A couple of weeks before that, I saw this unique woodpecker work only about 60 miles from the spot where I heard the distinctive double-rap.
A few months before that, I actually heard some distant, unique kent-like calls within 80 miles of the spot where the woodpecker work was found! I couldn't verify the source of these calls.
Considered individually, the pieces of evidence above likely aren't enough to convince some of the most hardened skeptics. But for the rest of us, this growing body of evidence is pretty compelling, am I right?
(I suppose I should mention that immediately after hearing the distinctive double-rap, I walked towards the sound and saw a Northern Flicker pounding on a dead branch. I guess I should add that Pileated Woodpeckers are regularly seen in the area where the woodpecker work was found. I reckon I should disclose that Red-Breasted Nuthatches are regularly seen in the area where the distant kent-like calls were heard).
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Paul becomes a skeptic. Tom becomes a believer. And Fishcrow is advising Fitz on his next move.
whaaaaaa?????
Ivory-bills are in Minnesota now because populations of IBWP's have reached "ahem" carrying capacity in Arkansas, Missouri, and Iowa.
I would like to address this idea that good scientists keep an open mind as Ms. Christen and others have from time-to-time tried to point out.
Actually, in every field of scientific endeavor there are one or several ideas or beliefs that scientists in that field DO NOT have an open mind about. For instance, Scientific American and other American journals will no longer send out Cold Fusion papers for peer review. They are rejected out of hand. Such papers have proved a waste of time.
The open mind that scientists keep is this. If Richard Feynman, the famous physicist, had submitted a paper on Cold Fusion, then and only then would the Journal editor first have called Mr. Feynman to find out if it was a joke and once assured that it wasn’t then the article would have gone out for peer review.
That’s what happened with the IBWO. Dr. Fitzpatrick had an eminent reputation. Even Sibley, Kaufman, Robbins, et al. assumed that it must be true if Fitz said it was. (Until they saw the evidence for themselves.) That’s why Science took the article.
Trouble is, in this game, Fitz will only get one bad submission. He goes in the column with the Cold Fusion authors. Keep an open mind? Yes, on most things. But on some things, there’s only one answer. Carl Sagan’s. It’s quoted at the top of this blog.
Sounds like 7.5 breeding pairs of IBWO's are located within 50 miles of Tom's house. Time to write the book. The evidence is quite compelling.
BTW: Sunev is Venus spelled backwards. An old 3 Stooges routine that you young'ms probably don't remember.
An Ode to the Fish Crow Man; with apologies to everybody.
"Fish crow man he does see,
an Ivory Billed Woodpecker whenever he goes pee;
If Fitz makes a hitch,
To see this ditz
Then naivete wins with sure fire glitz."
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