Opposing views on the Ivory-bill

From yesterday's Minneapolis Star Tribune:

1. Jim Williams writes:

It seems that every time someone sees an ivory-billed woodpecker they write a book about it. The latest is Dr. Geoff Hill's "Ivorybill Hunter" (Oxford University Press, $24.95).

Since I truly believe that this bird -- long thought to be extinct -- still exists, Hill's book was a page-turner, even though I knew the ending: no definitive photo.

Nonetheless, Hill writes a lively account of months of grinding fieldwork along the Choctawhatchee River in Florida's panhandle in 2005 and 2006. (The search continued as the book was being published this year.)

Ivorybills were seen; recordings of knocks and calls were captured. And the all-too-common snippet of blurry video was taken. All of this -- plus some dishing on ornithology and ornithologists -- makes for a good read.

The last chapter outlines how you, too, can join the search. Bring your GPS. Leave your skepticism at home.

From Curt Brown in the same paper on the same date:

Who knows, I mused, perhaps it's the extinct ivory-billed woodpecker lost on the comeback trial.