The reported rediscovery of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers in Arkansas has been mentioned on ohio-birds many times over the last 11 months, which suggests that this is an acceptable topic for this forum.
Last month in Ecuador we caught up with a related species, the Powerful Woodpecker (Campephilus pollens). I'd missed it on previous trips to South America -- not surprisingly, since it's rather rare. In The Birds of Ecuador, Vol. 1, Robert Ridgely says that it's "rare to uncommon and perhaps local." In Vol. 2, he expands on this to say that its habits are "similar to other Campephilus woodpeckers, though Powerful's home range seems exceptionally large and as a result the species is encountered only infrequently." We found a family group in forest on the east slope. The birds were wary, as one would expect with a large woodpecker, and they were in dense forest, but we were able to follow them at a respectful distance for a long time, and Kim even got decent photos with her small digital camera.
The encounter got me to thinking about our North American species of Campephilus, and I went back and reread Roger Tory Peterson's account of seeing the Ivory-bill in 1942. (This was in RTP's wonderful book, Birds Over America, published in 1948.) He had sought the bird in South Carolina on the basis of rumors there in the 1930s, but finally he went to the Singer Tract in Louisiana, the last place where there were still known to be any living Ivory-bills (two adult females had been seen there a few months earlier). The Singer Tract was big, 80,000 acres, and there were no stakeouts such as roost sites, so Peterson and his companions knew it wouldn't be easy. It wasn't: it took them a whole day and a half to find the birds. Once they found them, though, they were able to follow them for almost an hour.
Now, about these freakishly elusive, supernaturally un-photographable birds in Arkansas... Once you look at the only "proof," the famous four-second video, and realize that it actually shows a Pileated Woodpecker, you have to wonder: What's really going on there?
Kenn Kaufman
Rocky Ridge, Ohio
About Those Plummeting Fertility Rates
3 hours ago
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It seems suspicious that Kenn Kaufman, who I thought lives in Arizona, not Ohio, should post such a message out of the blue. A quick look at the subject headings of the most recent postings on that list don't show anything related to the Ivory-billed or woodpecker behavior. Did he just have an uncontrollable urge to post to the Ohio list? I smell something funny here....
Wow, way to go Kenn. So now the folks at BIRDFORUM will be boycotting both Sibley AND Kaufman guides.
For those of you that remember, this whole Ivory-billed fiasco is playing out just like the Cold Fusion debacle. We are at the stage where cooler headed experts are going to start embarrassing the heck out of all the true believers.
So I offer all of you who have innocently but wrongly gotten you reputations tied up in this thing the following non-cynical advice. The Cold Fusion scientists who managed to salvage their reputations were those who jumped on the bandwagon. Not those that “discovered” it.
So to Cornell, Sparling, Laneau, etc. I cannot help you. To others who have “seen” the bird and published on their blogs or websites. Begin immediately to back-track.
To agency officials, US&FWS, Nature Conservancy, various non-profits, begin your “mea culpas” now. You will have a tough time of it. Reputations in agencies are everything. So the sooner you get transfers to other projects the better off you will be.
A whole lot of good, good people are going to suffer because of this. I know many. I like them. It’s really not their fault. They relied on others who had good reputations. It happens. Go on with your life. But get out NOW!
My fault - didn't realize Kenn Kaufman had moved and posts occasionally on Ohio Birds. (Too much time spent reading this skeptical website has started to affect my thinking...)
"It seems suspicious that Kenn Kaufman, who I thought lives in Arizona, not Ohio..."
At this link , it says: "Recently, he [Kenn Kaufman] moved from Arizona to Rocky Ridge, Ohio, where he now lives with his wife Kim."
What, people are supposed to jump on or off a "bandwagon" based on the winds of opinion, not based on their own assessment of the evidence? That's not science, that is politics.
For all the prattle about what is and is not science, how many actual scientists are here?
By the way, subsequent research on cold fusion (now known as "electrolysis" to avoid the baggage) has found that it may not be entirely bunk, even if the initial study was critically flawed. A good and even-handed summary of the continuing controversy is at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion
So perhaps the analogy is more apt than those who propose it realize.
Oh, my god! Now they are defending cold fusion, a pathological or pseudo science.
Yes, and Bigfoot exists in people's minds too. Intelligent Design is a true science also, I suppose, in this way of thinking.
Well, sorry, if you believe in any of the above you are outside mainstream science. Sad to say but these Ivory-billed sightings qualify as pseudo science.
My concern, though, is for good agency people who will suffer mightily for this. Please, please wake up and smell the trouble. This whole sham is crumbling.
Yo soy Carpinterio and I am a "real" scientist.
I've looked at the evidence and I've concluded that it does not provide proof.
Reading the skeptic blog might not make you happy but it can make you a carpinterio Ray Al.
"For all the prattle about what is and is not science, how many actual scientists are here?"
Well I'm not a scientist, but I play one in real life :)
Like the saying goes: "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows."
or in this case:
"You don't need a scientist,ornithologist,professional birdwatcher etc.etc. to tell you if that was a Pileated or an Ivory Billed Woodpecker that just pooped on your head."
By the way, subsequent research on cold fusion (now known as "electrolysis" to avoid the baggage)
Cold fusion is not known as electrolysis. Fusion means joining, lysis means splitting. Spot the difference? Electrolysis is a technique which can apparently lead to cold-fusion. In much the same way that I'm apparently Napoleon Bonaparte and Mike Collins et al have apparently been seeing IBWO.
these seemingly opposite and mutually exclusive scientific concepts also occur in the Laneau video. If you look at 33.3 you will see BOTH a pileated flying with an open underwing, AND you will see an IBWO that is PERCHED on the side of the tree showing a diagnostic white triangle AND allowing us to scale the bird to the tree and conclude that the size of the bird is OUTSIDE of the average and 3 SD or a Pileated ... this bird is like nuclear chemistry in this regard.
amazing.
It is true that someone posted a wiki link re - peer review. However it was in response to an article in SCIENCE wherein the editor DEFINED peer review and its role at SCIENCE.
The wiki article was used to argue that peer review was meaningless - that with enough effort you can publish anything about anything in a peer review article.
Such is the value of wiki - I cite the actual editor of SCIENCE stating his own views about peer review - and since his job is to oversee peer review and publication at SCIENCE - I argued that his views are authoritative.
However since wiki states that peer review is simply a jedi mind trick ... we are left confused and wondering who to believe the editor of science stating his own views or wiki - stating what MUST, MUST be considered a more authoritative source of information on that the editor of SCIENCE thinks about peer review.
Now he is running the story as a "bona fide" controversy - why didn't he run it as a bona fide controversy the first time around ... why?
Because he responded to power and political pressure ... not science. IE because he was an agent in a REVERSE PEER REVIEW PROCESS.
Well, the point of Mr. Kaufman's comment seems to be lost on some folks. Roger Tory Peterson was able to find the two remaining IBWO's in the Singer Tract (80,000 acres) in a day and a half.
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