The solution: unmanned aircraft systems?

Here.

"Still very optimistic"

An excerpt from this article:

“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.

"Some see dead mayor's face in sycamore tree"

A reader just sent me this link, along with the comment "Some see extinct woodpeckers in pine trees".

IBWO officially extinct in Florida

In an email, John Trapp writes:

You may have already touched on this, but I just noticed that the Official State List of the Birds of Florida, "updated through 12 February 2007" by the Florida Ornithological Society's Records Committee, gives the status of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker in Florida as "extinct native species." And they do not denote it as a "review" species requiring further documentation. What isn't clear is whether they (1) considered the evidence of Hill et al. (2006) in making this determination, or (2) this merely reflects the conclusion of Robertson and Woolfenden (1992) [which forms the basis for the list] and that the Records Committee has not recently reviewed the status of IBWO in Florida. A little confusing either way.

The entire State list is found here.

Superstition

A reader writes:

...I know that wishful thinking is not going to stop. There are going to be more phantom sightings. That is certain for at least two reasons. Firstly, people want to believe in it, and so they'll see what they want to see. Secondly, some people believe that a pure-hearted person can reach into the mystical and imaginary world and pull out something to carry back to physical reality. This is a mindset that says personal sincerity can defeat the conservation of mass and energy. I believe this superstitiousness is the central reason for the whole Arkansas farce. It's something that is predictable, and it was predicted indeed in 2003 by Birdwatcher's Digest.

"Should the last Ivory-Bills be collected?"

Here.

More from Collinson

Here.

Note that Collinson's observation on flap rate is similar to mine here:

For another thing, Cornell has a single data point for the wingbeat frequency of a fleeing Ivory-bill, and that claim may also be bogus.

The 1935 wingbeats (analyzed by Cornell here) may not be the wingbeats of a fleeing Ivory-bill. The recorded sounds may have been made by an agitated Ivory-bill fluttering near the nest hole.

Listen to the wingbeats here (WAV format). Why do the wingbeats stop abruptly? Note that the eighth wingbeat is still fairly loud, and although the recording continues, no further wingbeats are heard. If the bird was really fleeing, why don't we hear (and why doesn't the spectrogram show) wingbeats 9, 10, etc?

6/2/07 update from Hill

Here.

An excerpt:

I stand by my contention that at least a few Ivory-billed Woodpeckers live in the forested wetlands along the Choctawhatchee River. We just need more time and a bit of luck to gather definitive proof for their existence...

Maclean on Hicks

Here.

Update: More from Maclean here, and more from Tim Allwood here.

Observer bias comment thread

I just stumbled onto this August '06 comment thread on John Trapp's blog.

In a related development, this sentence appeared on Geoff Hill's site in September '06:

Through July 2006, nine of fourteen visitors who spent more than 48 hours at the site detected Ivory-billed Woodpeckers.