Ivory-billed woodpecker spottted on Thursday

[Smiling JOe]

"Kip Davis and Jay Robison saw what they believed was an ivory-billed woodpecker on Thursday, one of thousands of reported sightings piling up as leaves in an east Arkansas swamp drift down."

Full story here.

[Lady D]

I hope it has been spotted again. They searched for this woodpecker along time ago because someone claimed they spotted it. CBS Sunday Morning even had a story on it back the first go round and went out with a guide by canoe to search for it. They are pretty much keeping regular tourists away from the area I think, or were back then anyway.

[John R]

opening this thread, i thought i was going to see a picture you took of one.

[Cil]

opening this thread, i thought i was going to see a picture you took of one.

Ditto!
This is weird: I had a dream that I saw an Ivory Billed Woodpecker.
I was so excited, then woke up. Then I sit down with my coffee at the computer, and saw this thread.

[Miss Kitty]

Ditto!
This is weird: I had a dream that I saw an Ivory Billed Woodpecker.
I was so excited, then woke up. Then I sit down with my coffee at the computer, and saw this thread.

do do do do....

[TooFarTampa]

Any word on the supposed signs of ivory billed woodpeckers in Walton County (or Okaloosa County?). They made the news down here -- story said environmental groups are trying to stop the airport because of it. I wonder if anyone's found more evidence.

Cil keep your eyes peeled!

[Smiling JOe]

Any word on the supposed signs of ivory billed woodpeckers in Walton County (or Okaloosa County?). They made the news down here -- story said environmental groups are trying to stop the airport because of it. I wonder if anyone's found more evidence.

Cil keep your eyes peeled!

Did you read the article which I linked above?

From that article:

"In September, ornithologists at Auburn University in Alabama and Windsor University in Ontario published a report in Canada's online journal Avian Conservation and Ecology, claiming an ivory-billed may live along the Choctawhatchee River in the Florida panhandle. The report came after researchers documented 14 sightings and extensive sound recordings of the bird."

[TooFarTampa]

Did you read the article which I linked above?

From that article:

"In September, ornithologists at Auburn University in Alabama and Windsor University in Ontario published a report in Canada's online journal Avian Conservation and Ecology, claiming an ivory-billed may live along the Choctawhatchee River in the Florida panhandle. The report came after researchers documented 14 sightings and extensive sound recordings of the bird."

Thanks SJ. I did not see that. I skimmed.

Still wondering if the airport plans could be affected ...

[kurt]

There is an excellent article on the IBW in this month's National Geographic. Also some stunning high-res photos of Saturn from Cassini spacecraft.

[Smiling JOe]

Thanks SJ. I did not see that. I skimmed.

Still wondering if the airport plans could be affected ...

I am not sure, but the Panama City Crawfish was recently placed on something like a threatened or endangered species list, so there could be potential problems with that. I am not sure if an animal which is still yet to be proven to exist can have an effect on the airport.

[TreeFrog]

Have a look at this:

http://www.auburn.edu/academic/scien...hill/ivorybill

They have sound recordings of both calls and wood-pecking. There are also a number of sightings which, as yet, are unconfirmed with video.

[chrisv]

Have a look at this:

http://www.auburn.edu/academic/scien...hill/ivorybill

They have sound recordings of both calls and wood-pecking. There are also a number of sightings which, as yet, are unconfirmed with video.

Yeah, a photograph is the holy grail for this one. Matt Aresco of Nokuse Plantation spoke at our rotary club a while back and mentioned this. Lots of audio of the distinctive call, but no one has gotten the shot. I believe the bird is out there, and sure would love to see one.

[Lady D]

Yeah, a photograph is the holy grail for this one. Matt Aresco of Nokuse Plantation spoke at our rotary club a while back and mentioned this. Lots of audio of the distinctive call, but no one has gotten the shot. I believe the bird is out there, and sure would love to see one.

Those Auburn links don't do anything. I've tried them several times.

[John R]

they are working fine for me.

try here

[TreeFrog]

Yeah, a photograph is the holy grail for this one. Matt Aresco of Nokuse Plantation spoke at our rotary club a while back and mentioned this. Lots of audio of the distinctive call, but no one has gotten the shot. I believe the bird is out there, and sure would love to see one.

Now that we've got DNA, a feather from a roost hole would be just fine. Maybe even better than a photo, since DNA can't be faked. You can just hear the skeptics discounting a photo.

[30A Skunkape]

I am not sure, but the Panama City Crawfish was recently placed on something like a threatened or endangered species list, so there could be potential problems with that. I am not sure if an animal which is still yet to be proven to exist can have an effect on the airport.

