Original field notes and videotaped interviews describing all possible sightings are archived at Cornell Lab of Ornithology; many of these add much to the field notes and will be deposited with state and national bird records committee, along with these notes and other evidence.I wonder when this information will be deposited, and I wonder if it will ever be made public? The last time I heard, the sight records had not been submitted to the Arkansas Bird Records committee (the video had been submitted but voting was not complete). Soon it will be two full years since Sparling's reporting Ivory-bill sighting. How can it possibly take so long to submit a few sight records?
I think it's reasonable to ask for public access to the original field notes--without them, birding stories tend to change over time.
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