“I am still very optimistic that a clear photo of an Ivory-billed Woodpecker will be taken, and I think there is a good chance that a local outdoorsman who knows the area well will get the photo,” Hill wrote.
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"there is a good chance that a local outdoorsman who knows the area well will get the photo"
He can't do any worse than the ornithologists and birders.
“If we can get to the point of proving the existence of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers it will make the region around the Choctawhatchee … one of the better known bird-watching spots in North America,”
Until then its map turtles will be more interesting its the birds.
"Because of his experiences photographing birds"
Including the extant Campephilus? On my last trip to the Neotropics I got an identifiable shot of one with amateur equipment right after breakfast on my first morning in the field, on foot and wearing normal clothes of course.
"Fenimore said that even a stealthy approach by a researcher toward a perched or nesting bird could be ruined by the simple act of moving a limb while reaching for the camera."
“It’s very, very tough” taking a picture, he added. “The bird isn’t going to come over to see you.”
Total nonsense as is obvious to anyone who has actually seen or photographed any Campephilus. In my experience Dryocopus such as PIWO are at least as difficult to approach. The TBs who should know better such as Lammertink never bother to correct these erroneous statements in the press. Evidently they don't mind when the public is misled.
A while back I said that ornithology was entering it's new-age postmodernism stage.
I think in the last few days that Hillcrow has managed to make my point quite nicely. Pseudoscientific claptrap now qualifies as knowledge. And people that know better don't challenge the BS because "community" is valued over truth.
Hill is not being an optimist. An optimist is someone who thinks the glass is half full rather than half empty. Hill is someone who thinks if he looks at the glass long enough he will see an extinct species and that the noises he hears coming from the glass are unique to the birds he wants to see.
Someone like that is not called an optimist. They are called lots of things but not optimistic.
"Fenimore said that even a stealthy approach by a researcher toward a perched or nesting bird could be ruined by the simple act of moving a limb while reaching for the camera."
Yes, many wild animals flee from humans. But this wasn't some tiny highly camoflaged creature residing in the forest canopy and out of the sight of ordinary humans.
It was a big freaking loud-knocking woodpecker with a bright red head and striking black and white wings that was never known for being shy and difficult to detect before the last of its kind was killed and its habitat destroyed.
Pretending to forget this fact, Fenimore makes an ass out of himself and scorns the intelligent reader. Par for the course.
Idiot.
"It was a big freaking loud-knocking woodpecker..."
"Pretending to forget this fact, Fenimore makes an ass out of himself and scorns the intelligent reader"
Its not just Fenimore. What about the "large woodpecker experts" on the CLO team who continue to endorse absurd assertions about Campephilus behavior?
ivory-billed woodpeckers — aka Lord God or grail birds
Please refer the author to John Trapp's excellent research and summary of the use of the term "Lord God Bird". Yes, the species is alive and well. The problem for the TBs is that the species is Pileated.
"It is a substantial body of evidence but it is not definitive proof that Ivory-billed Woodpeckers still exist in the forests along the Choctawhatchee River."
It is a substantial steaming pile of woodpecker guano. (Just not IBWO guano.)
Hill, an ornithologist, noted that bird identification experts have spotted ivory bills many times.
"Experts" like Brian Rolleck, who has seen it more often than anybody (possibly even Fishcrow)?
Also, remote listening stations have detected hundreds of sounds unique to the birds.
GONG! If Hill actually said that, then he's either lying or delusional. If he said it, he's being duplicitous, saying one thing to a reporter where he thinks he can get away with it and saying another to birders where he knows he can't.
...definitive proof ivory-bills have not gone the way of dodos.
I thought they always flew away from the dodos.
Oh. Not the human kind of dodos. My bad.
Despite the second expedition’s inconclusive results...
They conclusively didn't find squat.
Lenimore (sic) suspects ivory-bills exist because accomplished researchers such as Hill claim to have seen them.
And THAT, dear TBs, is the reason that Hill deserves any derision he receives. Through ignorance, willful or otherwise, Hill pushes his crappy sightings on the unsuspecting and unknowing to get them to believe.
His language on his web site seems to be a lot less definitive than the statements picked up in small-time newspaper articles.
"Hill, an ornithologist, noted that bird identification experts have spotted ivory bills many times."
He means, "[ornithologists] have spotted ivory bills many times."
If we've learned one thing in the Ivory-bill fiasco it is this: leave ornithology to the ornithologists, and birding to birders. When ornithologists try to be experts in birding, who knows what they might "find."
"Experts" like Brian Rolleck, who has seen it more often than anybody (possibly even Fishcrow)?"
Not quite here and not quite there because I am, generally, a skeptic. However....
I've never been in the field with Rolek and so know not a thing about his birding skills. I've met him at conferences, however, and in addition to being a very humble man who understands skepticism he is also as well steeped in the canon of literature and studies of Campephilus as almost anyone I've met.
"he is also as well steeped in the canon of literature and studies of Campephilus as almost anyone I've met"
Has he observed the extant Neotropical species in the field and noted that their behavior in no way resembles that attributed to the IBWO by TBs?
"Has he observed the extant Neotropical species in the field and noted that their behavior in no way resembles that attributed to the IBWO by TBs?"
I don't know. We didn't talk about his travels, even though we did talk some about Pale-billed behaviour. But I doubt he'd note behaviour like that you mention since the "TB"' concept only exists in the minds of a few who post on the blog.
"Still very optimistic"
And by golly, if we all just work together we could put on a show. Make money. And save Timmy from the well.
What do you say guys?
"the "TB"' concept only exists in the minds of a few who post on the blog"
Remember all the people who said that they can't find or photograph IBWOs because they are so wary, ignoring the fact that Neotropical Campephilus are rather easy to locate, observe, and photograph?
Those are the TBs. We skeptics didn't make them up. Unlike rediscovered IBWOs they are not a mere concept or figment of our imagination.
"I doubt he'd note behaviour like that you mention"
You're probably right. TBs never seem to note the behavior of actual Campephilus.
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