-- 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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— A Trip Down (bad) Memory Lane —

Wow, there are so many episodes (for lack of a better term!) going back over the whole IBWO saga in just the last dozen years! I see over on Facebook they have brought up the “tmguy” or “Bill Smith” story from very early on. I don’t participate on Facebook (for all the reasons despisers of FB normally give), but I’ll try to offer a little off-the-cuff back-story here — I say “off-the-cuff” because I used to have quite a few notes on “tmguy” which I’m now too lazy to try to find, so will simply go on memory, which I hope is mostly right (but no guarantees):

Here’s the photo (he actually had a couple of photos, but this was the main one) that bought him his 15 minutes of fame over 12 years ago (OK, actually the controversy went on for quite awhile, though most everyone concluded this was a painted decoy or model of some sort, in an orange tree no less?):

“tmguy” stood for “that magic guy” because, as a hobby he was a stage magician; his full name was “William Frank Smith” and he emerged out-of-the-blue to claim many encounters with IBWOs in Florida. I think he was from the Lady Lake area of Florida, and at least some his claims/sightings (NEVER-ever verified) may have come from the Green Swamp area — though I may be confusing him with another claimant in that regard.

I communicated with him a few times, never getting very detailed or satisfactory answers; always a noticeable bit of evasiveness, though he’d stick to his basic storyline. He did seem to have some sincere interest and knowledge of wildlife in general, and while I could give him little credibility on his IBWO tales I was willing to look at the book he promised and promised and promised for 2+ years that would detail his Ivorybill exploits (including more pics) — the book of course never appeared; for a long time he had limp excuses for its delay, but eventually he just faded away after the beating he took online.

Even then I continued to follow his online behavior on aquarium forum sites that he frequented — he actually owned/ran an aquarium shop for awhile (in Tampa perhaps?, before it went out-of-business) — his fish comments were almost always reasonable, intelligent, helpful, upfront… but of course one can be an honest, upfront person I s’pose in one area of their life, and a total prankster/doofus in some other area. 8-/

To my utter amazement I just checked and much of his original site is still up! (though most of the pictures are long gone):

http://billismad.tripod.com

...note too, his URL was "bill is mad dot com" -- which I dare say many of us began taking literally!

That's about all I recall at the moment; if I think of more of pertinence or run across my old notes I might add more here later.

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....on a side-note:  I don't know how many folks have had difficulty bringing up the Ivory-bill Researchers Forum site recently (I've had major difficulty with it for over 3 weeks), but I contacted one of the proprietors this week, so they're at least looking into it (I'm not sure how aware of a problem they even were?).

In fact if any reader here has been successfully loading the site, with no problems, the last 3 weeks I'd be curious to hear what browser you are using, what time of day, and are you using mobile or desktop...

-- Nice Stoddard Tribute --

Herb Stoddard's claims for Ivory-bills in Georgia in the 1950's are among the last ones that some people take seriously. ICYMI, hat tip to Mark Michaels for pointing out a new account of Stoddard in an ejournal freely available here (the Stoddard piece beginning on pg. 38):

https://cloud.3dissue.com/19646/20503/28091/eJournal/html5/index.html

It all kind of reminded me of a post I did almost 6 years ago that I'll re-link to for entertainment:

https://ivorybills.blogspot.com/2012/02/and-back-to-georgia.html

[...on a sidenote, some folks have emailed me asking about the Ivory-bill Researchers' Forum being down -- I don't know anymore than you do, except this has happened before, and it's usually a temporary glitch, so just keep checking back on it.]

-- Where Oh Where… --

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Mark Michaels continues his historical look at Ivory-bill data here:

https://projectcoyoteibwo.com/2017/10/09/bits-and-pieces-part-3-internalized-beliefs-how-they-got-that-way-and-what-the-record-really-shows/

The history is of course interesting, though I’m not sure it will help find IBWOs today, but his main point that IBWOs likely succeeded in a greater range of habitat than Tanner would later imply, still holds (especially if you go back far enough). Mark also adds this original mapping of historical claims or specimens from uncharacteristic habitat:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?ll=35.33694306260819%2C-88.11398860937504&z=5&mid=18iJCXC-cY4Ro7vHxlmyonQvUSvc

In this regard I’ve previously mentioned that I thought Bill Pulliam’s writings on western Tennessee (and other claims for there) of some interest, but there are many other such odd or outlying areas as well (over the years I’ve had reports sent to me, that I couldn’t always completely discount, from southern Missouri, Kentucky, Virginia, and parts of Alabama, Georgia, and North Carolina outside the traditional IBWO range). One of my hopes for the widepread USFWS/Cornell search was that it would at least narrow any possible IBWO persistence down to a very few (perhaps 2-3) localized areas; instead the failed endeavor left open the possibility of 2 dozen or more (sometimes little-birded) areas that scarce IBWOs might conceivably utilize. The lack of a single Ivory-billed Woodpecker appearing on remote, automatic cameras by now at more traditional and well-searched areas remains a pretty devastating obstacle to hope for the species… unless indeed it has found a home in the canopies of less-obvious, lightly human-trafficked woodlands.

