, no telling how long we’ll go without significant news… so if you’re looking for summer reading (and you’re into fiction) here are 7 old novels that have the Ivory-billed Woodpecker as a main character or focus:

“The Lord God Bird” by Tom Gallant 

“The Life List of Adrian Mandrick” by Chris White

“AVES — The Age of Engagement” by C.J. Berry

"The Elvis Bird" by D.E. Woolbright

“Ivory Hunters” by Gregory Lewbart

"Of The Wing: The Ivory-billed Obsession" by Georgia Anne Butler

“The Lord God Bird” by Russell Hill 

Also saw an idea on Twitter recently that I liked for someone with a creative-writing flair: do a novel about a birdwatcher who goes off in search of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker only to not be seen again (the birdwatcher)… can imagine all sorts of twists and turns for that storyline! (and then the movie with Richard Dreyfuss in the lead, entitled 'Close Encounters of the Bird Kind' ;)

…OR, here’s another one: a novel about a blogger, obsessed with this species, who’s skeletonized body is found slumped at his computer keyboard after going 23 days and nights without food or water while pouring over clear, definitive photos sent to him by a Pascagoula, Mississippi moonshiner named Bubba. ;)  (this one called perhaps, "The Blogfather," starring Al Pacino)....

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— Sunday Meditations —

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With nothing new to report, will just reach into past Aprils for some old thoughts:

This was a bit of Jerry Jackson commentary here from April 2006:

https://ivorybills.blogspot.com/2006/04/more-commentary-from-j-jackson.html

…and some passages I first used as a “Sunday Meditation” in April 2008 (not specific to IBWO) from astronomer/writer Chet Raymo in his 2003 book, "The Path: a One-Mile Walk Through the Universe”:

         "...however one chooses to romanticize what in retrospect seems a fetching life, it is impossible to reclaim it... Technology -- with its awesome potential and perils -- is here to stay.

         "The inventory of Earth's living species currently stands somewhere near 2 million. There are almost certainly at least ten times as many species that have not yet been described and named --- the true number of species may be more than 100 million. Many of these are inevitably doomed by human population growth....

          "All life --- the whole glorious parade along the path --- depends upon the photosynthesizers... With the invention of photosynthesis, life plugged into a star, and the battle against entropy was won. The universe continues to run down, as it must, but on the surface of the earth there spreads out a film of highly ordered matter of marvelous complexity and resourcefulness. The one-celled organisms that ruled the Earth 3 billion years ago were no more advanced than the scum that lives on our shower curtains, but that scum had evolved the ability to make carbohydrates with sunlight... Animals developed along a different branch of the evolutionary tree, and it seems unlikely that you and I had photosynthesizers among our ancestors. But the tree of life is a web of interdependence. Green leaves are our necessary link to our yellow star.

         "...The Arcadian ideal of humans living in harmony with tamed nature did not begin with Frederick Law Olmsted, Capability Brown, or even the supposed Peloponnesian paradise itself (witness the more ancient myth of the Garden of Eden), nor was it discredited by the obscenities of the twentieth century's wars, the Great Depression, or the grimmer excesses of technology. It is a sturdy old myth, and in it we might still hope to combine the Enlightenment, with its confidence in the power of the human mind to make sense of the world, and romanticism, with its belief that all of life is a miracle. Along the one-mile walk of the path, I have found these ostensibly competing tendencies happily fused: order and surprise, artificial and natural, civilized and wild, human self-interest and organic wholeness.

          "....About half of the earth's land surface is presently exploited by humans, and all of the land and water surface is touched in some way by the waste products of human cunning...

         "The technological products of human ingenuity represent an inevitable stage in planetary evolution, yet our Arcadian yearnings are dictated by millions of years of pretechnological human evolution. It is a conundrum of human life that our intellects have outraced our instincts; cultural evolution has overtaken organic evolution. Biologically, we are hunter-gatherers who suddenly find ourselves in command of almost unimaginable powers for planetary transformation."

         ....and lastly this thought from E.O. Wilson:

          “If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos."

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— Just Miscellany — +Addenda

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On the bright side:  I had figured out a somewhat cumbersome, convoluted way of viewing tweets on Twitter without having an account there, but a reader (thank you) sent me a simpler means of doing so, so now I can check on @ibwo_discourse or anyone else when I wish.

Matt Courtman will be holding another monthly (free) Zoom meeting this coming Monday night at 7:30 EDT.