They have crawfish in Panama City?!?! Oh, goody!

[Smiling JOe]

They have crawfish in Panama City?!?! Oh, goody!

Yes, but there is probably a $10,000 fine and max of five years in jail for each one you eat.

[30A Skunkape]

Yes, but there is probably a $10,000 fine and max of five years in jail for each one you eat.

But when one craves mudbugs the temptation may prove too great.

[30A Skunkape]

OK, here is something useful for those planning on hunting peckers. The specimens on the left are Pileated woodpeckers, alive, well and found in WALCO. The two on the right are Ivory Billed woodpeckers. The potential for mistaken identity is obvious.

[Smiling JOe]

OK, here is something useful for those planning on hunting peckers. The specimens on the left are Pileated woodpeckers, alive, well and found in WALCO. The two on the right are Ivory Billed woodpeckers. The potential for mistaken identity is obvious.

Back prior to reading about the Ivory-Billed, I use to see what I thought to be Piliated Woodpeckers in my yard on occasion. I wonder if ... nah, probably not. I haven't seen any Pileated WP for a couple of years now.

[TreeFrog]

Back prior to reading about the Ivory-Billed, I use to see what I thought to be Piliated Woodpeckers in my yard on occasion. I wonder if ... nah, probably not. I haven't seen any Pileated WP for a couple of years now.

I had a similar experience about this time last year. Same reaction.

Main thing is that the ivory-bill is/was at home in really large swampy tracts. Plenty of those nearby, but not in Grayton or Seagrove.

[sunny456]

Here's the article that ran in the current issue of The Seaside Times. I'm working on a follow-up for the Feb. 10 edition.

Ivory-billed woodpecker heard near Choctawhatchee River
By Meg Nelson
Contributing Writer

Romance and tragedy surrounds the beautiful ivory-billed woodpecker (Campephilus principalis). The red crest, the white shield on its back, and, of course, that infamous ivory bill, make any sighting of the largest woodpecker in North America unforgettable.
The “lord god” bird, as it is known, has been mourned for six decades. At least until recently.
Sightings in Arkansas (in 2005) and now in Northwest Florida (in 2006) have led biologists to hope that remnants of this once prolific species have survived in the southern wilderness.
As pioneers moved across the southern United States logging off old growth bottomland hardwood forests, the species became more and more rare. The ivory-billed woodpecker mates for life and requires six acres of habitat to successfully hatch and raise fledglings.
As forests turned to farmland and cotton plantations, the ivory-billed woodpecker populations dwindled throughout the south. By the early twentieth century, it was considered extinct.
Cornell University researchers found what they thought was the last known habitat of the ivory-billed woodpecker in Louisiana in the 1930’s. Efforts to protect the old growth forest that sheltered the bird failed. By the end of World War II, the last of that habitat, the Singer Tract, was gone and so too, thought ornithologists, was the ivory-billed woodpecker.
After the sightings in Arkansas, local entrepreneur and conservationist, MC Davis, began to wonder if the lord god bird could be nesting within the old growth hardwood forest of his nature preserve, Nokuse Plantation.
Davis worked for years to create Nokuse, and eventually connected 50,000 acres in Walton County near Freeport.
He is now restoring and preserving the land as a biological warehouse.
A Northwest Florida native, he is passionate about protecting endangered habitats and species.
“My vision is predicated upon an awareness that all species are under unprecedented assault by loss of habitat,” said Davis.
Since Nokuse’s 50,000 acres connect to 1 million acres of conservation lands, including the old growth along the banks of the Choctawhatchee River, Davis had a hunch that there was enough habitat for the bird to thrive.
He sought out the assistance of Auburn University Professor Geoff Hill and just 14 months later, assembled commissioners and environmentalists from two counties to present the evidence of the ivory-billed woodpecker on Nokuse Plantation.
Dr. Hill and his team identified three different ivory-billed woodpeckers on 14 different occasions. They recorded the birds’ distinctive “kent” calls in the old growth along the shores of the Choctawhatchee River bordering Nokuse. Its peculiar pattern of bark scrapings and nest cavities offered further evidence.
Dr. Hill was sufficiently convinced of the find to release his team’s results in the journal, Avian Conservation and Ecology. Months of slogging through swamps and sloughs had given Hill enough data to confidently go public.
“This is more information than they had in Arkansas,” said Nokuse Conservation Director Matt Aresco, Ph.D. biologist, referring to the sightings at Big Woods by researchers from Cornell University.
That expedition also lasted months and resulted in one fuzzy video clip of an ivory-billed woodpecker. But once again, sightings, the distinctive call of the bird and its equally distinctive double-knock recorded repeatedly by remote sound equipment is considered sufficient proof of the bird’s existence both in Big Woods and Nokuse.
Sixty years ago, Cornell biologist James Tanner lamented the loss of the last ivory-billed Woodpecker habitat in Louisiana. Ornithologists stood by helplessly while the last habitat was logged off. Measures to protect endangered species just weren’t in place.
In 2006, the bird’s prospects are looking better in both Arkansas and Florida as conservation lands preserve the last old growth stands that constitute the best habitat.
But the ivory-billed woodpecker future is uncertain even on these protected lands. The FAA approval of a new airport to be built within miles of the woodpecker’s habitat has fueled lawsuits by environmental groups. The Natural Resources Defense Council and the Defenders of Wildlife claim the facility itself would destroy nearly 2,000 acres of wetlands and trigger development on thousands of surrounding acres of wetlands that provide important habitat for threatened and endangered species, including the ivory-billed woodpecker.
“The fact that scientists have seen the ivory-billed woodpecker along the Choctawhatchee River is cause for celebration,” said Jason Rylander, staff attorney at Defenders of Wildlife, said in a press release dated Nov. 14, 2006. “It’s also cause for caution. Any proposal for major development in the area must consider the risk it would pose to the future of this bird – as well as the other endangered and threatened wildlife that live there.”
With the filing of this lawsuit, documentation of the existence of the woodpecker on the Choctawhatchee goes beyond biology. Auburn University will again field researchers along the river this winter with logistical support from Nokuse Plantation and funding from Davis.
Dr. Hill and his team will search for nest cavities and try to determine the amount of area used by the ivory-billed woodpeckers.
Hopefully, this is the year that a clear photograph of the bird provides unequivocal evidence that the ivory-billed woodpecker lives and thrives on the banks of the Choctawhatchee.

