NYT: Vindication for Ivory-Billed Woodpecker and Its Fans

[DeepModem Mom]

Vindication for Ivory-Billed Woodpecker and Its Fans
By JAMES GORMAN and ANDREW C. REVKIN
Published: August 2, 2005


Associated Press
An artist rendering of the ivory-billed woodpecker, as provided by the journal Science.


The phoenix had nothing on the ivory-billed woodpecker.

It is hard to keep track of how many times this near-mythic bird, the largest American woodpecker and a poignant symbol of extinction and disappearing forests, has been lost and then found. Now it is found again.

Even the most skeptical ornithologists now agree. They say newly presented recordings show that at least two of the birds are living in Arkansas.

Richard O. Prum, an ornithologist at Yale University and one of several scientists who had challenged the most recently claimed rediscovery of the ivory bill, said Monday after listening to the tape recordings that he was now "strongly convinced that there is at least a pair of ivory bills out there."

Mark B. Robbins, an ornithologist at the University of Kansas, who had also been a skeptic, listened to the same recordings with a graduate student and said, "We were absolutely stunned."...


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/02/science/02bird.html?hp&ex=1123041600&en=4ddf1b56da5e91cf&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[The Stranger]

1. Some good news.

Much needed.

[livetohike]

2. Long time bird watcher here

and this is the best news of my life. I suspect the Ivory-Billed will be found in other locations too :-). (If we haven't totally destroyed their preferred habitat).

[blindpig]

3. we got habitat

I'm thinking the SRC. Ought to be a lot of standing dead wood there. Kind of doubt there's any now, that place has been covered up with biologists for years but it is a good chunk of prime land. Congaree NP, Frances Marion NF and perhaps the Pee Dee basin all are possibilities.

Once the smart folks get an idea of how many there actually are and their prospects thought must be given to reintroduction into suitable habitat in their former range, as a hedge against local catastrophe and simply because it is right.

Of course without the ESA all will be for naught. If Pombo has his way this bird and so much else is doomed. That will be the last straw for me.

[livetohike]

4. Hi blindpig

:hi:

We're coming "home" to S.C. next year (retiring) and I will spend my days in the Francis Marion in a few of my favorite swamps and keep looking :-).

See you there?

[blindpig]

6. You bet!

While we're listing IBWPs and Bachman's warblers I'll show you a few snakehunting tricks:evilgrin:

[XemaSab]

8. I had a bachman's

near the confluence of the great and little PeeDee rivers.

The bird was yellow with olive wings and a black bib, and it flew down and sat in a tree right in front of me, and I stood there just GAPING at it, then an adult male hooded warbler flew down and started feeding it.

D'oh!

[livetohike]

12. Deal!

:-). Maybe we can have the first ever DU swamp canoeing/bird watching/snake hunting meet up :-).

[XemaSab]

14. I'd be all over it....

just tell me when and where.

Ain't no swamps in Cali...

[Zorra]

5. Ornithologists formerly considered tin-foil hatters are vindicated.

This is awesome, rare good news from the natural world in these dark times.

[pitohui]

16. tin foil hatters like van remsen

so glad he's been vindicated

he has been in surgery but last i hear recovering nicely

[WhiteTara]

7. quick! Cut down that forest!

:sarcasm:

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

9. Woodpeckers Hate America!

[DFWJock]

10. and...

They hate our freedom.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

11. The enemy...

[WhiteTara]

26. especially for our freedoms!

[montana_hazeleyes]

13. Oh, they are so beautiful!

I just love birds. What awesome and amazing creatures.

[Lisa]

15. I loved Jon Stewart's "Avian Resurrection" graphic for this story ...

Hilariously appropriate!

[XemaSab]

17. you have a photo/link?

n/t

[Lisa]

18. video clips here?

http://www.commonbits.org/search.php?search_value=jon%20stewart&page=2

http://www.onlisareinsradar.com/archives/daily_show_comedy_clips/index.php

[XemaSab]

19. my computer doesn't support this

and it's a work computer so I am afraid to tinker, but thanks!

[Lisa]

20. picture something like this ...

But with a "V" and another "A" instead.

[XemaSab]

21. NICE!

thanks!

:evilgrin:

[dolstein]

22. Meanwhile, the Imperial Woodpecker is now (likely) extinct

With all the attention that the rediscovery of the Ivory Billed Woodpecker has received, there's nary a mention of the fact that the largest of the North American woodpeckers, the aptly named Imperial Woodpecker, is now presumed extinct. There haven't been any confirmed sightings of the bird in decades, and the destruction of its natural habitat in Mexico and Cuba makes it increasingly unlikely that the species could recover even if a handful of birds still survive.

[burrowowl]

23. Hope the Imperial Woodpecker

figues out how to survive.
Will so-called homo sapiens sapiens survive its attack on itself?

[bvar22]

24. Hey experts,

What kind of Woodpecker is this. He was a big boy and quickly destroyed that log.
I took this picture outside St Paul, Minnesota in a Mississippi River bottom.
I had never seen one this big before, and while I can identify some of our local birds, I am far from an expert.

[Lisa]

25. I think it's a pileated woodpecker

I'm not an expert, but I've seen them on the West Coast and a few in Southern Ontario (where they're increasingly rare). I used to work at a wildlife shelter, and one day someone absent-mindedly put a baby pileated into a cage with wooden (!) bars which he quickly destroyed. We found him wandering around the room the next morning. (Luckily someone else had remembered to tie down the redtailed hawk's leash.)



http://www.birds.cornell.edu/programs/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Pileated_Woodpecker.html

[bvar22]

27. Thanks.

Sure looks like my bird.

[saigon68]

28. Thats a pileated woodpecker

I have a few in my woods. They are very busy boring large-- 5" by 10" holes in insect infested trees.

It was the inspiration for "WOODY WOODPECKER" with the red comb on its head.