Call of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker –1. When Harrison addresses the current controversy, I wonder if he'll again go with his old "sour grapes" defense?
Presentation on NOVEMBER 4, 2006 at 4:30 p.m.
For years we have read about the controversy of whether the Ivory-billed Woodpecker has been sighted or not. The Hilton Head Audubon Society, in conjunction with Sun City Bird Club and Coastal Discovery Museum, has invited Bobby Harrison to come speak in their region about the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. The presentation is on Saturday, November 4, 2006 at 4:30 p.m. at Bluffton High School, located on 12 H. E. McCracken Circle in Bluffton, South Carolina. Bobby Harrison, a professional photographer and college professor, is one of the two people credited in 2004 with sighting the Ivory-billed. This sighting, the first time since 1944 that two qualified observers had positively identified an ivory-billed woodpecker in the US, led to the largest search ever launched to find a rare bird.
During the lecture, Mr. Harrison addresses the history of the ivory-billed, it’s near demise, the rediscovery, the current controversy and an update on the current search effort. He will also show the Luneau video and a video Mr. Harrison shot in September of 04, which has not been published. His presentation this past March in Columbia, SC was a sell out. Come and hear for yourself this story, which epitomizes the challenge to conservation in America.
2. Regarding Harrison's Sept '04 video, Tim Barksdale wrote this:
...I am NOT impressed with the footage of Bobby's and feel that bird one is CLEARLY a PILEATED in hs footage and a heron flying through in the second shot. NEVER NEVER will this POOR quality and terribly focused footage be of any value and if he is continuing to suggest otherwise He is being dishonest and of little value to the rest of us who are working dilegently to really acquire something of value.Barksdale's view stands in stark contrast to Tim Gallagher's view (from page 232 of "The Grail Bird"; the bold font is mine):
Marc Dantzker set to work on Bobby's tape the minute Bobby arrived. There wasn't as much to work with as there had been with David's tape--this was the briefest glimpse imaginable. But after it was enlarged and slowed down, most people who saw it were convinced the bird in the video was an ivory-bill. In one of the last frames before it vanished from view, you could see a black body, black on the wings, with a large expanse of white. Then Fitz spotted something else interesting: the bird actually flew through the frame a second time, going from left to right across the bottom of the screen just thirty-three seconds later.I think it's important to note that Gallagher can evidently "see" Ivory-bill field marks in the crappiest of videos. Note Gallagher's astounding sentence about the Luneau video on page 224 of "The Grail Bird":
Bobby's video is far from being a high-quality, undeniable rendering of this bird. The best thing about it is that it shows conclusively that a decoy can lure in a passing ivory-bill. So now we had one more vital tool in the upcoming field season, set to begin in early December 2004.
In the blown-up film, I could see what appeared to be a large bird with a black-crested head and a white bill peering out from behind a tupelo.Update: Harrison is also speaking this week in Alabama. An excerpt from this article (the bold font is mine):
...Harrison said there are two images on the [Harrison] tape of that bird, which experts believe -- based on a frame-by-frame analysis -- is an ivory-billed woodpecker.
"I'll show the tape in Fairhope and people can make up their minds," Harrison said. "It's a big bird, but it's a much bigger swamp. It is amazing how big this bird is, yet can hide itself so well. It will always keep a tree between itself and you. It will always be on the opposite side of a tree from where you are. I think they are just wary."
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9 comments:
Before now, I only half heartedly believed in the bigfoot analogies. To believe in Bigfoot, UFOs, etc. is to be in another level of denial beyond Sibley's "misidentification" argument.
To this day, I think Dr. Fitzpatrick et al. are now ashamed and realize they probably made a mistake. Just look at Mr. Methinks reporting from Veracruz to get the right feel for this.
But Amy is right about Gallagher and Harrison. They are in the midst of full-blown cryptozoology. And it's not clear how or if they are going to escape.
Gallagher and Harrison are also capable of viewing the upper surface of Ivory-billeds while they are under the bird, but they can't seem to see the large white bill when the bird is flying at them....
Associated with Bobby, the sound I hear when I see "Call of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker" can be found here:
http://www.woodywoodpecker.com
Those Pileateds are such practical jokers.
The mind is wired to fill in gaps and people with the fever can get caught up in "seeing" the bird in their head that happens to match the few puzzle pieces, rather than seeing the actual pixels on the screen. Fishcrow is at the head of the class with his interpretations.
"...Gallagher and Harrison. They are in the midst of full-blown cryptozoology. And it's not clear how or if they are going to escape."
Tom was civil enough not to include that the November 4 talk has a $10 admission - and in that is the answer regarding if and when Gallagher and Harrison might be able to escape. They will drop all of this when they can no longer find people who lack either a life or intellect and are willing to pay them to hear the story that for a short while gave them their place in the sun – before the truth caused that major eclipse.
But given that Harrison is doing a 4:30 Saturday high school gig in Bluffton indicates that the venues are becoming a bit less glamorous and the IBWO rediscovery's place in prime time is over.
And it's not clear how or if they are going to escape.
They've told too many lies too many times to renounce them all.
Like their brothers in chicanery -- the creationists and ID peddlers -- the leaders of the IBWO "rediscovery" scam will continue to misrepresent and distort reality while pretending they are just "following the evidence" until their dying breath.
Bobby Harrison, a "college professor," says
It is amazing how big this bird is, yet can hide itself so well. It will always keep a tree between itself and you. It will always be on the opposite side of a tree from where you are.
Funny, that sounds just like the gremlin who floats behind my head and controls my thoughts and actions but disappears the moment anybody tries to detect it.
Can Bobby have demonstrated more plainly the extent to which IBWO belief is more about metaphysics and human psychology than any other branch of science? I don't think so.
Was the brilliant evasive behavior of this bird well-documented prior to its decimation by hunting and habitat destruction? On what "evidence" is this "college professor" basing his strange conclusion about this invisible bird?
Just because Dr. Fitzpatrick et al. should be ashamed doesn't mean that they are. I have seen no public statements by any of the Science paper authors and editors that can be construed as demonstrating sincere repentance.
Any wagers on whether Amy Lester actually exists or is a skeptic hiding under the cloak of anonymity?
Any wagers on whether Amy Lester actually exists or is a skeptic hiding under the cloak of anonymity?
Shouldn't you be practicing your drawings, Tyler?
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