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7 comments:
one of Hill's most preposterous statements, which is saying a lot!: "I think it is the most secretive, hard-to-see bird in the world. They are virtually silent, almost unlike any other bird. It's got very good eyes and ears. I think when any of us come near, it hitches around to the other side of the tree and flies away."
If the CLO had any common sense or integrity they would disassociate themselves from this nonsense. Several members of the CLO team claim to be "large woodpecker experts" yet continue to endorse absurd mischaracterizations of Campephilus behavior. They either know how real Campephilus woodpeckers behave, in which case they are misrepresenting what they know to be reality for personal and institutional gain, or they don't, in which case they are profoundly ignorant and incompetent.
This quote, highligthed by Tom and restated here in its fully glory by 'ibwo atheist', truly is preposterous. I suppose if Hill and believers in this same behavioral trait had some hard evidence of this being true, I might ... nah!
Read this from Phil Hoose's book where he retells Sutton's own account of his, Allen's, and Tanner's first sight of the Ivory-bills near John's Bayou in the Singer Refuge:
They had been walking through the swamp in a spread out line, "shouting frequently since they couldn't see each other." After J. J. Kuhn heard and spotted the birds, "Doc Allen entered the picture, crashing through the woods like a bear." The four of them [Sutton, Tanner, Allen, and Kuhn] laughed and danced on a log ... The male Ivory-bill "caught sight of the men and turned his head to look at them directly. He flew to a limb overhead and looked down with head cocked, though first one brilliant amber eye and then the other ... He called loudly, preened himself, shook out his plumage, rapped defiantly, then hitched down the trunk to look at me more closely," wrote Sutton. Doesn't sound like the same species to me, because it contradicts Hill in every important aspect.
"It puts the lotion on its skin!"
-Silence of the Lambs
Tom’s Excuse # 6 (Wary Birds) = Natural Selection.
Dr. Hill is not a crazy as you think. This fits perfectly with his past publications. He is on the road to parlay these “non-data” into 10 years of research funding.
"He is on the road to parlay these “non-data” into 10 years of research funding"
And certain "large woodpecker experts" who should be exposing him are instead collaborating on a scenic tour of the Southeast.
"Campos described how, because it had been raining, he tucked his video camera in his kayak to keep it dry. Thrill turned to gut-punch. He might have become one of the best-known birders of modern times."
There is so much in these three sentences. The revelation that getting an image isn't enough to make it worth risking getting your video camera wet. The opinion that the really devastating part of missing out on the video would be that you would not be "one of the best-known birders of modern times".
i.e. "Forget the IBWO, forget the habitat, forget conservation. What about me??!! This bird is only a way of making me feel better about myself and having others think of me as being important. But instead I am just some guy in the swamp with a dry camera, a "I could have been a contender" story" and a punched gut.
Oh and by the way. The IBWO is not likely to make anyone "one of the best-known birders of modern times" unless you count those made infamous by using their lack of birding skills to defraud the public.
Actually, it's well known that Campephilus woodpeckers can be silent for long periods of time. Usually after death.
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