Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Update from Geoff Hill

Here.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Name another person, any person, that was/is more deluded than Hillcrow. Either living or dead.

Anonymous said...

"More pessimistic individuals worry that the birds have shifted out of our focal area."

More realistic individuals worry that reality has shifted out of the TBs' focal area.

"Dr. Ken Able, who is a professional ornithologist and an outstanding birder...Eric Soehren and Dr. Bill Summerour, two ornithologists and well known Alabama birders"

These credentials don't carry as much weight as they once did or should. It used to be that Ph.D. ornithologists protected the integrity of the scientific record from overenthusiastic amateur or otherwise less-qualified birders. Now its the other way around.

Anonymous said...

It's sad to see Ken Able getting himself tangled up in this mess.

Anonymous said...

Personally, I am convinced that they were made by an ivory-bill.

So he heard a couple of calls, of which Hill has hundreds recorded and none of which match known Ivory-billed, but he's "convinced".

And another person steps off of the reality and caution train.

Anonymous said...

Do the TBs ever ponder how this whole neo-IBWO phenomenon got started? It was David Kulivan's point blank, 10 minute, "undeniable" encounter with a pair on April Fool's Day of 1999. The other two "key" encounters were by Sparling and then by Gallagher-Harrison in Arkansas. In all three cases, the observers got relatively leisurely views, one while sitting motionless while turkey hunting, and the others while paddling canoes/kayaks. Doesn't it make you nervous that this has never happened since to someone with a camera, or in view of a remote camera? Doesn't it make you a little suspicious of those "catalyst" encounters? It should.

Anonymous said...

Does anyone care any more about this "official" fiasco in Florida?

NO.

Anonymous said...

Everyone should check out the latest from Fishcrow. Maybe all the other IBWO witnesses can follow his lead and have IBWOs painted onto photographs as representation of what they saw.

Anonymous said...

Professor Hill makes Fishcrow look sane.



I'm sorry, truly, they are out there incubating their eggs and have gone silent.

Anonymous said...

I feel that Hillcrow is getting dang close to his goal. In another...oh..I don't know...maybe 2 years, he will have inched up to within 1 foot of an IBWO. Of course it will be on the other side of the tree, but it WILL be there.

He will be able to smell it. He will know it's there by the sound it gives off while breathing and the elevated CO2 levels that it is giving off. Which can only be given off by an IBWO. Which was proven in a paper in early 2009.

Yep, he's dang close.

Anonymous said...

"Do the TBs ever ponder how this whole neo-IBWO phenomenon got started?..."

Please don't forget Mary Scott and her cellphone psychic.

From her birdingamerica website: "...my role in the rediscovery has been obscured in the drama. This isn't a complaint ~ I made the decision to turn my sighting, and Gene Sparling's, over to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology..."

Anonymous said...

If you haven't read Fishcrow for a while definately check it out. I'm sorry but he's nuts. Stark-raving mad. Check this out:
"We cannot afford to allow Jackson to do the same. He is no more of an expert on this species than anyone else who has read the literature. He should be ignored. The people who should be listened to are those who have field experience with this species, such as Tim Gallagher, Bobby Harrison, Melinda LaBranche, Melanie Driscoll, Jim Fitzpatrick, Casey Taylor, Geoff Hill, Tyler Hicks, Brian Rolek, Bob Anderson, David Kulivan, Mary Scott, Susan Epps, and myself."

How lovely, in the spring, when the lunatics return to dance across the lawn......

Anonymous said...

Regarding Fishcrow's latest ramblings... he quotes John Dennis;

I'm aware of several birders who have avoided going public with their sightings for fear of ridicule, including one who had a sighting in the Big Thicket in the 1960s.

I know and have known several good birders who have searched the Big Thicket for IBWOs from as early as the 1940s, and particularly during
the late 60s and early 70s Dennis-sighting days, and more recently. Many of these folks are no longer with us. There WAS a great deal of IBWO searching in East Texas at all times in recent history, contrary to what Cornell, Fishcrow, etc. would have you believe.

I have never spoken with a well-respected, accomplished birder who searched the Big Thicket in those days who claimed to have seen or heard an IBWO. Nor have I heard of stories of solid sightings from any of the old-time expert birders who were involved in those searches.

There are "sightings" from the Big Thicket, yes. There are also Bigfoot sightings from there. It's just that nobody who I believe to be credible made those sightings.

Anonymous said...

Fishcrow is not mad. He is merely ratcheting up his greatest practical joke of all time.