-- One Reporter's Tale --

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 A semi-interesting... if rather disappointing concluding take from an Arkansas reporter:

http://www.couriernews.net/story/1946877.html

She's wrong about the Ivory-bill being bigger than a Bald Eagle, and wrong about it being the model for Woody Woodpecker... and I suspect wrong about more... but, oh well. 

Not certain what specifically she is referencing when she mentions in the first line a "decision... very quietly made by a group of renowned scientists" that brought the Arkansas search to an end, and "officially declared the Ivory-billed Woodpecker extinct"?  
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-- IBWO Nests Difficult To Find In 2010… AND, In 1905 --

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A bit ago a poster at Ivory-bill Researchers Forum linked to an old but nice IBWO account from R.D. Hoyt in Florida from 1905, and another poster later transcribed it to the site. It's an interesting read, and I was hoping to put it together with some other passages addressing the historical wariness and evasiveness of IBWOs for a longer post here, but just don't have the time to pull that all together right now, so won't delay any longer sharing the original Hoyt piece with any who haven't already seen it. It begins as follows:
"Among all the feathered tribe [ if ] there is a bird whose nest is more difficult to locate than that of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker it belongs to some species with which I am unacquainted," and later references the Ivory-bill as the "shyest and most cunning" of all bird species (...like we don't all know that by now ;-)). Check it out:

http://www.ibwo.net/forum/showpost.php?p=6034&postcount=116

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-- Dream On? --

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Duly noted, Cornell's Tim Gallagher started a blog this month, "Imperial Dreams," apparently to coincide with the upcoming (April) release of his newest book (same title) on his latest obsession/quest for the presumed-extinct Imperial Woodpecker of Mexico.
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-- A New Year --

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I don't usually bother linking anymore to summary Ivory-bill pieces that re-hash the situation without adding something new to the discussion, but I'll break that rule to get the New Year underway with this pleasant piece from Traildirt blog:

http://traildirt.com/ivory-billed-woodpecker-gone-or-just-forgotten/

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-- In Time For Christmas... --

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Well, this is different...

A Colorado politician (and life-long birdwatcher) has self-published a novel (geared to young people) entitled "AVES: The Age Of Engagement," with the Ivory-billed Woodpecker as a principal character:

http://www.timescall.com/lifestyles/entertainment/ci_22191534/former-lafayette-mayor-chris-berry-releases-first-novel

The book is available through Amazon here:

http://www.amazon.com/AVES-The-Engagement-C-J-Berry/dp/1477437495

or through its own website here:

http://avesthebook.blogspot.com/

As long as I'm mentioning Ivory-bill novels, I'll re-mention Tom Gallant's "The Lord God Bird" from earlier in the year, which I did read and mostly enjoy (and reviewed HERE):

http://tinyurl.com/cwrkufr

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-- In the Shadow of Mason Spencer --

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Credibility….

When David Kulivan claimed an encounter with 2 Ivory-bills in the Louisiana woods in 1999, some doubters found his verbal/written reports TOO good… TOO on-the-mark… TOO accurate… in short, his details sounded TOO much like they were lifted out of a book instead of being a spontaneous, accurate recounting of what his eyes actually saw. 
As best I recall, Kulivan admitted that after seeing the birds he consulted a field guide to confirm what he believed he'd just observed, and later made his report… many feared that by the time he verbally gave his account, he unintentionally blurred, in his mind, his actual experience with that description read from a book.
I've always leaned toward believing Kulivan's take, but it is a tough call (and for a lot more reasons than the one I'm pointing out above), and I understand why Kulivan's all-too-excellent account makes some people nervous.

