"They live way back in a swamp"?

In some circles, much has been made of the "fact" that Ivory-bills live "way back in the remotest of swamps". Since it's incredibly hard to get back there, few humans ever penetrate into the bird's home range.

Is that really true?

Check out this aerial photo. If I'm reading "The Grail Bird" correctly (pages 151 and 152), the Harrison/Gallagher "Ivory-bill" sighting occurred near the south end of the "lake" south of 17. That spot is roughly 1/4 mile from a busy road!

It looks to me that you could launch your canoe from the parking lot south of 17 and paddle to The Spot in maybe 10 minutes. Gallagher said that Sparling's sighting occurred within a quarter-mile of the Gallagher/Harrison sighting location. ALL of the "robust sightings" occurred within a very small (4 square kilometer) area.

Here's a telling snippet from the Grail Bird, page 152:
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Then Bobby started to grouse that we were being way too noisy to see any ivory-bills.

"We don't need to worry about that," I said. "The road's so loud, they'll never hear us coming. And who knows, maybe Gene will chase one back to us."

And then it happened...[description of the Harrison/Gallagher sighting follows]
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