Why isn't this fraud?

Again, please note this statement that appears in Cornell's online Luneau video analysis (the bold font is mine):

The bird in the Luneau video flies in a straight, direct “beeline” flight without changing its wingbeat frequency for 4.5 sec before disappearing among the trees.

Now, even Birdforum believer fangsheath has made this admission:

Although it has been suggested that the Luneau bird maintains continuous wingbeats after this, I am unable to chart wing positions much after frame 60.

I have yet to find anyone who can chart the wing positions much after frame 60 (which is roughly the 1 second mark).

Can someone tell me why Cornell's claim (above) isn't fraudulent?

(I previously discussed this issue here.)

Bevier post on ID-Frontiers

Don't miss this one.

More Luneau video discussion on ID-Frontiers

Currently available here.

Direct link to Docmartin's Pileated/Luneau comparison

This has been discussed in the comment section, but in case you missed it--check out this Birdforum post by Docmartin, comparing some frames of a known Pileated with some Luneau video frames.

"Lord God, what a mess"

Here.

6/8/06 update--the following information appears at the end of this article:

Leslie Newell Peacock writes for The Arkansas Times, where a version of this article first appeared. She is also the journalist whose researcher husband managed to keep the ivory-billed woodpecker a secret from her for 14 months.

Docmartin weighs in

In response to a Birdforum post about Cornell's recent Ivory-bill Q&A, Docmartin posted this on June 5:

Blimey. If I were an Ivory-bill sceptic, i'd have a field day with that report!

Cornell version...
Ivory-billed Woodpeckers are very few in number and range over very large areas. They can be rather silent in some circumstances, increasing the difficulty of repeatedly finding individuals. Searches for the ivory-bill are just beginning in other states. To make a definitive statement about the status of the bird will require years of intense searching. The leader of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker Recovery Team at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has stated that the agency is a “long way” from declaring the bird extinct. The Lab is working with other parties to develop some mathematical models to give search leaders a quantitative idea of how much effort would be necessary before it is reasonable to state that there are no ivory-bills left in the Big Woods in Arkansas.

sceptic interpretation...
Ivory-billed Woodpeckers are zero in number and range over very large areas of the public imagination. They can be rather silent when they are extinct, increasing the difficulty of repeatedly finding individuals. Searches for the ivory-bill are just beginning in other states. To make a definitive statement about the status of the bird will require years of intense funding. The leader of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker Recovery Team at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has stated that the agency is a “long way” from publically declaring the bird extinct. The Lab is working with other parties to develop some mathematical models to give search leaders a quantitative idea of how much money would be necessary before it is reasonable to accept that there are no ivory-bills left in the Big Woods in Arkansas.

Alas, Docmartin's post has apparently suffered the same fate as many other sensible/funny Birdforum posts--speedy deletion by those crack Birdforum moderators.

CLO IMAX lyrics

The Wreck of the Lab-o-ra-tory
by Larry Ballard of Carpinteria, CA
(with sincerest apologies to Gordon Lightfoot)
----

The legend plays on from old Ithaca town
Of the big place they call the White River
The woods it is said, never gave up her dead
When the skeptics of Science turned gloomy

With a load of our dough, several million or more
Than than Lab-o-ra-tory weighed empty
That good lab and true was a bone to be chewed
When the skeptics of Science came early

The bird was the pride of the proponent’s side
Coming out from the vault of extinction
As the Picidae go it was bigger than most
But it tasted like crow when well seasoned

Concluding some terms with a couple of firms
Then they left with no truth but a burden
And later that night when the ARU sings
Did they know that the skeptics would hear them?

The wind in the woods made a double-knock sound
And a blue jay flew over while calling
And every man knew, as the Captain did too
That the skeptics of Science came doubting

The Captain wired in as the skeptics came in
And the good lab and crew was in peril
And later that night with no doubt in his sights
Came the wreck of the Lab-o-ra-tory

Does anyone know where the love of truth goes
When the frames turn the seconds to hours
The searchers all say they’d have made it o.k.
If they’d fifteen more photos behind her

They may keep it up til the rivers dry up
And they never will back down or flounder
And all that remains is the faces and the names
Of the lab and the crew with no doubters

The legend lives on in old Ithaca town
Of the bird that they say is the God Bird
The woods it is said never gives up her dead
When the skeptics of Science come early

Stranger and stranger

A reader sent me this:

You may want to put this in its own post.

Check out this part:
While Collins has been working in the field, two biologists, David Martin and William Pulliam, have been analyzing the data.

(David Martin is Fangsheath - a reptile guy in Texas, and Bill Pulliam is someone in Tennessee)...

"Update" from Bobby Harrison

This Bobby Harrison update (dated March 20, 2006), has appeared on the Eagle Optics website (the bold font is mine):

March has been an exciting month in the bayou for me. Though I have not seen ivory-bills I did find a freshly scaled tree with large bill marks. Similar tree scaling on trees in the White River have been studied and the results indicate that only an ivory-bill could have made the bill marks left by the woodpecker. The tree, a tupelo has tight bark and the number and size of the twigs still on the tree suggest that it as been dead less than two years. The scaling also reveals small beetle track that have been exposed in the cambium of the tree.

$25k for a share in an Ivory-bill "documentary"?!

Check this out.

An excerpt:

...My interest was rekindled this week when Dianne and I attended a preview of an upcoming documentary about the possible rediscovery of the mythical bird. Since Cornell is very active in researching the possibility of the birds continued existence, Dianne was asked to attend the screening and associated reception. I think she was surprised when I wanted to tag along. It was held at the stuffy Kiplinger Washington Editors Gallery just up the street from the White House. The full theatrical release, scheduled for 2007, is directed by the same guy who did some of the IMAX films being shown at the Smithsonian. The director of the Cornell Ornithology Lab talked some about sightings of the bird. Unfortunately, I don't have the $25,000.00 they asked to be a share holder in the movie's production, but if they find and document this woodpecker, that 25 grand share will be good as gold. I chuckled during the talk when they spoke of the "blue collar interest" in the story...