Ivory billed wood pecker rediscovered=not extinct

Deleted by author due to second thoughts.

Will try again to post an answer. My first response disappeared like the proverbial Ivory Billed Woodpecker.

If this report proves to be true and not phony like so many others, it will be great news for those of us who are birders as well as shooters and hunters. I would love to see and photograph the IVB Woodpecker. Get ready for a huge influx of birders into eastern Ark.

Good shooting and be safe. BUT DON'T SHOOT THE IVB WOODPECKER!
LB

That is just great.
We have a Pileated woodpecker who lives on our shooting range, the nearest thing to an Ivory Billed left in any number, and that is one impressive bird.

They've got video this time and the pros say that it's definite. Plus there have been several sightings by experienced birders and ornithologists.

Get ready for a huge influx of birders into eastern Ark.

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Probably won't do them much good. The sightings are on federal land and access has been withdrawn to the public while they figure out exactly what they're dealing with.

Right in the middle of some of the best duck hunting in the state. What is stupid is this bird thought extinct has been co-existing with duck hunters and other outdoorsman for years, unknown to biologist, scientists, and assorted federal quacks. Yet now that it is spotted, suddenly the folks that have apparently been doing a good job of protecting it with their actions are suddenly thrown out on their ears. Just another example of government over-reaction, they got it wrong the first time and said they where extinct, now after that major screw-up they decide they know enough to tell us how to use that enviroment.

Oh and by the way, that is OUR land, not the Federal governments, no matter what those ignorant fools want the people to think.

:banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

I am glad to hear the bird is not extinct. I am not a birder but can appreciate the thrill of finding something you thought was lost forever.

What caught my eye when I read this in the paper was they are claiming it's not extinct anymore. It never was extinct, we just wrongly thought it was. The ones who declared it extinct were wrong, and now they are triping over their own words trying not to admit that they can be wrong.

Makes you wonder what else they are wrong about.

I'm a native Arkie.

I have never believed the Ivory Bill to be extinct.

No, I am not claiming any sightings. I have never seen an Ivory Bill, and I do know what a Pileated looks like.

But I have neve believed the Ivory Bill to be extinct because I've had too many run-ins with offically extinct critters in Arkansas.

Black bears were once considered "functionally extinct" in Arkansas. In fact, the "re-introduction" of black bears from Minnesota to Arkansas is hailed as the "most successful" reintroduction of large predators ever in the history of game management.

Only, in Scott County, Arkansas, black bears were never really "extinct" and probably not even endangered.

My aunt hit and killed with her 1979 Mercury Cougar the largest black bear recorded in the state up to that point in 1980. She hit that bear less than 200 yards from my house. The only way the bear could have been that big was if it had been born during the "functionally extinct" period for black bears.

Also, mountain lions are "officially extinct" in Arkansas, too.

Yet, I cannot count how many times people have sighted them. My grandfather fired shots at one that ran across his field in the 1970s. My mother has seen one in rural Scott County. I have heard one in rural Scott County.

About six months ago, the local Channel 5 news ran a short story about a photo taken just south of my house in Crawford County by a wildlife camera set up on a game trail. It was a profile image of what could only be an almost adult mountain lion. Fading spots, but looooong tail with characteristic ear coloration.

But mountain lions are "officially extinct" in Arkansas, and have been since the 1940s.

So, every time I hear about an animal being considered officially extinct, I don't believe it.

hillbilly

Just curious- why is this being reported by the BBC and not an American news agency? I guess it doesn't promote the liberal bias so prevalent in the media, so they choose to ignore such a noteworthy sighting.

Grayrock,

Maybe you aren't looking in the right place? The place I heard about the IBW being rediscovered was that bastion of conservatism, NPR.

Go to Google and do a news search for "Ivory Billed Woodpecker" and you'll get results from US Newspapers, a Reuters story, and the same NPR story I listened to.

Grayrock, this news is everywhere in the US media.

