Update 1--When I first read Cornell's summary, I didn't notice this paragraph:
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which supports searches throughout the southeast, agrees there’s more to be done. "It is imperative we continue with searches for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker," said Chuck Hunter, Regional Refuge Biologist. "Enough credible evidence continues to come to our attention that leads the Service to believe several isolated pairs or very small populations may still exist."Update 2--I just checked again, and another "new" paragraph seems to have appeared:
The Nature Conservancy is another key player in the ivory-bill search and in the effort to preserve bottomland forest habitat. Allan Mueller, avian conservation project manager for The Nature Conservancy in Arkansas, says, "The 2006-07 search for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker in Arkansas was another season of easy cooperation between the members of the Big Woods Conservation Partnership. While we did not come up with the 'iron-clad' evidence, we did discover new promising locations to search and again produced tantilizing evidence of this great bird's continuing presence."Update 3--A Birdforum poster provides some analysis here.
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12 comments:
Hmmmm. This first article very much has the tone of an admission of defeat. Not only they don't seem to profess confidence of the ongoing existence of the ivory-billed woodpecker, but it seems that they are not even trying to reinforce the strength of the earlier sightings.
Is this another step towards Cornell disavowing the existence of the IBWO?
I agree. As one who held out some hope, I think Fitzpatrick is getting ready to put an end to this. This report is depressingly despondent rather than eternally optimistic as all their previous reports have been.
I guess it was too good to be true.
I am so glad to see that they haven't forgotten the classic IBWO excuses, here's a quote:
"Water levels were much higher this year," he [Rohrbaugh ]said. "It took longer to get into some areas compared to last year when the water was so low searchers could actually drive into some of those same areas."
Let's not forget that when water levels are low, the noise of walking (or driving) through leaf litter makes the IBWO's fly to another state.
Wow. Cornell is truly trying to distance themselves from their Grand Rediscovery. Cyberthrush is down to 90% confidence. Cyberthrush!
Chopique1 has apparently disappeared. Must have been when his guarantee for a photo back in February or whenever didn't pan out. He claims to have gotten lots of close range looks though. Draw your own conclusions.
Ivory-bill Skeptic, I've got to hand it to you. I've followed this story and this blog almost from the beginning. You took a beating from angry True Believers and you never flinched. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the True Believers were wrong and and you were right all along.
There's a story for the newspapers and NPR here. I'm a big NPR fan but like most people NPR believed what they wanted to believe on this story. If the news media is interested in the truth and not just sensationalism, they should be covering this pseudo retraction.
"Ivory-bill search included more partners and places"
The most successful season of failure yet.
Has it occurred to Fitzpatrick that the woodpecker has also been "telling" skeptics about the "the future and the choices we make"? We will remember what we have learned for "a long time to come" too.
Even if we fail to find further evidence of the species...
Drop the word "further" and we're zeroing in on the truth.
Cyberthrush is down to 90% confidence. Cyberthrush!
Cyberthrush and now Soggy Bill! Say it ain't so!
All blogs other than this one are crashing and burning. The truth will out.
Congratulations Skeptics, your wisdom has awed me.
We have solid evidence that the Ivory-billed Woodpecker still exists.
John Fitzpatrick, April 2005
If there is even the smallest chance that ivory-bills survive, then our goal is to find them.
Ron Rohrbaugh, June 2007
For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the truth; to know the worst and provide for it.
Patrick Henry, 1776
It's time to move the
guile suits, kayaks and
ARU's to the storage bin
and start working on the
long awaited retraction
paper. Please don't put
us through another year
of this nonsense.
If NPR is going to have any credibility in science it needs to dedicate a "Science Friday" or some such thing to this current admission that the 2005 sightings were invalid and the product of eager armchair naturalists and sloppy academics.
It is the sort of story they would love to cover if it was not their "feel good story" of spring 2005. I hope that their donors pay some attention to this. Why would I donate my money to help NPR pay for a song on the IBWO?
It's a moving target.
The feds. Not the bird.
"tantalizing evidence" does not an Ivory-billed Woodpecker make.
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