Monday, October 31, 2005

"Kent" calls very likely from Blue Jays?

The video of Russell Charif's AOU presentation on the audio evidence is available here.

One slide deals with "Kent-like Note Sequences in the White River NWR". It says that the sequences were recorded on four days at one site in White River NWR, 17-31 Jan 2005.

A subsequent slide says:
- Several observers have reported blue jays producing kent-like sounds in this area.
- Blue jays are present within +- 5 minutes in all four sequences.
- No recordings of blue jays producing these sounds have been obtained, despite focused efforts.

Charif says it this way: "However, one issue that we are particularly concerned about is that several observers from our field teams have reported hearing and seeing blue jays making sounds very much like this in this area."

Given the above information, I don't think it's sensible to claim that these kent calls are evidence of Ivory-bills.

(As always, unless otherwise noted, I've added the bold font).