Bobby Harrison weighs in

This posting appeared last night on the Carolinas Birding email list. Here's one paragraph (the bold font is mine):

I attended the talk that Bobby Harrison gave at the Museum of Natural Sciences Saturday night. I enjoyed the talk and the history of the ivorybill search that Harrison outlined. Harrison is an entertaining speaker who has devoted much personal time and energy to the ivorybill quest. During the Q&A after the talk, someone in the audience asked Harrison about the essay written by Dr. Jerome Jackson that appeared in the Jan. issue of The Auk. As many of you know, Jackson is a well-respected ornithologist and an authority on Ivory-bills, having spearheaded search efforts in the 1980s. I found Harrison's response to the question disturbing. Without addressing any of Jackson's legitimate and insightful points, Harrison simply dismissed the letter with the remark that Dr. Jackson was just exhibiting 'sour grapes'. I wish I had stood up and said something at that point. Dr. Jackson's letter points out some legitimate questions about the process in which the evidence was rushed to publication and questions the flimsy physical evidence presented by Cornell in their paper. To just say that Dr. Jackson has sour grapes is in my mind unfair to Dr. Jackson, a well-respected ornithologist, is irresponsible, and just plain wrong.