I don’t want to hold out too much false(?) hope for this species, but on the other hand I believe most southeast woodland habitat is rarely birded in any regular or significant fashion and the vast majority of individual woodland birds are never systematically recorded — moreover, the ornithological literature is rife with weak, unscientific conclusions/generalizations/assumptions about bird behavior, and perhaps even bird biology. There's just a lot we don't know, while pretending we do.

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-- Collins on "Periodic and Transient Motions of Large Woodpeckers" --

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Here is Mike Collins’ latest publication regarding his Ivory-bill data:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-13035-6

…and he lists his other major summaries of data in this bird listserv posting:

http://birding.aba.org/message.php?mesid=1339389&MLID=&MLNM=ID%20Frontiers

--> One reader reports the above link not working fully for them, so the 3 summaries are here:

http://fishcrow.com/JASAv129p1626.pdf

http://ftp.aip.org/epaps/journ_acoust_soc/E-JASMAN-129-024103/readme.html

http://www.heliyon.com/article/e00230/

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-- Very Sad News… Bill Pulliam passes --

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One of the more intrepid participants in the Ivory-bill debate (and more generally, a very active-and-respected Tennessee birder) has passed on at the too-youngish age of 56. For those who followed the IBWO debate closely early-on, Bill is probably well-known, though in recent years he was more quiet about the subject. I never met Bill, but in those earlier years some of my most interesting (and enjoyable) backchannel encounters were with him… we didn’t agree on everything, but we agreed on a lot and I hope he respected my opinions as much as I respected his.

More recently, he had tweeted about suffering through a tic-borne illness, but apparently that turned out to be an aggressive, undiagnosed form of lung cancer that he succumbed to a few days ago. A tremendous loss of an intelligent, independent, entertaining cuss, if I dare say so!

I always wished that he had pursued more searches of the Ivory-bill in western Tennessee, following up on some claims, but if he did he never reported it back to me. At one point he indicated IF the bird was there it ought just be left alone.

When Bill's father died a few years back I sent him this well-known poem I've always enjoyed and sent to many over the years upon such occasions. I feel odd using it again, so soon, but in his honor, and for his loved ones, I will: 

Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning's hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry;
I am not there. I did not die. 

-- Mary Elizabeth Frye

ADDENDUM:

eBird, where Bill was very active as a regional editor and more, has posted this memorial:

http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/bill-pulliam/

...and now Mark Michaels has penned some further tribute here:
https://projectcoyoteibwo.com/2017/09/14/go-read-bill-pulliams-blog-while-you-can/

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— Still On the Prowl —

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Mike Collins persists with his efforts to document the Ivory-bill, now heading to Arkansas with plans to utilize a drone for above-canopy forest surveillance (he’s done this before in Louisiana). His notice to the Arkansas listserve group is here (not sure what sort of reception he’ll get from them, but if anything significant, I may add it to this post later): 

http://birding.aba.org/message.php?mesid=1316540&MLID=AR&MLNM=Arkansas

You can see a sample of his drone explorations (at the Pearl River area) here:

http://tinyurl.com/y8e3mc9r

...and he'll no doubt add his Arkansas video, once completed, to the same YouTube site.

ADDENDUM: oy, trip off; Mike now reports the following to the listserv:

"Thanks to all who replied, but my plan to visit Arkansas has hit a snag. I had a small window of opportunity, but there isn't enough time to obtain permits for using a drone in the area. This is unfortunate because a drone is a small battery powered aircraft that has no effect on habitat or wildlife."

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-- What Are the Chances.... --

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Mark Michaels summarizes a lot of useful information in a lengthy posting today:

https://projectcoyoteibwo.com/2017/07/31/repost-with-addendum-ivory-billed-woodpecker-sightings-and-evidence-1944-2003-the-partially-hidden-history/

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-- Whatever... --

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Not Ivory-billed material, but in the meanwhile, a kind of interesting, fun read about the Passenger Pigeon here:

http://karlshuker.blogspot.com/2017/03/posthumous-sightings-of-passenger.html
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-- Pileated Flight --

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Myron Wasiuta has posted on YouTube the below brief flight of a departing Pileated Woodpecker:

This may well be the first such video I’ve seen that shows in at least some individual frames the sort of broad white visual effects that Sibley/Jackson/et.al. posited in critiquing the Luneau video. Hard to compare completely since angles/heights/speed vary somewhat, and only certain frames pertain, but still interesting (Luneau video below):

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-- USFWS's Bob Russell Speaking --

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I see Bob Russell, retired USFWS official and long-time IBWO searcher, is giving a talk this coming Thur. night (May 25) at the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge Center in Bloomington, MN.
If any readers here happen to hear his presentation please let us know whatever he has to say about the current outlook for the Ivory-bill.
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-- A Few Notes --

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A nice article on Iowa wood-carver Dean Hurliman for the many who know of him through this blog… and I can’t help but note that it ends with him saying, “I plan to do 10 more ivory-bills.” 10 more lucky people or groups out there somewhere.

http://www.thehawkeye.com/life/lifestyles/after-decades-making-duck-decoys-man-resurrects-extinct-bird-species/article_05faf99d-3e6e-51e7-a869-037fd55bbceb.html

Meanwhile, Project Coyote folks in central Louisiana are promising more discussion/analysis soon of recent kent-like sounds they’ve recorded in their search area.