Indeed, there can actually be a fine line between Ivory-bill claims that are discounted because the details are too poor… and those that are discounted because the details are TOO perfect (too out-of-the-book). There is SO much IBWO information now readily accessible that the ease of concocting a "believable" sounding story out of whole cloth is great. 
Jerry Jackson used to relate the story of a lady in Mississippi who's sighting tale sounded credible to him because she described the call of the birds as sounding like geese honking -- he'd not heard anyone use that description, and it was clearly her own interpretation, but it made a lot of sense; made her sound credible. No non-birder, on their own, would likely say an IBWO call sounded like "kent" or "henk" -- those are strictly pneumonics you pick up from the literature, but the comparison to geese was more unique (...just as a non-birder would never say they heard an owl in the woods call out something like "who cooks for you," except by getting that out of a book).
My point in all this is simply that "credibility" (especially of non-birders) is hard to judge, and often in the eye of the beholder. At this point, in the IBWO arena, I suspect even the credibility of USFWS and Cornell is pretty much in tatters for many in the wider birding community. And despite 1000s of excellent birders (including famous ones) in this country, I literally don't know who, outside of David Sibley, could report an Ivory-bill with no accompanying photo/video, and immediately have widespread believability. NO ONE, I suspect.

Over the last 6 years many anecdotal reports have been sent my way… sometimes from sighters themselves, sometimes from people informing me about a sighter they know of. In two instances I sent stories along to "higher ups" saying essentially, "ehhh, maybe this is worth checking out a little further…" In all the rest of the cases, I only needed to ask a few questions to conclude the tales lacked credibility and details (that doesn't always necessarily mean the stories had NO credibility, it just means they lacked enough to warrant pursuing). 

An hour after the Dan Rainsong story broke I wrote that I regarded it as bogus; some folks emailed me saying I should let the story play out, wait for more info and specifics; that I was reacting too quickly… but it only took 30 minutes of Googling on the Web to find enough red flags and incriminating oddities to utter an opinion that the story lacked even an iota of credibility, and was going to be a distraction and time-waster. The only way one could take the press release seriously was to be too lazy to research it on the internet.  
An earlier episode by the fellow known as "TheMagicGuy" in Florida similarly was quickly discounted by most of us because again a little websleuthing made his story (which also sounded a bit too perfect and too bookish) seem unlikely. And when the Steve Sheridan tale became public I began asking questions in backchannels because on so many counts it too lacked a solid ring of authenticity, to be taken seriously for so long. And MOST of the stories I get through email are even more obviously lacking in cred (…BUT, a tiny tiny residue do have substance).

I bring up this whole discussion now because of the prior post and comments to it. Without photos/video, claims of credible IBWO stories are largely meaningless to the wider birding community… been there, done that, 1000 times. I specifically asked if any official agency was involved with the "interview" of the current LA. claimant because obviously any story told by Fred or Frank, or Mary, Larry, Gary, Harry, or Albert Einstein for that matter, needs to be vetted further by others… and then others… and then others, to attain any traction at all (unless or until there are photos).

...But, BUT, BUUUUT… having said all this, the single greatest error I live in fear of, is what I call the "Mason Spencer error" -- Mason Spencer was a non-credible reporter of Ivory-bills (I won't repeat his story here), and as a result one of these precious specimens died for him to verify his claim... I probably would have scoffed at him myself. In the end, just because someone is NOT credible, does NOT automatically mean every given claim they make is UNtrue. It is NON-birders, with less than stellar experience, knowledge and background, who spend far more time in IBWO-type habitat than skilled birders -- percentage-or-probability-wise, it is more likely a NON-birder will encounter Ivory-bills than a birder. And so while I have no patience for hoaxes and pranks, and trust my instincts on those strongly, I always carry some lingering fear of premature judgments…

In short, I fully understand why skeptics express doubt at a story like the latest familiar-sounding one from LA. I'm dubious of it myself (for many reasons)… but, it is none-the-less, the type or form of story I can't write off out-of-hand... because it likely won't ever be a David Sibley or any other expert who resolves this saga… it is at least as likely to be a Mason Spencer or Gene Sparling type figure, who no one saw coming.
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-- From Louisiana --

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Received a letter yesterday from Louisiana searchers with information they wish to pass along for the benefit of any other active searchers. The verbatim letter below:

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"We have just returned from several areas in LA and MS where we observed drought habitat conditions.  This has triggered a good oak mast crop.  We recently received, credible, repeat site reports from LA in an oak dominated ridge in a residential area, and after visiting believe that Ivory-bills could be disproportionately in oak dominated, higher areas near the first bottoms or second bottoms during the upcoming seasons.