It broke on Yahoo News. I saw it on local CBS affiliate KFSM. I purposefully watched CBS national news Thursday night just because of the teaser I saw about the Ivory Bill. It was on local radio. It's everywhere.

hillbilly

Also, mountain lions are "officially extinct" in Arkansas, too.

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I hear ya, hillbilly.

Here is a pic that was in the paper a year or so ago. I live in NE Ark and hunt in Sharp County. We hear reports of lions quite often.

Mr. Chitlin....wow. I had not seen that pic before.

But yes, same old story.

And every single time a mountain lion is killed in Arkansas by a car or by a hunter or homeowner, the official line is that the mountain lion "escaped captivity" or was a "pet released into the wild by a former owner," but mountain lions are most certainly extinct in the wild in Arkansas.



hillbilly

Yet now that it is spotted, suddenly the folks that have apparently been doing a good job of protecting it with their actions are suddenly thrown out on their ears.

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Last week, no one knew those birds were still around.

This week, it's been all over the news from one end of the country to the other.

Lot of sick, twisted folks in the world who would not have glanced at the woodpeckers before who will, given the publicity, shoot at them now.

Makes sense to close the area off until the furor dies down a bit.

pax

FWIW,

Extinct means that a species no longer exists anywhere.

Extirpated means that a species does not occur in the wild where it used to, but that it still exists somewhere.

Well- I guess I must just be living in a cave down here. This is the 1st I've heard of it. Guess I'll start having to get more informed than just reading THR!!

http://birds.cornell.edu/ivory/story1.htm

Parts of the story:
_____

"While kayaking in the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge on February 11, 2004, Gene Sparling of Hot Springs, Arkansas, saw an unusually large, red-crested woodpecker fly toward him and land on a nearby tree. He noticed several field marks suggesting the bird was an Ivory-billed Woodpecker.

A week later, after learning of the sighting, Tim Gallagher, editor of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Living Bird magazine, and Bobby Harrison, associate professor at Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama, interviewed Sparling. They were so convinced by his report that they traveled to Arkansas and then with Sparling to the bayou where he had seen the bird.

On February 27, as Sparling paddled ahead, a large black-and-white woodpecker flew across the bayou less than 70 feet in front of Gallagher and Harrison, who simultaneously cried out: "Ivory-bill!" Minutes later, after the bird had disappeared into the forest, Gallagher and Harrison sat down to sketch independently what each had seen. Their field sketches, included in the Science article, show the characteristic patterns of white and black on the wings of the woodpecker.

"When we finished our notes," Gallagher said, "Bobby sat down on a log, put his face in his hands and began to sob, saying, 'I saw an ivory-bill. I saw an ivory-bill.'" Gallagher said he was too choked with emotion to speak. "Just to think this bird made it into the 21st century gives me chills."

___________

"David Luneau, associate professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, said he thought the best chance to film the elusive bird would be to have a camcorder on at all times. On April 25, Luneau captured four seconds of video footage showing an Ivory-billed Woodpecker taking off from the trunk of a tree.

Frame-by-frame analyses show a bird perched on a tupelo trunk, with a distinctive white pattern on its back. During 1.2 seconds of flight, the video reveals 11 wing beats showing extensive white on the trailing edges of the wings and white on the back. Both of these features distinguish the Ivory-billed Woodpecker from the superficially similar, and much more common, Pileated Woodpecker."

What caliber should you use on an Ivory Billed Wood Pecker?

with a looong telephoto lense.

Would likely pay off far better. Unless anxious to get another public hunting area shut down.

I saw that the other day. Back in about 1976-77, my youngest brother swore he saw one near the house where my mother still lives. He had no idea what it was at the time, he picked it out of pictures in an encyclopedia. He's stuck to it ever since. Someone heard of it & came to disprove him, tried to get him to choose the "wrong picture" over & over. Every time he picked out an Ivory-Billed woodpecker as the bird he'd seen. He's spoken many times of the white markings on the back, & the white he saw on the wings as it flew away. I have to be sure he sees this story!