Speaking of birds that aren't Pileateds, Sharon wrote this last November (the bold font is mine):
Tim Gallagher gave a presentation and signing at the RGV Fest too. Watching his footage of the Lunnaeu video was a very different experience than having watched it on the internet or tv news where it's blown up to grainy proportions. Having watched it on a large screen at regular speed, it makes much more sense as to why this is an ivory-billed woodpecker and not an albinistic pileated. Whether or not you believe the bird in the footage is an ivory-bill, I will tell you this, it is for sure not a pileated. It doesn't have the flight pattern a pileated does--this isn't someone speaking from behind a computer, this is someone who has considered a pileated a favorite bird since age seven and has watched it for hours in the field. If anything you could argue that the footage is an albinistic wood duck from the way the wings flap and the speed that the bird in question leaves the tree--it doesn't have the flight pattern of a woodpecker at all. What keeps it from being a wood duck is that you can see the bird clinging to the side of a tree before it takes off.
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Well for sure she saw a strange woodpecker. That's about all anyone can conclude... But there is a refreshing humility about her writings and descriptions as well as her picture in the ghillie suit.
I *can* conclude this:
I need to get a ghillie suit for Halloween. - Which is of course the day before the next search season starts.. what timing!
Paul in New Paltz NY
There once was a fair lass named Sharon
She went into the woods. It was no fun
Till she did find
(She must have been blind!)
A cavity all her own! What a honey bun!
Cavity
Depravity
We all have one
They can be fun
If we sit and watch
With a little scotch!
A staunch bird may appear
(And we’re not talking queer!)
It’s origins may have questions
But after a few suggestions
He will be readily allowed
To make you very proud
Before he must return
To the cavity he did earn
Would someone please tell Sharon that once the nails are put into the coffin, it's impossible to pull them out again.
As my pappy used to say, "she's about a day late and a dollar short" on this story.
Humans! What is this word "cavity" mean? Is this something that we have our devices explore more fully?
Kneep.....kneep....
it is for sure not a pileated. It doesn't have the flight pattern a pileated does--this isn't someone speaking from behind a computer, this is someone who has considered a pileated a favorite bird since age seven and has watched it for hours in the field. If anything you could argue that the footage is an albinistic wood duck from the way the wings flap and the speed that the bird in question leaves the tree--it doesn't have the flight pattern of a woodpecker at all. What keeps it from being a wood duck is that you can see the bird clinging to the side of a tree before it takes off.
__________________________
Great logic this one - another one loose in Crazy Town. Well methinks since it isn't her favorite, it must be an IBWO, especially cause she is not behind a computer?
Another thing to consider - it may not be a Wood Duck because its parents were not Wood Ducks, they were Pileated Woodpeckers (her favorite).
This whole thing is just spiraling down out of control into total and utter foolishness.
Isn't it great!
Well I'm sure whatever one believes, Sharon has the satisfaction of doing the actual field work. If someone were to actually see an IBWO flying away fast, her description is good. It unfortunately also fits the bad, erroneous, or aberrant sighting category... but she's not being too arrogant about conclusions. Just reminding you that she isn't an armchair middle-aged male birder carrying a duck-scope. I had to add the duck-scope part, because otherwise the middle-aged immobile birder part is starting to describe me. ;-)
Paul
But Paul, doesn't it just seem like her effort to build suspense backfired on her. She's publishes parts 1 to 3, then waits a month to build suspense. She thinking this will be great buildup for Eagle Optics website.
In the meantime, everyone but everyone is disavowing the video. They start claiming that all you need to believe are 7 sightings. The Skeptics pick that apart by saying they aren't even good sightings!
So now Birdchick publishes parts 4 to 6 and guess what? It's a really really bad sighting. "It's not a duck because it was perched on the side of a tree." Implying that it looked just like a duck flying away!
Sheeeesh! Her timing was very unfortunate for her and for Eagle Optics.
I've said it once. I've said it twice. Now I'm going to say it again. These inexperienced people such as Birdchick need a mentor.
They are unqualified to be in the field looking for this bird. And to top it off they question Jackson, Sibley et al.
It is the birding equivalent of the blind leading the blind.
Do you want to know how much Fitzcrow has turned the world upside down?
The odds are much much higher that it was a woodduck perched on the side of a tree than it was a 50 year old extinct bird! In other words between the two choices the null hypothesis would have to be "woodduck perched on side of tree". And it would have to be accepted as such.
