Tyler Hicks recorded the best sight records by a skilled birder since the Singer Tract was cut.2. In addition to at least three "Ivory-bill" sightings, Tyler has at least 11 more heard-only Ivory-bills under his belt. See Table S2 here (PDF).
Note that around Christmas '05, he detected Ivory-bills by sound on five consecutive days.
3. He's now recorded detailed IBWO sightings on two consecutive Christmas Eves.
4. As of this September '06 article, Hicks is described as "a 23-year-old professional birder from Kansas" and "an undergraduate student in Colorado". He's also credited as being the one that "suggested they turn their attention to the Choctawhatchee River south of Geneva."
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14 comments:
Yes, he is covered in red flags.
you are dead wrong when you say that it is not possible that this is a mis-identification. It is possible, and as a matter of fact, extremely likely, since no one has been able to prove this bird is extant for more than 60 YEARS!
No one has been able to prove this bird has been EXTINCT for more than 60 years either...
No one has been able to prove this bird has been EXTINCT for more than 60 years either...
Uh, you do understand that it is impossible to conclusively "prove" extinction of anything, right?
He (Hill) also added, “I can’t imagine how we could be wrong,” and asked, “What else could be making that noise? Nothing in nature we know of. There might be something we don’t know of.”
Looks like Hill already knows the result of the search. That's never a good thing for objectivity.
Sibley said,
“As far as I know bird identification experts are all in agreement that we’re still looking for proof that the ivory-billed survives, so if people can actually present proof from Florida that would be absolutely thrilling. The evidence from Arkansas should have been scrutinized more carefully before it was announced last year.”
“That evidence doesn’t stand up to scrutiny and really doesn’t justify the claims of proof, and it simply raised a lot of false hopes.”
Ouch. Of course, the Luneau video is still being peddled as an IBWO by some.
"No one has been able to prove this bird has been EXTINCT for more than 60 years either..."
Apparently all you TBs skipped Philosophy 101.
No one has proven that the Labrador Duck is EXTINCT either, so why does the CLO have to look for extinct birds in the South?
Apparently all you TBs skipped Philosophy 101.
No one has proven that the Labrador Duck is EXTINCT either, so why does the CLO have to look for extinct birds in the South?
If one holds Extinction to a basic 'Philosophy,' then the example below must be 'mis-identified' ... I just don't think so ...
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/01/070104-video-bird.html
Hope reigns in the South for the IBWO!
Let's see, searching for 1 1/2 years in order to get a photo of the IBWO. Then IBWO appears, so it's now time to figger out the camera...?
What's this little thingamajig do?
Hmmmm... autofocus? manual? Hold on a minute, Ivory, lemme go back and get the manual..
Is this guy related to Cletus? (Aw, heck, that was a lot blow.)
Sorry, Cletus.
The latest Tyler Hicks encounter sounds like the Kulivan Pearl encounter in '99: "pair....seen 30 feet away....10 minutes.....camera in knapsack but afraid to reach for it [or, alternative explanation], didn't realize the significance of the sighting at the time."
One comment made in the Hicks' account piqued my interest: "flew like a pintail." Maybe because I am not a duckhunter I don't study Pintails in flight carefully enough... but why is that particular species always the chosen one? Look at the Cornell and Fishcrow reports... more often than not, "Pintail" is the duck that is mentioned. Are they really that distinctive in their flight style compared to other ducks? I've never really thought so... maybe they have a slightly longer neck and tail, but the flight *style* is not so different. Wood Duck would be easily as good a comparative species, but then, it would open the possibility that the observer actually saw a Wood Duck!
Could it be because everyone is regurgitating the duck mentioned by Tanner first suggested without thinking twice (much as modern "observers" claim that PIWOs "undulate" in flight when, as anyone who has seen one knows, they do not. This is a description from the Fitzcrow et al paper that has been compounded by many others both within and without.)? Does that not weaken the observer's skills? When someone blindly agrees with previous widely-reported characters, to me that is a sign that the present observer is not a very good one or that s/he is easily influenced by others' comments.
Anyway. Something on which I'd be interested to hear others' thoughts.
My Two Cents
If you were a 23yr. old full blooded male and spent two consecutive Christmas Eves' serching for a woodpecker in the swamps you'd say you saw one too!
Hey!
Give the poor schlub a break!
Christmas Eve -- I would guess that's one of the most difficult days of the year, besides New Years Eve, to get together a team of folks to look for an IBWO.
Coincidence?
The burden of proof is on the party that alleges that the bird is NOT extinct.
So far I don't even find that the believers have hit even marginally close to the "more likely than not" level of proof (51% v. 49%).
Forget "clear and convincing" or "beyond a reasonable doubt."
Again, sounding like a broken record here, the Tanner, Allen, Kellogg forays in the first half of the last century (with primitive, noisy equipment)left no doubt that they were filming and photographing IBWP's.
The specter of fraud looms large. It is embarrassing that more professionals haven't adamantly spoken out as regards the incredible discrepany between the evidence produced in the '30's and the *gag* evidence produced from 2004 to the present. It is beyond absurd and reaches fraud without stretching the concept.
Just wondering: Is Tyler Hicks related to Taylor Hicks?
Arkansas, Florida, South Carolina, Texas, Louisiana; inter changing states with the same interweaving story lines. The names change but the fabrications and beliefs remain the same.
I think I'll become a Believer just to change my own story line.
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