Fred Virrazzi, Franklin Wiley and myself, a botanist, were camping in the tupelo-cypress dominated first bottoms when we recorded no insects under several square feet of bark peeled from dead boles of multiple species.  Internally to six inches, the standing dead wood was also dry.

We were skeptical of any sightings in a residential area but upon videoed interviews, review of field notes and ecological observations we surmised these were likely good sightings in a wooded residential area surrounded on three sides by first bottoms.  Most importantly the 300 acre area was a ridge, perpendicular to a large river with tens of thousands of acres of decent bottomland and this higher strip had many Live Oaks and other species producing mast.  The observer was very reputable; the bird flew away upon detection of slight movement the two times it was observed perched.

Fred noted that mast attracted Ivory-bills to Wadmacon Island, SC in the 1930’s and that  historical literature describes it as an Ivory-billed food resource.  In modern times Guthrie and Everett noted a possible connection between mast and Ivory-bills. 

In drought years borer insects can be harder to find and acorn crops can be heavy; it could be a time to look for birds in higher, wooded areas near the bottomlands.

Thank You,

Elizabeth Peck
National Biodiversity Parks"

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 I have inquired of them 1) if there's any chance the "videoed interviews" would be publicly available at some point (or, alternatively, if anyone from Cornell, LSU, or USFWS have viewed them), and 2) if they're able to be any more specific about the LA. location they are referring to, but have not yet heard back. Perhaps they can respond here in the comments at some point...?
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-- Rarer Than Ivory-bills??? --

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Recently someone sent me a photo of a partially "leucistic" Pileated Woodpecker, in this instance a specimen with a slightly enlarged white wing patch showing. Over the years from time-to-time readers have sent along such pics of Pileateds with various small white body patches present, though I've never found such examples very interesting. What does interest me though (as I've repeatedly noted before) are Pileateds with a great prevalence of white showing on their bodies. There have been several of these discovered over the years in different locales (including the Big Woods of Arkansas). A Google image search brings up some of them:

http://tinyurl.com/aul2uhv

Always worth keeping such examples in mind, not because they would likely be mistaken for Ivory-bills, but because they hint at the possibility of specimens that truly do have a large, more defined, white (symmetrical) shield-like pattern that might mimic an Ivory-bill. I'm still waiting for the day when someone gets a photo of such a bird (as Noel Snyder actually reported seeing decades ago in Florida, but didn't get a photograph). I suspect such birds truly do exist and possibly even get mistaken for IBWOs… but, I also suspect, for now, that they are rarer than Ivory-bills.
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-- FWIW --

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David Luneau notes (Oct. 18) receipt of a recent sighting he seems to feel of some interest. No details provided as yet, however; not even as to general location:

http://www.ibwo.org/index.php

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-- "Potential Source of Confusion" --

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I'll pass along this note from a reader expressing "a potential source of confusion" that searchers ought be alerted to… the Black-bellied Whistling Duck.

This species is expanding it's territory further into Southeastern states, and the e-mailer notes that in the case of a brief glance from behind, the bird would flash black-and-white wings, have duck-like flight, be the right size, found in a swamp, and possibly taking off from a tree; moreover a typical field guide range map wouldn't necessarily lead one to consider this species.
The writer sends along the below photo (of a BBWD) to give some sense of what a sudden escape flight might appear like:

...For obvious reasons, 'fleeting glances' of birds flying away are not likely at this point, to get much serious consideration as Ivory-bills from the birding community; and better, longer looks are likely to rule out BBWD and other waterfowl... but good to keep all possibilities in mind.
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-- Long Hot Summer --

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Have only heard from a couple of folks who spent any time looking for IBWOs during what may have been the worst, hottest, buggiest, most uncomfortable summer on recent record in the Southeast (never a great time to look for IBWOs, even under good conditions). If anyone further cares to note the location of any search time spent in the last few months feel free to  (for example I presume at least some searching continues in the Big Woods, yet I don't recall anyone mentioning it to me via email for quite awhile. Also, if anyone still has automatic remote cameras up & running, or plans to re-deploy in winter, I'd be curious to know that as well, just to have a better sense of what locales continue to receive some monitoring).

