According to Tom MacKenzie, spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Southeast Region, every state is conducting their respective searches independently, but all have the same hopes of finding encouraging signs of the ivory-bill.
...
Despite the efforts, MacKenzie believes the chances of a sighting in Georgia are slim. However, he is confident that the ivory-bill does exist, somewhere in the greater Southeast.
"I've seen the Cornell video and I've witnessed the emphasis the whole Cornell team has put on their substantial proof," he said. "It's been out of sight for 60 years, but this sighting could be the tip of the iceberg. There have probably been many sightings over the years but people haven't been prepared to fully defend their claim so they haven't formally come forward. I'm pretty confident this Cornell sighting is legitimate."
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
The "tip of the iceberg"?
From an Outside Online article:
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8 comments:
Hmmm, tips of icebergs, obliviously sailing onward, now where have I heard that before?
TB, get to the engine room, turn the ship!
There can be no comparisons here to the HMS titanic.
The demise of the mighty Titanic was swift, sure, and terrible - the demise of the claims of Fitzpatrick et al have no clear way of being proved wrong - it is after all "a disagreement" between experts.
Though the HMS Fitzpatrick has struck the HMS Sibley - the bulkheads were not breached.
"Fitzpatrick et al have no clear way of being proved wrong..."
As repeated elsewhere so many times before already the point isn't that Fitzpatrick and company have not been proven incorrect it is that they have been unable to substantiate their extraordinary claim with irrefutable evidence.
There is nothing in the video which eliminates Pileated Woodpecker. And as Sibley and others have so ably pointed out the bird in the video is almost certainly that species.
As for the the sight records by "competent observers" there is not to my knowledge even a field sketch which depicts more than a large black woodpecker with white on the wings. No details of the rest of the body have been noted in the materials presented thus far. A field sketch and notes on a rare bird (or any unidentified bird for that matter) should include as complete a description as possible. Bill and eye color, even the color of the nasal tuft and the claws. If all one can see on a purported Ivory-billed is the lower back region (so that the bill and back stripes are hidden from view) the pattern of white and what feather tracts they fall on should be noted. The number of primaries extending beyond the tertials should be counted and a note made as to how many are white and how many black, etc.
And if the sighting was so poor that one's only impression is of a big black and white woodpecker....well that's hardly a "high quality" sighting and shouldn't even enter the observer's mind as "proof".
Cornell's ornithology department has such an excellent (and justly deserved) reputation that the announcement last year was accepted at face value by many (myself included) - but if what they have presented so far is ALL they have than they are clearly on shaky ground.
Mistaken identifications and group acceptance of them happen on bird watching outings every day. In forty years of birding I have seen it countless times. I have also noted how the group can turn on a person who questions the ID. We are witnessing more than just a little of that with this Ivory-billed fiasco.
"I've seen the Cornell video and I've witnessed the emphasis the whole Cornell team has put on their substantial proof,"
Now why do I have the impression that this fellow wouldn't know "substantial proof" from a hole in the ground....? mmmmm. Not a guy I'd want on the jury if I was on trial for my life!
Cornell offers first class on Intelligent Design - April 9, 2006
Making sure the public realizes the importance of both "The Lord God Bird" and "The Lord God".
So this is the logic, if Cornell says it's an IBWO then it must be an IBWO. No picture, no roost hole, no nest site, no clear ID, no noisy vocalizations, no bark peelings, no feathers, no egg shells, 3 years of intensive searching and no nothing.
I am shocked that US FW&S is going down this path, well, after Iraq I guess I shouldn't be shocked. I do agree that Group Think has taken hold and it's very hard to admit that the Emperor has no clothes.
we've been through this.
none of these things are possible because this bird has EVOLVED to be a "super skulker".
I know but it makes me feel better to keep repeating it.
The super skulker, invisible, quiet as a mouse IBWO. Why does this bird fascinate and tantalize all of us, believers and doubters.
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