Someone recently asked on Facebook if there’d been much searching in Western Tennessee (and specifically bringing up the Chickasaw Wildlife Refuge). Historically, there were no confirmed reports of Ivory-bills in TN., but in their 2007 report, USFWS did mention 4 areas of the state of possible interest (all in the far west, bordering Arkansas): certain parts along the Hatchie River, Meeman Shelby State Park, Reelfoot Lake area, and yes, the Chickasaw National Refuge. I’ve often cited Bill Pulliam’s enticing reports of possible IBWO at the Moss Island Refuge (which seems on the smallish size, but is close to the larger Chickasaw Refuge). His main posts are HERE and HERE. I could never tell for sure if Bill was toying with his readers over Moss Island, since he never returned for more extensive searching (perhaps? hindered by money and time), but as I’ve reported here before, when I once specifically pressed him if he seriously believed Ivory-billed Woodpeckers resided there, he simply said that IF they did they deserved to be left alone, having survived this long on their own [he didn't particularly encourage folks to go look there, but nor discourage them]. In any event I know of no more recent searches/encounters with IBWO in these areas in subsequent years. BUT yes, western TN., as well as slivers of southeast Missouri and southern Illinois interest me, specifically because of the scarcity of searching ever done there (and a few oddball reports) versus prominently mentioned areas (where more claims come from, but followup searches mostly fail over and over).

As a sidenote will just mention that author Sam Keen, in one of his books, tells the story of growing up around Pikeville, TN. in 1942 (much farther to the east in Tennessee) and as a young birdwatcher being told that a locally shot bird is an Ivory-bill (which he buries) — he admits it was surely more likely a Pileated, but still is haunted a bit all these years later by what the grownups, probably not credibly, insisted at the time.

All of which reminds me a tad of how in philosophy or logic they talk about “necessary and sufficient” conditions for a statement to be true. These days I keep looking for Ivory-bill evidence that is “significant and credible.” Evidence sometimes floats around that might be significant if only one could vouch for its credibility & accuracy… and vice-versa, there are sometimes assertions made which are credible, but which are more rehash or repetition than truly new or significant. Getting “significant and credible” together is a bit of a challenge :(

Otherwise, from the Dept. of Marching-Around-In-Circles I see this discounted photo from almost 20 years ago re-surfaced... yet... again... on YouTube last week; I guess the creator can take pride in the staying-power of his handiwork. Oy:

...and finally, to go from the ridiculous to the sublime (or maybe in this case the other way around?), Chuck Hunter recently linked to an article on the "Birds Aren't Real" movement:

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/04/birds-arent-real-gen-z-politics-mcindoe-adam-faze-fifty-stars.html

Chuck calls the article "intriguing" by which I assume he means 'God help us all!'.

(nothing IBWO-related in the piece, except for peoples' apparent love for, or gravitation toward, conspiracy theories)

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ADDENDUM 4/15:

Will just mention that Hannah Hunter, who I previously wrote of for her piece specific to the Ivory-bill, is back with a co-written article on the "audiovisual afterlives" of the IBWO and a mammalian species, the Bucardo:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/24694452.2024.2304206

...and now, ADDENDUM to the Addendum:  Hannah is on a new short podcast about the same topic here:

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

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ADDENDUM 4/19:

A heads-up (especially for any nearby to the locale)… the Pennsylvania Society for Ornithology 2024 Birding Festival will be held in Washington, Pa. from May 31 - June 2:

https://pabirds.org/2024-schedule/

On Saturday, June 1, Steve Latta is scheduled to share the evidence from their Louisiana study and argue for the persistence of the IBWO ”based on a variety of data collected over a 10-yr search period, 2012-2022” 

??? does that mean he’ll have nothing from 2023 (or for that matter 2024) to share; guess we'll find out in a few months.

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-- Eclipse Day --

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This morning at 11:29am. Joseph Q. Smeddley of Fargo, ND. became the one millionth visitor to this blog, thus winning a 2024 Lamborghini Revuelto! ;)

OK, so ummm that’s not exactly true, but Google does claim 1 million hits here as of a few minutes ago (...though there are so many sock-puppets running loose in IBWO-land these days, the million hits might only represent a couple dozen people! 😳). Anyway, with any luck there may be a clear photo of a living Ivory-bill before we hit the 2 million mark. Maybe...

Otherwise, the day is auspicious of course because of a certain amazing configuration of the Earth, Moon, and Sun forthcoming. How thoroughly unlikely that such a bizarre geometrically-precise arrangement can even occur! (...skeptics might dare even call it impossible ;)). Just a sorta reminder that Nature is full of improbabilities!! 😉

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— I’m Almost (but not quite) Missing Twitter —

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I left Twitter months ago when, like so many others, I could no longer stomach Elon’s destruction of the site (actually returned briefly after a month, just for poster @ibwo_discourse, but then left for good again). I do miss the occasional Ivorybill-related tweets. A reader just sent me the below April Fool’s Day post that someone tweeted of our beloved friend s'posedly perched in the Choctawhatchee (nicely-done, and sorry I don’t know who did it to give credit!). I assume tweeter @ibwo_discourse continues covering IBWO foibles/shenanigans -- if so, he (or she) has had a lot of fodder to play with lately. Twitter is also home to a large birding community and thus may yet occasionally have something significant about IBWO posted.

Anyway, Twitter joins Reddit, Quora, Substack, Threads, Surfbirds, and many other forums I just won’t spend much time with, so feel free to pass along anything you catch there and think important (or entertaining) — usually anything significant will meander its way onto Facebook (which I’d also love to drop, but can’t). Sad to say, just not a lot of great substance or significance is being released on the internet as we draw nearer to the close of yet... another... winter... search... season.... a season in which, if the birds survive, the roostholes, nestholes, foraging sites, they used daily for months yet again go undiscovered.

