IVORY-BILLS LiVE???! ...

-- Sharin' Some Ivory-bill Love --

2012-05-27T07:00:00.000-04:00

----------------------------------------------------------------- Sometimes I skip over reporting on non-documentary Ivorybill-related movies, novels, stories, and the like here… enough folks already regard the content of this blog as fiction ;-) without me bringing up deliberate outputs of fiction. But the reviews I've seen for a recent novel set in the Big Woods of Arkansas, entitled "The

-- Florida Dreaming --

2012-05-14T19:00:00.000-04:00

-------------------------------------------------------------- May closes out soon and with it, summer overtakes the southeast… summer heat, humidity, foliage, bugs, snakes…. If any Ivory-bills fledged this spring they may just now be beginning to travel around the forest greenery with their parents, just as Ivory-bill searching is largely forced to wind down to a standstill. Not too much

-- Population Genetics & Species Decline --

2012-05-05T11:45:00.000-04:00

--------------------------------------------------------------- h/t to Nate Swick and the ABA Blog for bringing attention to some graduate student work at LSU focusing on using new population genetics techniques to better account for the significant declines/extinction of some iconic bird species: -----------------------------------------------------------------

-- Comedy of Errors? --

2012-04-28T07:00:00.000-04:00

--------------------------------------------------------------- ..... Seven years ago today, Cornell Lab of Ornithology officials made what may have been either the most incredible, or, ultimately most embarrassing, announcement in the entire history of American ornithology. Some of us are still awaiting a verdict on that announcement… (while others have long-past made up their minds). And

-- On the Big Screen --

2012-04-15T06:30:00.001-04:00

---------------------------------------------------Documentary filmmaker George Butler has been working on "The Lord God Bird," the only Cornell-endorsed film account of the IBWO search, as "a work in progress" since the beginning of this Arkansas-based saga. The independent film has been screened sparingly over recent years, and is included in upcoming Earth Day celebrations (next weekend) at

-- Back to Atchafalaya --

2012-04-06T11:00:00.005-04:00

--------------------------------------------------A semi-interesting post over at IBWO Researchers Forum from a prominent independent IBWO searcher regarding a recent double-knock in the Atchafalaya (he urges further investigation of the the area if possible):http://www.ibwo.net/forum/showthread.php?p=5980#post5980(As a note, the general Atchafalaya region of La. is the site of a great many

-- April 2 --

2012-04-02T08:00:00.001-04:00

----------------------------------------------------------------...just a quick note of thanks to all those who did NOT send me a report of spotting an Ivory-billed Woodpecker yesterday!!----------------------------------------------------------------

-- Intermission --

2012-03-28T22:00:00.000-04:00

---------------------------------------------------------------Feel like I ought to post something for the time being, so... just some old relaxing nature video:---------------------------------------------------------------

-- Of Soras, Kitchens, and Paradoxes --

2012-03-18T08:30:00.002-04:00

------------------------------------------------------------Probably ought do a new entry since some readers only read the posts here and miss the comments section… so for any who don't know already, the prevailing opinion to the latest taped sounds from Louisiana is that they are likely Sora rails (I'm not 100% convinced of this myself, but its a moot point since I am convinced they are not IBWO

-- 'Round and 'Round We Go --

2012-03-07T21:00:00.004-05:00

------------------------------------------------------------Thanks to all who've sent along their thoughts on the Louisiana sounds via email… even though nothing is settled; no one writing me is willing to call the sounds Ivory-bills, but nor has anyone pinpointed a really convincing candidate for what the sounds are -- I'm honestly surprised a good candidate hasn't arisen yet. I think the most

-- Update --

2012-03-04T11:30:00.000-05:00

------------------------------------------------------------Not much of an update (read prior post if you haven't already), but I've been listening to the Coyote tapes repeatedly, and received slightly more context about the sounds. My first impression remains the same, that these don't sound (to my ears), like what I'd expect of Ivory-bills… the pitch, tone, cadence, speed, rhythm doesn't

-- And Hey, Back to Louisiana --

2012-03-02T18:30:00.002-05:00

------------------------------------------------------------yeah, we can play this musical chairs game of southern states for awhile yet… ;-)As regular readers here likely know the Project Coyote Team has put forth more evidence for the possible presence of IBWOs in their general search area in Louisiana. You can go to the IBWO Researchers' Forum to read their report and link to audio clips of

-- February Closing Out --

2012-02-27T18:00:00.001-05:00

-----------------------------------------------------------Looks like February will close out with even less to report on than I thought might be the case...Oh well, with spring/summer right around the corner, in the event you want to stock up on some Ivory-billed T-shirts, you can check out a few choices here:http://www.zazzle.com/%22ivory-billed+woodpecker%22+tshirtsMeanwhile, Mike Collins has

