Search report from Rob Tymstra

Here.

Rob's endorsement of Fishcrow is here. His report on a talk by Dan Mennill is the sixth post here.

Another perspective from Cyberthrush

Here.

Fitzpatrick to speak again

...January 28 at the Space Coast Birding & Wildlife Festival in Florida.

His "Evening Keynote Presentation" is scheduled for a Sunday afternoon at 3pm. The title is "How Ivory-billed Woodpeckers and Other Birds Are Helping to Save the World".

More details are here.

"Interesting" cavities

Here.

In my humble opinion, this whole "interesting cavities" line of argument is a non-starter.

Remember, Cornell has already been down this road. They monitored a whole lot of allegedly interesting cavities in Arkansas. Some results are here.

An excerpt:

...During 123 camera deployments we monitored 88 unique cavities and 35 feeding trees. In 51 of 88 (58%) deployments at cavities, we captured images of nine different species, with squirrels (Sciurus spp.) and PIWO being the most common (Photo 9). Other species detected at cavities included raccoon (Procyon lotor), Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus), Redheaded Woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus), Red-bellied Woodpecker (M. carolinus), Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus), Eastern Screech-Owl (Megascops asio), and Wood Duck (Aix sponsa)...

Lots of data

Another update from Mennill is here.

An excerpt (the bold font is mine):

Every day, Karan, Justyn, and I record tens of gigabytes of sound data on the Choctawhatchee River using our automated Listening Stations.

Open letter to Tyler Hicks

Here.

Mobile Search team update

Here.

They've recently been in the Apalachicola River basin; they've encountered some heavy boat traffic; and they haven't found any Ivory-bills.

They seem to be taking their own sweet time in making their way to Geoff Hill's search area, where "Ivory-bill" detections are commonplace.

Diane Deresienski's log

Here.

An excerpt (the bold font is mine):

The big news happened on Christmas Eve Day. Due to people rotating in and out of camp, just three of us were in the field that day (Tyler Hicks and us). Tyler is an amazing birder and a coauthor on the Avian Conservation and Ecology publication about the Ivory-bill possibly still existing in Florida; he saw Ivory-bill twice during last year’s field season. Shortly after leaving camp Tyler heard 3 double-knocks (a bill to tree banging pattern unique to Ivory-bills and other members of the genus Campephilus—Pileated woodpeckers belong to the genus Dryocopus). He called us on our GPS/radio (we all carry these handy units which not only tell us our location but when updated also give locations of all the other searchers in the forest) and then sent us the coordinates. We split up and within about 45 minutes Diane heard three kent calls! These vocalizations are unique to Ivory-bills and difficult to confuse with any other forest sounds. Later in the morning Diane and I both heard four double-knocks and a couple hours later Tyler heard kent calls and then had a quick “visual” on a bird! While he didn’t get a photograph (it’s hard to describe how difficult this will be but easy to appreciate once you are in the field) he is confident of his sighting and has made careful notes and drawings documenting his encounter. Since then others have heard kent calls in the area and a volunteer from Virginia briefly observed a bird on the wing.

Of course, that "unique to Ivory-bills" phrasing is very wrong. Some related information is here.

George Butler IBWO film

An excerpt from this link:

Planning is underway for the 15th Annual Environmental Film Festival, scheduled for Thursday, March 15 through Sunday, March 25, 2007. The Festival will present some 100 documentary, feature, animated, archival, experimental and children's films selected to provide fresh perspectives on environmental issues affecting our planet.

2007 Festival Highlights to Date:

• George Butler mini-retrospective with George Butler in attendance at the AFI Silver Theatre, including The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition, In the Blood and his new film in progress, The Lord God Bird about the Ivory-billed Woodpecker.

Another update from Geoff Hill

If you guessed "more detections this week, but no photo", you are correct!!

The update is here.

Noah Strycker weighs in

...on an Oregon birders mailing list here.

An excerpt:

...I lived in the camp with Tyler Hicks, Geoff Hill, and the rest of the field crew, and now fully believe most of what gets reported. There were many occasions when I saw Pileateds fly by and wasn't able to get a photo, despite being ultra-ready: sometimes it's just not possible to react quickly enough. Other methods proposed include using infrared cameras to find roosting birds at night, using playback recordings of double knocks, walking a "skirmish line" toward stationary observers to flush the birds, and using helicopters to flush them above the forest canopy...

A Noah Strycker here is described as a 2003 high school graduate. A Noah K. Strycker here is described as an Associate Editor of Birding magazine.

An excerpt from this link:

Noah K. Strycker, a regular contributor to Birder's World, studies fisheries and wildlife science at Oregon State University.

