TreeFrog
Beach Fanatic
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.
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Ivory-billed woodpecker spottted on Thursday
- Thread starter Smiling JOe
- Start date
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.
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.
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
Beach Fanatic
Here's a link to the National Geographic Article:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/09/060926-woodpecker.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.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/09/060926-woodpecker.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
Beach Fanatic
Come hang out here about 4 o'clock in the afternoon on a nice day. I see them all the time.
TreeFrog
Beach Fanatic
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. :roll:
Mango
SoWal Insider
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
Beach Fanatic
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_...gy/faculty/webpages/hill/ivorybill/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.
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_...gy/faculty/webpages/hill/ivorybill/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.