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— A Li’l History —

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I've posted these before, but will do so again — a few of the past Ivory-bill reports for the month of April that preceded our ‘modern’ day circumstance:

April 1924: Arthur Allen locates/photographs a pair of Ivory-bills in central Florida (that were later killed).

April, 1932: Mason Spencer shoots an Ivory-bill in the Singer Tract and delivers it to a game warden to prove that the species which ornithologists believed was long extinct (but La. backwoodsmen knew wasn't) was still around.

April, 1944: Donald Eckelberry views and sketches an Ivory-bill at the Singer Tract, which some consider as the last confirmed sighting of the species in the U.S., following James Tanner's study and reports from same area.

April, 1955: author and past Audubon President John Terres reports having seen 2 Ivory-bills fly over a highway near Homosassa Springs, Fla.

April, 1956: in the press, an Ivory-bill is reportedly shot in North Carolina though no evidence comes forth to support the claim.

April, 1966: an Ivory-bill is reported in the Neches River swamp area of east Texas.

April, 1967: the first of several sightings of Ivory-bills over a couple of years by H.N. Agey and and George Heinzmann in Polk County, Fla.

April, 1985: Dennis Garratt reports an Ivory-bill in Jonathan Dickinson State Park, Fla.

April, 1999: David Kulivan reports 2 Ivory-bills in the Pearl River refuge of southeast La. Followup searches fail to re-locate or confirm, but the stage sets for the current day saga of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker to begin anew.

[over the above time-period there are easily dozens, perhaps hundreds, of other IBWO claims... the above are just some of the more prominent highlights specific to the month of April]

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— April Dr-r-r-r-rumroll.... — +Addenda

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“‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul”  — Emily Dickinson

One million and counting.... The Google stats I get for this blog seem a bit whacked, but nonetheless, perhaps worth marking the occasion: looks like this month (possibly even this week) the blog will cross over 1 million hits since its inception, almost 19 years ago. That's a LOT of anal-compulsiveness! (just kidding ;)) 

Especially grateful to the intrepid folks who have stuck it out since the very start, through thick-and-thin, through college or kids or divorces or hernia operations, hip replacements, COVID, and a zillion blurry pictures and unresolved debates; through 4 Presidents and 6 Speakers of the House, through the rise of Taylor Swift and pickleball, and the fall of George Santos! Through Seinfeld re-runs, Bitcoin debacles, the mystery of Malaysian airliner MH370, the deaths of Steve Jobs and Robin Williams and near-lynching of Mike Pence, and of course all the USFWS hemming-and-hawing.... yeah, we been through some thangs… zaniness, vitriol, hopes-raised/hopes-dashed, confusion, intrigue... and, well, more-to-come!…. 😮

Waaaay too many people have made contributions to the discussion over the years for me to try to cite them, but will at least acknowledge 3 names whose work/writings have been especially important to me: Bill Pulliam (deceased), Chuck Hunter, Chris Haney (perhaps not coincidentally, Chuck and Chris were both acquaintances of Bill). Thanks also to those who've quietly helped behind-the-scenes with miscellaneous things over the years, and who need to remain anonymous (you know who you are). And, whether we agree or disagree on specific matters, thanks finally to all who sincerely try to understand the plight of this iconic species and inspire others to do so as well! 

Meanwhile, early on, an experienced British birder labelled those of us who pushed the “Ivory-bills persist” storyline, “stringers,” for endlessly stringing people along — and that was in the early years; he must reeeeally be super annoyed with me by now, all these years later! Keep on reading, and I guess I’ll keep on annoying ;)) 

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ADDENDUM 4/2:

Dwight Norris has a longish summary post for his IBWO Facebook group musing about where we’re at after 80 years of Ivory-bill searching:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/179784035376368/permalink/7671707159517314/

…he also muses a bit about the Saluda, SC. claims, including a notion that it could be a case of the principal on-site reporter involved basically doing a dissertation on human gullibility — that was actually a thought I'd had early on, but after investigation and for too many reasons to explain, dropped from consideration (...IF that actually turned out to be true, I hope his professor/advisor at least awards him an "E" for Effort).

Anyway, I suspect Dwight’s post might stir a flurry of thoughts/responses, so maybe take a gander at it and any followup.

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Addendum, to the Addendum:

At the moment there are 55 comments to Dwight’s post, causing him to further elaborate now with a 2nd separate posting:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/179784035376368/permalink/7675402589147771/

…not sure how long this might drag out and I had hoped not to spend more time on what has been one of the most embarrassing episodes of many embarrassing episodes in the IBWO saga (…so I won't say much here, but might continue to link to discussions elsewhere) …btw, John Williams’ FB page, if you care to visit, is here:

https://www.facebook.com/john.d.williams.503

 …and includes links to a couple of his prior non-IBWO blogs:

https://motionhealth.blogspot.com

https://bestdriver.blogspot.com

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