[Uncle Timmy]

Here's a link to the National Geographic Article:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...oodpecker.html





Quote from Article:


"Initially his goal was to follow up on a report phoned in ten years earlier by someone who thought he'd seen one of the birds on Alabama's Pea River.
A day kayaking that river revealed disappointingly little in the way of potential ivory-bill habitat, so his team decided to shift to the Choctawhatchee. That river, he says, is little known among ornithologists.

"I didn't even know how to pronounce the name," he said.

[rapunzel]

Back prior to reading about the Ivory-Billed, I use to see what I thought to be Piliated Woodpeckers in my yard on occasion. I wonder if ... nah, probably not. I haven't seen any Pileated WP for a couple of years now.

Come hang out here about 4 o'clock in the afternoon on a nice day. I see them all the time.

[TreeFrog]

"Kip Davis and Jay Robison saw what they believed was an ivory-billed woodpecker on Thursday, one of thousands of reported sightings piling up as leaves in an east Arkansas swamp drift down."

Full story here.

Back to SJ's original post:

Does anyone else find it perversely funny that the Cornell gang froze in the woods near Brinkley all last winter for exactly ZERO SIGHTINGS, then two guys driving a pickup have a sighting.

[Mango]

There is an excellent article on the IBW in this month's National Geographic. Also some stunning high-res photos of Saturn from Cassini spacecraft.

A friend gave me this today for the Saturn pics, and the article about the Ivory Billed Woodpecker was very informative and IMO showed both sides of the argument whether it still exists or not. (Dec 2006 issue)

I found a link to the article on National Geographics site. They also have grayt pics, (click on photo gallery) and show distinctly the difference between the pilated woodpecker and the Ivory Billed, which seems easy enough to distinguish based on the feather pattern.

[TreeFrog]

You can keep current at the Auburn search team's blog at:

http://ibwo.blogspot.com/

Gotta love the church sign at the blog...

Or, have a look at the official Auburn website:

http://auburn.edu/academic/science_m...ill/index.html

Click on "updates" on the Auburn website for the latest. The news is...

-One of the searchers recorded some promising calls last week on his video recorder. Didn't see a bird, though.
-They are hoping for a repeat of the heavy activity on the sound stations that they had last Feb. The thinking is that if there is actually a breeding pair alive in there, that they will find a nest tree in Feb for a spring hatching. There are quite a few automatic still cameras in place catching images of potential roost holes on a regular basis.
-If I read between the lines, they have had teams in place all winter, not only servicing the sound recorders and cameras, but paddling around and looking.
-Friends of mine in AR tell me that Cornell has just about given up on the Brinkley area. Don't know if the recent reported sighting there will change their minds.