December-March is probably the far more propitious time for searching... we'll see how many man-hours and reports, if any, the upcoming winter produces. Mike Collins notes that he hopes to have a very active search season in his Pearl River domain, probably beginning around January, but also says this may be his last season, with tentative plans to return to his Wash. D.C. work office in 2013: http://www.fishcrow.com/winter13.html
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-- Jurassic Whatever… --

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I s'pose I have some ambivalent feelings about this, but iconoclast Stewart Brand (with others) has a current project underway, called "Revive and Restore" to bring back-to-life various extinct species, using modern genetic techniques. Although their current focus is on the Passenger Pigeon, both the Ivory-billed and Imperial Woodpeckers are among other candidate species being considered.

http://rare.longnow.org/projects.html

http://blog.longnow.org/02012/07/16/revive-and-restore/

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-- Replay --

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For any who may be interested, someone named John Deamond has pieced together this video of various IBWO-related clips (there seems to be no accompanying audio). The first minute-or-so are some very quick clips, mostly zoomed, that have made claims of showing IBWOs (some from YouTube, some from Mike Collins, 1 from Geoff Hill's group). The next 11 minutes are various replayings of the Luneau clip from Arkansas, and the last minute is some superfluous animation:

IBWO Triptych from john deamond on Vimeo.

I don't find anything distinctly helpful or new here, but pass it along in the event others may wish to play with it. Also, don't know any particulars about John's project beyond his own statement that it is "...about extinct birds and how the events surrounding and following their demise reflect issues with how we deal with the natural environment."

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-- Hope (...and Reports) Remains --

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Minnesota birder Jim Williams voices his continued hope for the Ivory-bill in this current short column:

http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/homegarden/blogs/162911316.html

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-- Random Thoughts on a Hot Summer Night --

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Often I let such things go, though sometimes they wear on me a bit… mislabeled pictures of an "Ivory-billed Woodpecker" (with a photo of a Pileated) continually appear on the Web, simply adding to the widespread confusion that stiiiiill exists over these 2 species even after all this time. 

(Ivory-billed Woodpecker... NNNOT!!)

Mislabeled pics on the Web are especially egregious because of the way they are picked up by others and transferred along, so even if the originating site eventually corrects their depiction, the inaccurate picture may have already traveled on, unchecked, repeatedly far and wide. 
Likewise, I've lost track of how many videos on YouTube have appeared claiming "Ivory-billed Woodpecker" for a bird that is clearly something other (and there are other Web video sites that I don't track closely enough to even know how often the same mistake occurs elsewhere).
 It's even more disconcerting that many of these claims emanate from poor habitat or simply inappropriate states (New York, Washington state, Arizona…). Although, most of these cases are probably sincere mistakes, it's also clear that some are instances of prankish individuals wishing only to mess with other people's minds. Getting a good, clear sighting, let alone photo of an Ivory-bill, in good habitat remains a daunting task.

Even National Geographic (a site many would presume credible) for years carried a lead photo of a Pileated Woodpecker above a 2006 Web article on the IBWO search, entitled "The Ghost Bird"… a photo that got picked up and used by others referencing it as an "Ivory-billed Woodpecker." Is it any wonder that IBWOs continue to get ID'd mistakenly in the field by novices and ill-informed individuals, sometimes literally relying on an incorrect picture seen on the Web… or, is it any wonder that others now pretty much automatically dismiss any and all such claims… still, each and every claim and picture coming forth must be looked at individually and adjudged on its own merits… not judged or generalized about on the basis of all that has preceded it.