And finally for your entertainment and discernment (nothing new here, but good bit of history) a recent 14-minute podcast on our favorite subject:

http://strangeanimalspodcast.com/podcast/episode-009-the-ivory-billed-woodpecker/

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-- South Carolina Claim --

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FWIW, long-time searcher George DeBusk reports a possible sighting in South Carolina (Francis Marion National Forest) on March 28 :

https://www.facebook.com/groups/179784035376368/permalink/1442692249085534/

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-- A Shout Out to Bill Pulliam --

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No IBWO news, but a quick shout out to Bill Pulliam today... just noticed that his small Tennessee community (and house!) took a direct hit from an EF-1 tornado yesterday. All's well with him as best I can tell, but no doubt a bit unnerving (I've only been in some wicked wind shears before, never a tornado, and those are scary enough!).
Many/most here, know that Bill has been a stalwart in the IBWO debate going back a long while (and is also very active in Tennessee birding).
I don't have a habit of citing events in people's personal lives here at the blog, but since folks haven't heard from Bill in a long while, just thought I'd give this update and wish him well.
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-- Bark Scaling Ideas --

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Recent post from Mark Michaels on bark scaling, especially of hickories, will be of potential interest to any ongoing searchers out there:

https://projectcoyoteibwo.com/2017/02/25/bark-an-exegesis/

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— Mississippi Tweeting —

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Just passing along this bit of Twitter trivia…

Occasionally people on Twitter report seeing an Ivory-billed Woodpecker (either recently or in the past), but rarely have any details lending credence to their claim. Once-in-a-long-while I see a tweet that may have some bit of plausibility. This week a scientist (astrophysicist) casually mentioned having seen an IBWO back in 1980. He was probably quite young back then and unaware of Pileated Woodpeckers, but nonetheless I explored it a little further and he writes “it was definitely an Ivory billed Woodpecker.” 

It was in a heavily wooded (and still today, he says, undeveloped) locale “in the area between the Tallahala Creek and Chickasawhay River” (southeast corner of Mississippi). That all makes it a bit more interesting since there was an official claim of an Ivory-bill for the large De Soto National Forest in that area in 1978, and probably more anecdotal claims for that area since.

Even if the claim is accurate, what, if anything, it means for us 37 years later I don’t know, but there it is.

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-- Drone Views From Mike Collins --

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Mike Collins has posted 30 videos (at current count) from drone flights over potential Ivory-bill habitat -- primarily sections of the Pearl River, but a couple of clips from Florida's Choctawhatchee, and a couple from the Apalachicola area (I assume, but don't know, that Mike took all these himself):

http://tinyurl.com/ja78zfa

Very pleasant, even mesmerizing, to watch, though hard to tell if such overview flights could ever give the resolution necessary to permit identification of an Ivory-bill below (unless by sheer chance one flew immediately beneath the drone)... in the 40-or-so random minutes I've viewed I've only seen one bird at all! IF a narrower area of potential IBWO activity was isolated then one can imagine flying the drone lower in a more concentrated way and perhaps picking up activity; also of course the views are better when the foliage is off the trees, as in the sample below:



Anyway, check 'em out for some relaxing viewing.

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-- And the Beat Goes On --

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I’ve been hesitant to link to this since it’s a lot of sound and fury that’s been argued before, but some may want to see it before it fades from view (and they are about to close out the thread), so I’ll note that the birding “ID Frontiers” listserv has had ongoing "discussion" (much of it superfluous) of Mike Collins’ latest piece here:

http://birding.aba.org/maillist/IDF

Mike, as usual attempts to reply to doubters, and interestingly one of the better known critics of Cornell’s original work, Martin Collinson, even weighs in cutting Mike a little slack.

On a separate side-note, Mark Michaels informs followers that Frank Wiley, of their search team, is in a hospital in Louisiana with a systemic infection. Am sure we all wish Frank a full recovery, and his family well:

https://projectcoyoteibwo.com/2017/02/03/frank-wiley-hospitalized/

ADDENDUM 2/5/17:  Sadly, Mark now reports that after taking a turn for the worse yesterday, including emergency surgery, Frank passed on this morning... Condolences to his many friends and family... I'm happy he was one of the recipients of the beautiful Ivory-bill sculptures given out by artist/carver Dean Hurliman... perhaps that piece can hold and represent many memories of Frank's passion, for his loved ones. 
https://projectcoyoteibwo.com/2017/02/05/in-memory-frank-wiley-1962-2017/

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