Update from Mennill

Here.

Note again this recent statement from Cornell:

Given the tremendous amount of time and effort expended and the very large number of false or ambiguous detections, the general use of ARUs to continuously record during future search efforts may not be cost effective.

Will Hill actually provide weekly updates?

On 1/7/07, Geoff Hill wrote:

Things are extremely busy for all of us but I’ll try to post an update each week during our search.

I wonder if these weekly updates will materialize. Week after week, would he actually claim that his team again detected Ivory-bills, but again failed to get any clear photos?

Fund-raising Gala information

Please see Mary Scott's site here and here.

"A little Hicks and Gresham IBWO history"

An email from a reader:

Two ambitious young birders? Want to make their mark on the birding world? Had a fascination with IBWO? Always talked about it? A dream to find it? Noted by others?
Has the dream come true?

Hick's father - 18 April 2000 - [Tyler] "has set out on his own to make his mark in the birding world..." "...to make his contribution to the birding world."
http://listserv.ksu.edu/web?A2=ind0004&L=KSBIRD-L&P=R7756&I=-3&m=8183

*14 May 2001 - "Anyone seen Tyler Hicks or Chet Gresham lately??" (Forwarding post "Two experienced birders needed for 30-day intensive search [Zeiss] for Ivory-billed Woodpecker in Pearl River area, Louisiana.")
http://listserv.ksu.edu/web?A2=ind0105&L=KSBIRD-L&P=R7543&D=0&I=-3

Chet Gresham - IBWO related posts on KSBIRD; shows his interest:
27 April 2005 http://listserv.ksu.edu/web?A2=ind0504&L=KSBIRD-L&P=R15393&D=0&I=-3
http://listserv.ksu.edu/web?A2=ind0504&L=KSBIRD-L&P=R15574&D=0&I=-3
28 April 2005 http://listserv.ksu.edu/web?A2=ind0504&L=KSBIRD-L&P=R16322&D=0&I=-3
4 May 2005 http://listserv.ksu.edu/web?A2=ind0505&L=KSBIRD-L&P=R2182&D=0&I=-3
9 May 2005 http://listserv.ksu.edu/web?A2=ind0505&L=KSBIRD-L&P=R6473&D=0&I=-3
22 July 2005 http://listserv.ksu.edu/web?A2=ind0507&L=KSBIRD-L&P=R9278&D=0&I=-3

Chet Gresham's blog posts -
Dec 2005 - "I've always had a fascination with this bird and when I heard they had been rediscovered I about had a fit. Let's hope they find more this winter and in other areas of the southeast and keep protecting the few places they could possibly still live!" - http://earthhouseholder.blogspot.com/2005/12/ivory-billed-woodpecker.html

Jan 2006 - 'Trip' to Florida - http://earthhouseholder.blogspot.com/2006/01/florida-panhandle.html
(Gresham is pictured on the Auburn website -here
Both Gresham and Leon Hicks (Tyler's father) hear kents and knocks and are eventually credited for field assistance - here

Sept 2006 - [Tyler] "called me and left a message that he had some good news. For some reason I knew. We had always talked about the woodpecker and knowing he was in the southeast I just had a feeling." http://earthhouseholder.blogspot.com/2006/09/ivory-billed-woodpecker.html

26 Sept 2006 - "Considering the recent IBWO news related to Tyler and Chet, this archived KSBIRD-L post from Ken Brunson back in 2001 (*see above) shows some foresight."
http://listserv.ksu.edu/web?A2=ind0609&L=KSBIRD-L&P=R11938&D=0&I=-3

26 Sept 2006 - Chet Gresham on Tyler Hicks
http://listserv.ksu.edu/web?A2=ind0609&L=KSBIRD-L&P=R12081&D=0&I=-3

27 Sept 2006 "...it was pretty easy to predict the eventual notoriety of these ambitious young birders."
http://listserv.ksu.edu/web?A2=ind0609&L=KSBIRD-L&P=R12131&D=0&I=-3

Hick' mother - 15 Oct 2006 - [Tyler] "is just wanting to chase a dream"
http://listserv.ksu.edu/web?A2=ind0610&L=KSBIRD-L&P=R6802&I=-3&m=27798

Missed "Ivory-bill" photo opportunities

Check out the third comment here.

Update from a searcher

Here.

A related photo essay is here.

Updates from Mennill

Here.

An excerpt:

On the first day of recording, we recorded a double knock at Listening Station #3!

Pictures of his team are here. Note the large number of Sound Analysis Technicians.

More IBWO blogging

Here.

Some background information is here.