Science is not (nor ever has been) the pristine activity some uncritically view it as. In recent months many 'scandals' (of varying seriousness) in scientific publications have emerged. One of the most widely followed has been the so-called "arseniclife" or "arsenicgate" story in which a NASA-based study claimed the discovery of a bacterial life-form employing arsenic in the place of phosphorous in its DNA (a monumental biology finding). One likes to imagine that NASA pretty well knows what it's doing scientifically, but following the much-ballyhooed announcement a near immediate firestorm of Internet-generated criticism began throwing cold water on the claims. For now, the original authors continue to defend their results, even while refutations have been published and few seem to take the initial claimants very seriously. 
It is reminiscent of the 1989 Fleischmann/Pons report of creating tabletop cold fusion in the lab, which was likewise quickly shot down by the majority of the scientific community. Mistakes (...or merde ;-)) happen. There have been many instances of fraud in science in recent times; these last two examples aren't instances of that… just mistakes, over-anxiousness, and possibly poor or sloppy science.
 
In some quarters I still see the original Cornell/Nature Conservancy pronouncement of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers in the Big Woods characterized as a "hoax" or "fraud." It is clearly a MIS-characterization (for what, at worst, was weak science), but again, once on the Web it will carry well into the future, to many future newbie students… IF, the IBWO is never confirmed.
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-- Higgs Appears, Bevier Disappears --

(The elusive Higgs Bird, from Chester Reed 

via Wikimedia Commons)

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Happy Holiday! to my US readers… and Happy Higgs Day! to my European readers (and science buffs EVERYwhere!)… now that 'The God Particle' is being confirmed, perhaps the Lord God Bird will follow… ;-)

anyway, just one actual IBWO note of curiosity today:

I recently clicked to Louis Bevier's honed (skeptical) site on the Ivory-bill debate, only to find it gone:

http://web.mac.com/lrbevier/ivorybilled/Overview.html

Having not visited for several months, not sure when it went down, but apparently Apple dropped that particular domain from use at some point. So I surmise that either…

1) Louis, purposely or accidentally, let the site disappear, since he has the hard data and may feel the debate is long-settled, so no need to continue the Website... (or he may be re-working the material to re-post the site).

2) or, if by chance he is planning to publish further, extended material on the matter (in an academic journal), he may have felt no need to keep the Website up-and-running with a more formal publication in the offing.

3) or, he may simply be tired of being associated with the entire IBWO topic at all and moved on.

There are other possible explanations as well I s'pose, so if anyone knows more, or if his site can be found at some new URL, please let us know.
You can, by the way, still find most of the text portions of Bevier's old site via the Internet's Wayback Machine here:

http://tinyurl.com/6omqdkf
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-- Book Review --

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I previously promoted Canadian Tom Gallant's recent novel, "The Lord God Bird," before actually seeing it, and now with so little other news to report, and having read it, I may as well do my own review….

First, one should know that I can count on the fingers of one hand (and not including the thumb!) the number of novels I've read in the last 20 years, so I ain't the finest judge of fiction (in fact I tend to be hyper-critical of it)! It takes a work like Gallant's to even grab my (prejudiced) attention much, and spend $$$ on a novel.

With that said, I recommend this quaint and odd little book to all Ivory-bill aficionados in particular, and nature readers more generally… I want to say that upfront, because I don't want the criticisms ahead to be taken too weightily.

Gallant's writing is about as terse and abrupt as any I've encountered, and yet still descriptive. The nameless main characters are (possibly paradoxically) both sparsely, yet richly, drawn out. The writing is almost too spare and pithy for my taste, but in a short volume, it nonetheless works well, and will please most readers. The overriding effect is that of deep 'truths'/insights being continuously but nonchalantly proffered to the reader from the main protagonist.

The story is surprisingly close in general pattern to actual events of the last several years: a local Arkansas outdoorsman (who remains nameless throughout) spots an Ivory-billed Woodpecker in the Big Woods of Arkansas, and the news soon travels to the ivory-towered world of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Two representatives from there visit the area and quickly also spot the bird, bringing in even more academic types and volunteers for a more thorough search of the area… sound familiar? 
Obviously, the book is based on the real events that this blog has followed so closely for the last 6 years, yet its unfolding story is told in a completely fictionalized form, so while the pattern sounds familiar, the details differ greatly. I find it a bit odd that Gallant chose to stay as close to an actual sequence of events as he did (when he had an immense world of fictional possibilities to draw from)… but having done that, I find it odd that he didn't choose even more of the events from the last 6 years that were available to weave into the story. There have been so many elements of the Ivory-bill saga that could be fictionalized into interesting twists and mysteries and storylines… I think he missed a lot of potential opportunities here; but this book is more a succinct and heartfelt telling, than a highly-involved weaving.

