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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 04/28/2005 : 16:55:46
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The Ivory-billed woodpecker lives!
quote:
Long thought extinct, ivory-billed woodpecker rediscovered in Big Woods of Arkansas
Multiple sightings, video footage show bird survives in vast forested areas
Click here to view a video news release.
BRINKLEY, Ark. - Long believed to be extinct, a magnificent bird - the ivory-billed woodpecker - has been rediscovered in the Big Woods of eastern Arkansas. More than 60 years after the last confirmed sighting of the species in the United States, a research team today announced that at least one male ivory-bill still survives in vast areas of bottomland swamp forest.
Published in the journal Science on its Science Express Web site (April 28, 2005), the findings include multiple sightings of the elusive woodpecker and frame-by-frame analyses of brief video footage. The evidence was gathered during an intensive year-long search in the Cache River and White River national wildlife refuges involving more than 50 experts and field biologists working together as part of the Big Woods Conservation Partnership, led by the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology at Cornell University and The Nature Conservancy.
"The bird captured on video is clearly an ivory-billed woodpecker," said John Fitzpatrick, the Science article's lead author, and director of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. "Amazingly, America may have another chance to protect the future of this spectacular bird and the awesome forests in which it lives."
I was expecting it to be found either in the Okeefenokee or the Great Dismal Swamp, but the Big Woods is another good habitate.
Raise a glass to a tough, old bird!
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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Randy
SFN Regular
USA
1990 Posts |
 Posted - 04/28/2005 : 17:27:14 [Permalink]
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I read the Ivory-billed woodpecker has a 30 inch wingspan and is near 20 inches in height.
That's one mother-of-a-woodpecker!
Go to this site for more news and video!
http://birds.cornell.edu/ivory/#
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"We are all connected; to each other biologically, to the earth chemically, to the rest of the universe atomically."
"So you're made of detritus [from exploded stars]. Get over it. Or better yet, celebrate it. After all, what nobler thought can one cherish than that the universe lives within us all?"
-Neil DeGrasse Tyson |
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 04/28/2005 : 17:35:12 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by filthy
The Ivory-billed woodpecker lives!
Well, maybe. The first I heard of this was on the main page over at Panda's Thumb where the tone was one of cautious optimism.
The author (Nick Matzke) writes:
quote:
It would be great if this were true. I want it to be true. Several independent professional observers say it is true. But I gotta say, I just read the paper (Fitzpatrick et al. “Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) Persists in Continental North America, free online”), looked at the supplementary material, and watched the video, and I've got a bad feeling that hopes are going to be dashed again. What they've put up in terms of data is scans of field notes and a detailed analysis of one very short video that is being interpreted right at the limits of its resolution. They don't have audio recordings, and the digital photo they have is a photo of model in a “reconstruction” of the video observation. Hopefully my utterly amateur opinion is wrong, and the professionals are right, but with this much psychic energy pushing for the existence of the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker, it pays to be extra-careful.
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 04/28/2005 : 17:50:42 [Permalink]
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I too, am waiting on further information. But really, it's a hard bird to mistake. Even the piliated, another quite large woodpecker, can only be mistaken for it by the non-bird watching layman. That only leaves fraud, and I find that unlikely in this instance.
I now badly want to know population density, number of nesting pairs, and all of the other, endless questions that this brings up.
Smart conservation gave me back my alligators and I'm now hoping it will someday let be see this remarkable bird.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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furshur
SFN Regular
USA
1536 Posts |
Posted - 04/28/2005 : 20:39:19 [Permalink]
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Amazing, I never thought that the Ivory Bill would be seen again. I think the sightings are positive proof; I have alot of faith in the Cornell Ornithology Lab. I am a little confused by this article proclaiming the great news though, the bird pictured is clearly not an Ivory Bill.
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If I knew then what I know now then I would know more now than I know. |
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 04/28/2005 : 21:18:27 [Permalink]
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We'll see in the comming year. This will have loads of people looking for the birdie, so if there is a population of them hiding out there I think we'll see better pics and vid this summer.
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 04/29/2005 : 02:48:58 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by furshur
Amazing, I never thought that the Ivory Bill would be seen again. I think the sightings are positive proof; I have alot of faith in the Cornell Ornithology Lab. I am a little confused by this article proclaiming the great news though, the bird pictured is clearly not an Ivory Bill.
Probobly the only bird pic they had on file. Not sure, but I think that it is a flycatcher. A pity the pic doesn't show the tail, which would be very long and sissored.
Am interesting bird in it's own right, but in this case, worse than no picture at all.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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bloody_peasant
Skeptic Friend
USA
139 Posts |
Posted - 04/29/2005 : 06:12:42 [Permalink]
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| NPR had a bit on this, and the team looking for them spent a year looking and had 7 good sighthings plus quite a few good audio sightings of its distinctive sounds. wOOt |
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furshur
SFN Regular
USA
1536 Posts |
Posted - 04/29/2005 : 07:14:18 [Permalink]
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quote:
I am a little confused by this article proclaiming the great news though, the bird pictured is clearly not an Ivory Bill.
Well I'll be darned they changed the picture in the article to a drawing of an Ivory Bill. I was going to go back and see if it was a Scissor Tailed Flycatcher, I think you might be right on the ID filthy. http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/id/framlst/i4430id.html
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If I knew then what I know now then I would know more now than I know. |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 04/29/2005 : 17:28:16 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by furshur
quote:
I am a little confused by this article proclaiming the great news though, the bird pictured is clearly not an Ivory Bill.
Well I'll be darned they changed the picture in the article to a drawing of an Ivory Bill. I was going to go back and see if it was a Scissor Tailed Flycatcher, I think you might be right on the ID filthy. http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/id/framlst/i4430id.html
Yeah, I think so. The color and the beak are right, and the size seems consistant. Unfortunatly, my elder daughter borrowed my field guide some time back and I can't say for sure. Not really a bird expert, me.
I have long had a fantasy of spotting the ivory-billed myself, and every time I went into the field, I kept a sort of a wishful eye open for it. Saw a lot of every kind of other bird though, and that was alright.
What a thrill that must have been! I am insane with envy!
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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