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13 comments:
Hola Sharon:
Your sighting reminds me of my countrymen's sightings of the Chupacabra ...
IBWO:
The woodpecker flushed. It was big, had white above and below on the primary and secondaries and the wings were so long, they reminded me of peregrine wings. The wings had a rapid flight like a wood duck wing beat. The bird was gone before I realized what I was seeing or even had a chance to get the video camera off of standby.
Chupacabra:
large oval red eyes that sometimes glowed, gray skin, a long snake-like tongue, fangs, and long spinal quills stands between four and five feet tall, hops like a kangaroo, and leaves a foul, sulfur-like stench. three-toed tracks.
But let us not wander into the smoke of the "tantilzing" sounds and encouraging sightings ... what about 33.3?
Where is Fitzcrow now?
Could this get any more incestuous or commercial?
Sharon, who works for Eagle Optics was "lucky" enough to have Cornell select her for the search and according to the Eagle Optics website their "sponsorship of Bobby [Harrison] allows him to purchase motion sensitive cameras to try and get an image of this shy woodpecker.... The sponsorship also includes someone to take over Bobby’s teaching art and photography classes while he spends time conducting extensive searches in the swamp."
So Eagle Optics is paying to have someone teach at Oakwood College as well as buy Bobby's cameras while all over the country graduate students in ornithology are well under-funded while they study birds that actually exist. Does anyone not see that the Eagle Optics support could have actually gone to people who would have advanced ornithology and conserved birds? Does Eagle Optics really think providing a large amount of funding to an art teacher from an Adventist college is the best way to help our nation’s birds?
And not surprisingly, even though the 2006 search ended with no credible sightings, the cheerful Eagle Optics rep sees something she feels could well be an IBWO so that neither Harrison nor her employer appears to be totally delusional.
Look for her name soon on the next IBWO paper coming out in SCIENCE.
Sharon sure sounds like a competent searcher to me... She refers to a GPS as a GAPS! Sheesh!
Later...
Woodpecker Math
I think all of us had ivory-billed woodpeckers so burned into our brain that even if a starling flew by anyone of us would uncontrollable shout out "Ivory-bill!!"
Plus
Reports of other odd-plumaged Pileated Woodpeckers with “extra white” in the Cache/White River study area have persisted since our announcement of the rediscovery in April 2005.
Equals
"Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) persists in continental North America".
People, People!! You act like this thing is over. It's not!!
We have real birders in the real woods of real East Texas. They need your thoughts and prayers.
Need I remind you that John Arvin and Fred Collins have $100,000 of our money and are going to find the breeding pairs that we all seek.
But to listen to this thread you would think Fitz et al were the Alpha and the Omega of this effort. No! The search has moved on. Please concentrate on Texas. It doesn't just produce our best presidents it also is the home of the last remaining IBWOs in the universe.
Signed,
The True Believer
she means an "A" cavity, as in A, B, C where A is the best in terms of size and shape.
Isn't it possible GAPS was a typo?
I'll all for fun and games, but this just seems a might petty.
Frankly, I was refreshed that she didn't oversell her quick 2-3 second encounter - as many others have.
I guess they don't have a copy editor over at Eagle, seem to be some GAPS in the story as well as numerous other questionable uses of the English language.
"A Cavity" versus B or C Cavity. "A Cavities" having most potential to be IBWO.
As far as Sharon's name appearing as the one volunteer with an encounter in the Cornell report, don't count on it. I heard there was more than one "encounter" reported by volunteers. Cornell evaluated each encounter as well as those from "the public". I assume only "the most credible" will make it into the report. I heard there was some skepticism from Cornell on Sharon's ID.
Dear TB:
Expect a high body count in the East Texas woods as IBWO searchers succumb to the heat, humidity, bugs, and snakes. Hopefully, Fred Collins and John Arvin will stay within the safe confines of air conditioned vans after dropping off "expendable" volunteer searchers.
Now, just how was it that Sharon happened to be by herself with no other searcher within 2 km? And why is it that the videocam is always on standby and doesn't get activated until the spellbound observer snaps out of his/her trance? TB, please help us understand...
TB, try as you might to "refocus" on some guy named Arvin.
He bears no likeness to the man in this statue.
The once great "Dr. Fitzcrow" ... who no one has seen in ...???
Where is the Ancient Ornitholgist?
Has Professor Jackson or Sibley issued any statements since May 18th?
BTW many of the Bird Forum fanatics are disciples of Mary Scott so that may explain their strange behaviour.
Thank you to all the Volunteers who did not profit from the IBWO train wreck. You are the few, the proud, the true Bird People.
Well now, I'm not saying...mind you...that the eminent Dr. Fitzpatrick isn't to be revered for having led us to search in the one only remaining area of IBWOs, namely the great state of Texas.
But I'm just saying that you Skeptics need to forget Arkansas. That's not where the action is. CLearly, Dr. Fitzpatrick's sightings were of birds that were visiting from Texas.
Now the visitors to this blog know of the one and only Fred Collins, who was warmly welcomed by this group. He and John Arvin of the GCBO are now the keepers of the IBWO flame.
I would in no way and no how ever denigrate the great work of Dr. Fitzpatrick and to this day he remains my greatest hero. The fellow that brought back the Ivory-billed from extinction. How could I feel otherwise?
Meanwhile...on to Texas!!!
Signed,
The True Believer
TB may be right here. I seriously doubt if we will hear anymore from Fitzcrow about Arkansas. As Capinterio says, "Fitz as run to ground" and we are not liable to hear from Fitzcrow again until a clear photo, 15 minutes of video, multiple wing feathers, a nest cavity with chicks AND comfirmatory DNA is not only found but submited to review by Sibley et al.
So that being said. What do we have left? Just the other searches by the 2nd tier birders of habitat in other states.
Arkansas is dead. Long live Texas, Carolina, Louisiana, Florida...
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