For me, the novel takes off with chapter 3, when the Ivory-billed Woodpecker itself comes on stage as an anthropomorphically-thinking/'speaking' character. The anthropomorphized Ivory-bills are something you will either read and find off-putting… or, read and tear up at. For most readers of this blog I hope it is the latter. For me it is a centerpiece of the volume; a sort of flight-of-fancy element that lets the story carve out a special niche, as we surreptitiously gain access to the thoughts/'feelings' of the iconic species. In fact, I would've liked to have seen a lot more of it in the pages.

In chapter 8, "Ron" and "Steve" from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology enter the scenario, and as so often happens in fiction, begin playing the role of 'outsider' academics cast into the real world of the main character who is wary of them. I won't go much into the details of the storyline, nor the ending, so as not to spoil it for any readers. Much of the narrative is about the relationships that develop between the main character and the varied others who enter his world following his sighting. The main character's outlook and 'philosophy' of sorts is also an ongoing thread throughout these pages. And there are of course many interludes, focused on the action of the Ivory-bill 'characters' as well, as they succeed and fail and succeed again at raising young, while warily watching the human invasion of their premises. The story moves along at an easy-flowing pace; sometimes a bit predictable, but not too predictable. And the ending pleases.

On the critical side I felt the volume suffered from some choppiness, some under-development, and possibly some factual glitches, but overall was a wonderful effort for a first-time novel (Gallant has previously written non-fiction). It is a somewhat lyrical ode to nature, though possibly not quite as lyrical as I was expecting or hoping for. At times, for me, the volume alternated between being a simple pleasant human story and being a loftier work, on the verge of soaring... but never sustained its loftiness long enough. The ending is poignant and a tad haunting, but could've been even more powerful (that's just my take, as someone inordinately wrapped-up in this species, and who may have held unrealistically high expectations that the book couldn't attain). One of the advance blurbs on the book's back cover calls it a "sweet uplifting parable for our times." I think that's as good a 6-word summation as I could offer.

Four times in the last 20 years I have myself started writing (and failed to finish), an Ivory-billed Woodpecker book: 3 of those efforts were non-fiction (each with a quite different approach), but one was a novel.  The novel I envisioned carried a different plot than Tom's book, but a somewhat similar tone, 'feel' or 'mystique' to what Gallant has created here. His is a crisper, probably simpler, story than I had in mind, and I'm thrilled he told it. So despite the mild criticisms, I do heartily recommend it to all who are enamored of this iconic bird, or simply in search of an enjoyable nature story. I'm glad someone took the time to write it (and, in the process, to exhibit so much respect for the subject)… the Ivory-bill deserves no less.


Another recent piece on Tom's book here:

http://southshorenow.ca/archives/2012/062712/arts/Tom_Gallant_releases_first_fictional_novel.html.php

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-- Go On Record... --

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With so little to report, I'll just mention that Jack Hitt's latest book, "Bunch of Amateurs," includes a long chapter on the whole Ivory-bill escapade since Cornell's original announcement (and the role of "amateurs" in that escapade). I've previously linked to this NY Times article of Hitt's which includes some of the same info he used in his book:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/07/magazine/07woodpecker.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

(not sure if everyone can directly open the link or if you'll need a free registration with the Times to access it)

Since I expect ensuing months to be slow for IBWO news I'll put out a call as I did once before:

...If anyone who has been involved at some level with the IBWO story over the last several years is willing to submit to an interview as I've done in the past (answering transcribed questions, not an audio or podcast), let me know. This could be anyone who thinks they have a viewpoint or information worth sharing, either from the 'believer' or skeptical side, positive or negative…. Assuming I know of you in some guise just email me (cyberthrush@gmail.com) with a note indicating a willingness to be interviewed. If by chance I might not know of your role in the whole IBWO endeavor then please explain in the email your background and what you feel you may have to offer (so I can figure out what sorts of questions to pose for you). Don't everyone volunteer at once!….
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