-- More Festivals --

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This coming Saturday evening (Oct. 13) Cornell's Dr. Fitzpatrick will give the keynote address for the Georgia Colonial Coast Birding and Nature Festival (on Jekyll Island), "How Ivory-billed Woodpeckers (and other birds) Can Save the World" :
http://www.coastalgeorgiabirding.org/sat_dinner.htm

and... as long as you're at their site, if you're familiar with Steve Holzman you just might want to also read his bio given here, for a few tidbits you may not have known about him ;-) :

http://www.coastalgeorgiabirding.org/bios.htm

The following week, Auburn's Dr. Hill will be giving a keynote address on guess-what-topic at the Alabama Coastal BirdFest, the evening of Friday, October 19.

....a reminder also that tonight is the evening of the Bobby Harrison/Jerry Jackson Ivory-bill presentations at Ding Darling Days (Sanibel Island, FL.).

..................................................................

...and from the Web Grab Bag:

I've never cared much for the "Dancing With the Stars" show that seems to be such a TV hit, but I wouldn't mind dancing the night away with this fellow:

http://birdloversonly.blogspot.com/2007/09/may-i-have-this-dance.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- Cornell Update --

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cornell has updated their FAQ page on the Arkansas IBWO search, giving a hint of what will be reported in their final summary for the 2006-7 search season when released:

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/ivory/q_and_a/

They mention that 13 possible acoustic encounters were recorded for the prior search season and 11 purely visual encounters, most of course brief, and of course none definitive. A majority of encounters occurred in/near the Wattensau WMA area. And even after 3 years of searching less than 17% of the pertinent Big Woods region has been covered. A 'mobile search team' will again be deployed in 2007-8 in various areas of the Southeast.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- Another Book --

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

IBWO Researchers' Forum alerts people to yet another book being published next year on the Ivory-bill: "Stalking the Ghost Bird" by LSU adjunct professor Michael K. Steinberg, focussed on the search for Ivorybills in Louisiana:

http://www.ibwo.net/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=967&d=1191891561

publication date listed at the ABA (Amer. Birding Assoc.) sales site is May 2008 --- lot could happen 'twixt now and then.... or, can be ordered directly from LSU Press site here:

http://www.ibwo.net/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=966&d=1191891367
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- Oy Vey --

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Monday night's (Oct. 8) NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams is scheduled to run a short unfavorable piece on the dollars expended by the Federal Government in search of the Ivory-billed in Arkansas. Oy veyyy... People continue to bandy about the $27 million figure from the Draft Recovery Plan (...uhhh, that would cover how many minutes in Baghdad?). This figure is actually for the 5-year period running from 2006 to 2010, and theoretically, according to the proposed schedule, half or more of it will already have been spent by the end of this year.
Maybe also worth noting that US F&W has proposed spending $150 million over four decades on the recovery of the Western Snowy Plover.

Meanwhile, over at Ivory-billed Researchers' Forum, "Sidewinder" has posed the question of 'how many active Pileated nests are being found' by participants during their searches for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. Tanner originally roughly estimated there could be 36 Pileated pairs in a given area inhabited by a single Ivory-billed pair... just to put some perspective on things.

.................................................................
Addendum --- from the Web Grab Bag:

This interesting post from "DC Birding Blog" on detailed old field notes (from 1920's) recently discovered describing the Javan Lapwing of Indonesia, not documented to exist since 1940. Pertinent quotes as follows:

"These records come from areas with no previous reports of Javan Lapwings and suggest that these birds may have wider habitat preferences than was previously thought."

and,

"If it still exists the population of Javan Lapwings must be tiny and work needs to be carried out immediately to survey all potential areas."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- What's In a Name --

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

One of the side-delights of reading about Ivory-bill claims and searches is the geographic names that are associated with some of the locales involved, and otherwise not necessarily well-known --- names that almost musically roll off the tongue.
So, without further adieu, here is my own list of FAVORITE Top 10 place names associated at times with Ivory-billed Woodpecker speculations:

10. Okefenokee (GA.)
9. Bayou de View (AR.)
8. Chickasaw (TN.)
7. Fakahatchee (FL.)
6. Atchafalaya (LA.)
5. Apalachicola (FL.)
4. Coosawhatchee (SC.)
3. Yazoo (MS.)
2. Buttahatchie (AL.)
1. Pascagoula (MS.)

....may one or more of these become household names in birding circles in the next year :-)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- Update From Dr. Hill --

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Auburn's Dr. Hill has a new post here mentioning that the summary report on their findings to date is being completed, and going on to briefly discuss/clarify the somewhat controversial 1966 Ivory-bill sighting by Sanders and Brown in the Florida panhandle. Suspect the Auburn report will be out well before the Cornell summary of their 2006-7 search season.

With tight funds and so many other areas in need of more systematized searching, ground efforts at both Big Woods and Choctawhatchee will likely be scaled back and streamlined (but still important) this coming winter in favor of more serious study of some of those other locales that were of interest long before anyone had ever heard of 'Big Woods' or the 'Choc.' [addendum: this was my own side-comment, not part of the Hill update.]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- Stuff --

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Some Ivory-bill speculation from a new poster to IBWO Researchers' Forum here:

http://www.ibwo.net/forum/showpost.php?p=2980&postcount=164

Bobby Harrison and Dr. Jerome Jackson will be presenting together on the Ivory-billed Woodpecker next Wednesday as part of weeklong celebrations for "Ding Darling Days" at Ding Darling NWR (Florida).

....................................................

from the Web Grab Bag several things:

if you haven't already seen it, this Scottish seagull scofflaw shoplifts Dorito's chips from a convenience store:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8OG5nWyQvo&mode

just stumbled upon this website, which may interest a few, on the wild monk parrots of Brooklyn:

http://www.brooklynparrots.com/

...and if you've never seen a pink dolphin, well you can now:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,287938,00.html

with more pics here:

http://www.calcasieucharters.com/index.cfm?act=imagegallery.cfm?name=Rare+Pink+Dolphin+Photo+Gallery

Finally, possibly of interest to some out there:

http://gristmill.grist.org/skeptics
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------