Loren Coleman's Top Cryptids

Loren Coleman, billed as one of the world's leading cryptozoologists, listed his top 13 "most credible" cryptids here. He invited his readers to do the same in the comment section.

As an Ivory-billed Woodpecker believer, Coleman didn't list the IBWO, but a couple of commenters have already included it.

This guy ranked the Ivory-bill below Bigfoot, and this one included the Ivory-bill only after listing Pterosaur, Bigfoot, Nessie and a few others.

Loren Coleman's Top Cryptids

Loren Coleman, billed as one of the world's leading cryptozoologists, listed his top 13 "most credible" cryptids here. He invited his readers to do the same in the comment section.

As an Ivory-billed Woodpecker believer, Coleman didn't list the IBWO, but a couple of commenters have already included it.

This guy ranked the Ivory-bill below Bigfoot, and this one included the Ivory-bill only after listing Pterosaur, Bigfoot, Nessie and a few others.

Creeping reality

Until recently, the second Annual Ivory-billed Woodpecker Celebration in Brinkley had been scheduled for February 23 and 24, 2007. Yesterday, Sandra Kemmer (Executive Director of the Brinkley Chamber of Commerce) informed me that those plans have now been canceled.

Links related to the 2006 Celebration are here and here.

Wikipedia still says this:

Brinkley, Arkansas hosts the Annual Ivory Billed Woodpecker Celebration, around February every year.(Started in 2006) The Celebration includes Exhibits, birding tours, educational presentations, a vendor market, and more.

"We have stuck our necks out a little bit..."

Please read this entire 10/15/06 article.

New Audubon Ivory-bill page

An excerpt from this page (the bold font is mine):

...Audubon has received many calls from birdwatchers who think they have seen the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. We ask that you look at the accompanying pages that compare and describe these two species. If you remain convinced that you have seen an Ivory-billed Woodpecker you will need to take photographs of the bird.

But how can you take photographs of a bird that's always on the opposite side of a tree from where you are?

Harrison sporting an "Ivory-bill helmet-cam"

See the third photo here.

"The Choctawhatchee Search" blog

Now online here.

A completely unscientific poll

Is the Luneau video definitive proof of a living Ivory-bill?
	Yes
	No
Free polls from Pollhost.com

"The Ivory-billed Woodpecker Webquest"

Check out this Penn State University link.

----
The first paragraph at the above link contains this claim by Phillip Hoose (the bold font is mine):

They mated for life, roamed the forest in pairs, and could live to be as old as thirty.

What is the basis for that longevity claim? Note that The Birds of North America account for the Ivory-bill lists "no data" for the Ivory-bill lifespan.

More from Bobby Harrison

Here.

"The Debunking of Three Hoaxes"

Here.

An excerpt:

After a successful hoax finally comes apart, those who unmask it commonly meet resistance from a coterie of true believers, still defending the indefensible. (Murray Eiland's essay which follows this article touches on this very point.) Clearly, there are mechanisms in human nature which make it easier for all of us to believe in things which simply are not true. On the other hand, any audience will only swallow so much. A purported Roman coin bearing the worn likeness of an emperor may be believable. A painting, cracked and soiled by a clever forger, may look convincingly like an earlier canvas, but a coin bearing the sharply struck date "151 B.C." or a painting on modern plywood are simply not credible. A hoax fails miserably when it drastically contradicts existing evidence, however, a hint of plausibility supported by influential backers can give a hoax real legs.

Another wooden Ivory-bill

An excerpt from this article:

The National Audubon Society asked Lekson to make a replica of the ivory-bill woodpecker, the third largest woodpecker in the world that was thought to be extinct since the 1930’s. Recently there has been sightings reported in Florida, Lekson said.

“It’s a huge bird,” with a 30-inch wingspan and 20 inches tall, he said.

The body and head of the woodpecker was “cut out of a seven-feet in diameter stump,” he said.

The society only gave Lekson a month to make the bird and he would be out of town for two weeks during that time. “It meant I only had 14 days. I worked 14 to 16 hours a day. Then Tropical Storm Tammy hit. I had a foot of water in the shop.”

He still managed to finish the woodpecker. Lekson and his wife were flown to New York for the Audubon Society celebration last November. Tom Brokaw presented Lekson’s Ivory-bill Woodpecker to the Society’s president, John Flicker. “It was an amazing honor.”

The IBWO "was there when we needed him"

Here.

More on the perfectly timed 1971 South Carolina Ivory-bill "rediscovery" is here and here.