Ray Brown did an interview with Tim Gallagher for his March 6, 2006 "Talkin' Birds" show.
The show is available online here (MP3 format). The Ivory-bill segment lasts about 7 minutes, starting at the 8:30 mark.
Gallagher almost immediately blames low water levels for this season's lack of success. When prompted by Brown, he also touches on the "conspiracy theorists" and claims "the public is still really enthusiastic about this".
You should listen to the whole segment.
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8 comments:
Thanks for posting that, Tom. It got me thinking about all the science that is behind this search.
Tanner is the last person who actually had quality time with the peckers. He estimated about 20 Ivory-bills still existed in the U.S. Now if each pecker requires 10 sq. miles, about Gallagher’s estimate, then that’s 200 sq. miles out of a total U.S. area of 3,537,441 sq. miles. That’s only 6 thousandths of a percent of the area of the United States!
Now it’s true that I included Alaska in that total, but Mr. Gallagher did say they now have sightings in Canada. So I think it’s only a matter of time before they are seen in Alaska.
Now here’s my point. Can we really blame Dr Fitzpatrick for not being able to find this small breeding population of peckers on just 6 thousandths of a percent of the U.S.? Talk about a needle in a haystack!
Ok, you ask, then if it’s so hard to see a pecker why do people keep seeing single birds all over the U.S. ( see www.fishcrow.com) Well yes that is true because these sightings are of fledged young that are wondering across the U.S. looking for homes after being pushed out of their parents territories. They naturally are less skittish because they are young birds who are lost.
I hope this helps you Skeptics understand how we think.
Signed,
The True Believers
"Gallagher almost immediately blames low water levels for this season's lack of success. When prompted by Brown, he also touches on the "conspiracy theorists" and claims "the public is still really enthusiastic about this".
Boy's. Please figure out one story & stay with it! How are we suppose to believe anything you say when everytime you open your mouth something differant comes out of it? If you are going to give excuses, please give the same one!
Blaims the low water conditions for the lack of success this year? Last year it was because the water was to high? What will it be next?
These folks are grasping at straws trying to come up with excuses for their lack of success. What was the big problem last year got 100% better this year, now thats it's 100% the way they wanted last year, it's 100% wrong this year!
Give us a break! The only problem that really exist here is that their is nothing there to find & all the excuses in the world won't make it appear!
Excuses are the basis for Cornell's version of science. They are the masters of Smoke & Mirrors!
Gallagher says that the odds that he saw "the last remaining Ivory-billed is astronomical". In his gut he knows that he didn't see an Ivory-billed and that the search is hopeless. But what can he do? He's led Cornell into the biggest blunder of it's life and events are now bigger than he is.
This will play out to the last little whimper. Everybody will go back to their real business and he will be forced to let all the true believers believe that he must have seen the last Ivory-bill in this Universe. Even though he knows it's not true.
It's the Cold Fusion and Elvis riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma for them. And now he must play his part to the bitter end.
I hope this helps you Skeptics understand how we think.
Signed,
The True Believers
We think that if this explaination holds any water at all, it looks like someone could have gotten a photo of one of these by now in one of the many places these birds are appearing? We have a small breeding pair that are producing offspring in such vast numbers that they are being seen all over North American & into Canada,
But they are still on the brink of extinction being this prolific???
If they are this prolific in reproducing, why are they so hard to find?
1 plus 1 does not = 2 here TB.
Hello everyone,
I'd like to see folks stop responding to the innane remarks of this TB guy or set of guys/gals out there. They offer no reasonable perspective on the *realities* we are all living out: no live bird has been unequivocally documented for many, many years; no one has managed to see a big, gleaming ivory bill in many, many years (I'm *sick of crappy sightings*, I don't care who made them); the double-knocks are *unlikely* to have been made by a Campephilus woodpecker; and the credibility of the conservation community may be going to hell in a handbasket in exchange for saving a bit of forest in Arkansas. The tsunami hasn't hit the conservation community -- which we'd all like to think we are a part of, at least in spirit -- but a devastating backlash is coming (not from the public, but from political enemies), and cold, dead fingers *are* going to be pried off the woodpecker. It doesn't have to happen, even at this stage of the game, but I doubt that CLO will find the humility to avoid it. -- KM
Dear Km,
If you have been following my posts, you would realize that I am just helping my heroes, Dr. Fitzpatrick, Luneau, Gallagher, Bobby, et al, because the are too busy documenting the rediscovery of the IBWO to spend time posting here.
If you can’t argue with what I say because the wisdom of our arguments are so overwhelming, then maybe you should consider coming over to my…errrr… our side.
Signed,
The True Believer
Hello everyone,
I'd like to see folks stop responding to the innane remarks of this TB guy or set of guys/gals out there. They offer no reasonable perspective on the *realities* we are all living out: -- KM
Scary thing about it is this is the very way these True Believers think & this the mentality of the ones running the search. You are right. Someone that can think this far off in Left Field doesn't even need the replies, but one thing does need to be proven in this deal & TB is helping to 100% validate this,
True Believers are not playing with a full deck on this issue!!!!!
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