-- And, Back To Georgia --

2012-02-15T18:00:00.001-05:00

------------------------------------------------------------It's difficult to truly say "back to" in the case of Georgia, since the state has never been as much a focus of IBWO searches as some other southern states. According to the officially-recognized original distribution of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers in the U.S., only a slim southern and eastern margin of Georgia was ever home to Ivory-billed

-- Birdwatching Magazine Links --

2012-02-10T19:30:00.000-05:00

----------------------------------------------------Birdwatching Magazine's (formerly "Birder's World") updated summary page of their various online Ivory-billed Woodpecker articles over the years:http://tinyurl.com/7zhavoy----------------------------------------------------

-- "Odds"/Ends --

2012-02-05T08:00:00.003-05:00

-------------------------------------------------------------The previous post took a swipe at applying statistics/probability in the social/biological sciences, but it occurs to me that the physical sciences are by no means immune from the temptation either. In astronomy, the Drake equation (which involves several terms that must be assigned values) was a famous attempt to guesstimate the

-- "Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics" --

2012-02-02T20:30:00.001-05:00

------------------------------------------------------------There seem to be more people involved in individual IBWO searches this month than perhaps there will be the remainder of the season, though I'm doubtful much will come of it (possibly the occasional sightings claim somewhere of course, but probably no photos or other documentation).Meanwhile, as Kai Krause once famously wrote (only part

-- Back to the Big Thicket --

2012-01-08T08:30:00.001-05:00

----------------------------------------------------------With no other pressing news on horizon may as well post this Texas Parks and Wildlife stab at hope from the Big Thicket:----------------------------------------------------------

-- Closing Out the Year --

2011-12-26T07:45:00.004-05:00

----------------------------------------------------------------Another appearance by Tim Gallagher on NPR last week re-telling his quest for the Imperial Woodpecker in Mexico:http://www.npr.org/2011/12/23/144190097/searching-for-a-ghost-bird?ft=1&f=1007As most active birders out there have by now heard, some weeks ago a Hooded Crane (Asian species) was discovered co-mingling with Sandhill Cranes

-- The Unknown... --

2011-12-15T06:30:00.000-05:00

-----------------------------------------------------------------"There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don't know we don't know." ....Donald RumsfeldMajor hoaxes have, luckily, been few-and-far-between in the Ivory-bill saga,

-- Can the Ivory-bill Be Far Behind? ;-) --

2011-12-12T08:00:00.003-05:00

-----------------------------------------------------------------As one website says, "By all indications, Tuesday is going to be a big day." ...For physics that is, not ornithology. Tomorrow, according to well-circulated rumors, CERN will claim evidence that the elusive Higgs boson has been found.In honor of that likely pronouncement, I repeat below (only slightly modified) a post I did earlier

-- Weekend Reading --

2011-12-09T06:00:00.000-05:00

------------------------------------------------------------------This long, older, Jack Hitt piece from the NY Times is possibly worth a re-read:http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/07/magazine/07woodpecker.html?pagewanted=allAnd the Don Moser 1972 Life Magazine write-up on the Ivory-bill, which is alluded to in the article, is available on the Web from Google books here (starts pg. 52):http://

-- And Back to the Pearl --

2011-12-04T19:00:00.002-05:00

----------------------------------------------------------------In his somewhat trademark fashion, Mike Collins has once more re-visited some prior video footage (in this instance from the Choctawhatchee in 2007), to again discover the possible presence of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers. Read his report here:http://www.fishcrow.com/choc19jan07.htmlPer usual, the video is not of a nature/quality that

-- Back to the Carolinas --

2011-11-27T07:00:00.001-05:00

----------------------------------------------------------------In a recent post Ralph Perrine reports he will be searching for the Ivory-bill in the southeast corner of N. Carolina later this winter. An earlier search there by 2 technicians from North Carolina Audubon, primarily of the Waccamaw/Green Swamp area, unfortunately found no evidence for the presence of Ivory-bills. Perrine's post

-- Thanksgiving 2011 --

2011-11-23T17:30:00.002-05:00

----------------------------------------------------------------In some prior years I've posted a Top 10 list of things I'm thankful for around Thanksgiving. At the last minute I decided to do one for this year:1) The Occupy movement and what it represents2) Apple Computer and Steve Jobs' inspiring legacy3) Taylor Swift ('cuz her music never fails to perk me up)4) All those working on behalf of