In my humble opinion, she's going to find some large individual trees, but in the end, an honest assessment won't differ much from Jerome Jackson's late '80s impression:
Superficial examination of habitats revealed few areas of extensive, mature bottomland hardwoods, and I discontinued my efforts in the state.Check out in particular this picture, taken where "David Luneau's sister-in-law Joan spotted an Ivory-billed Woodpecker on September 4, 2004". The spot looks like the boat landing near the busy Highway 17 bridge. Doesn't that area seem quite accessible?
Nothing against Joan, but it seems to me that we're simultaneously being told:
a) that we've got no photos in 60+ years because the birds live way back in remote swamps where birders never visit, and
b) however, birders do occasionally see Ivory-bills in quite accessible places
I'm afraid that it's likely that both a) and b) are false.
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"Superficial examination" are the key words in that quote. Jackson had too few resources to spread over too large an area, and had to make decisions from limited information on where to focus his searches. I doubt he would disagree with this statement. His conclusions in this regard should hardly be considered definitive.
Well, Jackson did visit Arkansas at least twice in the late '80s, and he did have access to maps. I'm skeptical that there was a lot of extensive, mature bottomland hardwood habitat around that eluded his notice.
He also focused on areas where there had been reported sightings, I believe.
nice photo of a loggerhead shrike!!
Something else that begs the question about IBWOs in Cache/White and the question about their characterizations as frequently-visited or accessible vs untrammeled swamp. Those areas have to have been frequently traversed by USFWS and state DNR biologists, biological technicians & enforcement officers. Why didn't they report IBWOs? Or did they? Where are the reports?
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