Of course, only in the current state of ornithology would Pileated Woodpecker not even be considered!!!!!!
Even believers no longer believe. They merely revel in their uncertainty... virtuously musing, " Alas, We'll never know."
Once they celebrated "definitive proof that the Ivory-Bill survived into the 21st century". Now they're content to insist "No one can prove they're gone". No, no one can prove they're gone, and no one wants to.
Just so she doesn't think we aren't careful,,,
The "perch on the tree" thingie was her review of the Luneau video, not her sighting.
Her sighting was fast, has "peregrine" like wings. and wasn't a Pileated. How about Alpine Swift? White-winged Scoter?
So what was it, and IBWO, Not an IBWO, or a mysterious quantum entangled gas (my favorite)?
PS: The tears are dry from Fishcrow blocking Piltdown.
Methinks it may be one of those.
The Carpinterio just loves Sharon ... that mujer has come cojones and the Carpinterio admires that more than a good Macarena which the carpinterio things might be sung this way:
(Sharon singing, in Ghillie suit)
I am not trying to seduce you...
When I'm on the blog they call me Birdchick.
And the CLO boys, they say que soy buena
They all want field marks, so I gave one.
So they come and take my tape away.
Move with me, chant with me
Its not a pileated, I'll my sighting home with me.
Now don't you worry about my boyfriend
The boy whose code is "eclispe"
It wasn't a pileated, might have been a wood duck
It was an encounter.
I...ha,ha,ha,ha,ha
Now come on, what was I supposed to do?
I was in the swamp and the double knocks were soooooo fine.
I am not trying to seduce you
Come and find me, my name is Birdchick
Always at the party con las chicas que son buenas
Come join me, dance with me
And you fellows chant along with me
Its not a pileated, It can't be a pileated.
I'll take my sighting home with me.
But now when The Carpinterio reads her teaser piece which left him hanging with the "wings of a perigrine" line ... he couldn't help but recall how Don Pablos El Campasino would talk of Chupacabra, with all its field marks from reptile to homonid ... but now in reading her conclusion he leaves singing that good ol' gringo charlie daniels tune:
(won't somebody set this song to new CLO lyrics ...?)
The Legend Of Wooly Swamp
Charlie Daniels
(V-1)
If you ever go back into Wooly Swamp son you better not go at night
There's things out there in the middle of them woods
That'd make a strong man die from fright
There's things that crawl and things that fly
And things that creep around on the ground
And they say the ghost of Lucias Clay gets up and it walks around.
CHORUS:
But I couldn't believe it, I just had to find out for myself
And I couldn't conceive it, I never would listen to nobody else
No I couldn't believe it, I just had to find out for myself
That there's some things in this world you just can't explain.
The old man lived in the Wooly Swamp way back in the gurgling woods
And he never did do a lot of harm in the world
But he never did do no good
People didn't think too much of him
They all thought he acted funny
The old man didn't care about people anyway
All he cared about was his money.
He'd stuff it all down in Mason jars and bury it all around
But on certain nights if the moon was right
He'd dig it up out of the ground.
He'd pour it all out on the floor of his shack
And run his fingers through it.
Old Lucias Clay was a greedy old man
And that's all there ever was to it.
CHORUS
The Crayton boys were white trash they lived over on Parvis Creek
They were a real snake and sneaky as a cat
And belligerent when they'd speak.
One night the oldest brother said ya'll meet in the Wooly Swamp later
We'll get old Lucias' money and we'll pitch him to the alligators.
They found the old man out in the back with a shovel in his hand
And thirteen rusty Mason jars he just dug up out of the sand.
And they all went crazy and they beat the old man
Then they picked him up off the ground
Then they threw him in the swamp and they stood there and laughed
Till the black water sucked him down.
Then they turned around and went back to the shack
And they picked up the money and ran.
But they hadn't gone nowheres when they realized
They were running in quicksand.
And they struggled and screamed but they couldn't get away
Then just before they were gone
They could hear that old man laughing
In a voice that was loud and strong.
Now that's been fifty years ago an' if you go back by there again
There's a spot in the yard in back of that shack
Where the ground is always wet.
And on certain nights if the moon is right
And you're down by the dark footpath
You can hear three yound men screaming
And you can hear that old man laugh.
Repeat (V-1)
CHORUS...
Send me those Mike Collins field notes, clearly they validate the bird lives.
Oh please take me back to La La land Mr. Alien.
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