Friday, June 22, 2007

Congaree double-knock stories

1. Cornell's latest IBWO search season summary said:
Though the mobile search team had no definitive ivory-bill sightings, they did hear some strong double knocks in April in the Congaree of South Carolina.
2. From Cornell's Mobile Search Team travel log:

(April 6, Congaree, from Chris McCafferty):
Martjan heard a possible double-knock after completing a playback session, but heard nothing further, and thought it not particularly compelling in the absence of repeated sounds.
(April 10, Congaree, from Nathan Banfield)
...The double knock seemed like a near-perfect match for the sound made by the woodpecker genus that includes the ivory-bill, (there are no known recordings of an ivory-bill double knock), but I remain highly skeptical of it. If there was a repetition of at least two double knocks, or a reaction to my playback, then I would have stayed at the spot searching the area all day. It seems more likely a bird would make a series of knocks. What makes it somewhat interesting though, is that this sound was only a little over a kilometer from where Martjan heard a double knock on April 6.
3. From a Charlotte Observer article (dated 5/1/07):
Martjan Lammertink, the Dutch native leading the Cornell search team, has heard what he thinks was the ivory-billed's distinctive double-knock deep in the Congaree.

"I spent two winters in Arkansas searching and this was the strongest double-knock I've heard," he said. "It wasn't spectacularly overwhelming or close. It had the right spacing, but the tone was a little light."

Lammertink said he had broadcast a playback of double-knocks and said the one he heard could have been in response to the tape. "But I didn't hear anything else," he said. "If I had heard it again, then my heart would have started pounding."

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Translation: We don't have jack.

Anonymous said...

It would be hilarious if it wasn't true.

"Wait! Did you hear it?"

"What?"

"The double-knock."

"The double-knock?"

"Yes, the double-knock."

"No, I ..."

"Wait! There it was again."

"I didn't ..."

"The double-knock, man! The double-knock!!!!!!"

"I dunno. I thought it was that branch up above the ..."

"Wait! Did you hear that???"

"Huh?"

"The double-knock!!!!!"

"You know what? Eff you."

"Wait! Wait!"

Anonymous said...

http://www.thedailygreen.com/2007/05/25/i-saw-the-ivory-billed-woodpecker/1879/#comment-711

From the comments:

I think we saw this bird in the Lost Pines. It was LARGE I would guess between 15-18 inches from the ground to the top of the head. I thought it was a skinny chicken at first. When it flew away there were white patches all along the bottom of each wing. I think I remember two white lines down it’s back but I was so busy watching it peck and amazed at it’s size that my memory isn’t clear on that. Also, I heard a noise a little while later that sounded like a animal “honking” sound. I was amazed to hear the 1935 recording the next day while I was doing research. It was the same sound.