Not really qualified to talk about South Carolina, but I would think there are multiple areas of interest.
I did make a trip to see the trees of Congaree around 1994. At the time, I was more into trees than ivory-bills. Now, it is becoming the reverse.
Another fantastic old growth area in S.C. is the Beidler Forest. (aka Four Holes Swamp) This is a 1000+ acre area of cypress-tupelo old growth, with some of the cypress trees being 1000+ years old. I would reckon ivory-bills would need more area than that, but it might make a good corridor stopping over place. At the time of my visit in 1994, both the Congaree and Beidler had some trees down from Hurricane Hugo.
Is anyone aware of anything to suggest that blackgum (Nyssa Sylvatica) might be a preffered species of Ivorybills? Although I suspect it is the work of a pileated, I have found scaling and a fresh cavity. Most of the activity is in small diameter blackgum, even though other species and larger diameters are available.
Black gum and its close relative, water tupelo, are long-lived trees and where they occur cavities may tend to be concentrated in them because they can live with soft centers for many years. I saw unusual foraging sign on one water tupelo in the Pearl but I have not had the opportunity to look for sign on black gums. Also, ivory-bills have been reported to feed on both black gum and water tupelo fruits. This report in fact came from South Carolina.
Is anyone aware of anything to suggest that blackgum (Nyssa Sylvatica) might be a preffered species of Ivorybills? Although I suspect it is the work of a pileated, I have found scaling and a fresh cavity. Most of the activity is in small diameter blackgum, even though other species and larger diameters are available.
Don't get hung up on tree diameter too much. I have seen trees of 30 inches in diamter scaled, and I have seen trees of maybe 4 inches in diameter get scaled.
This Old growth concept is somewhat of a misleading thing. These birds feed on many things, and insects and rot will set in on any tree that is susceptible. An ivory bill certainly does not care if it is feeding off of ants from a black cherry or ants from a spruce provided that the tree itself does not contain toxins that are carried over into the insect.
Birds when they find food are going to eat it whether it is on a 6 inch tree or 26 inches. Black cherries were noted in one stomach. Most cherries with which I am familiar (and I am not very with black cherry so someone please correct me) do not get more than 8" in diameter. Don't think for a minute that the bird wouldn't hop on a 6 inch in diameter cherry to chow down.
Please take pictures of the scalings and post the same if you can.
Remember, we know almost nothing about this bird, and information that looks unusable today may turn out to be the key puzzle piece tomorrow.
Black cherry trees are very common in the southern Appalachian woodlands where I grew up. Although the trees may grow larger, I cannot recall any black cherry trees with a diameter larger than 8 in. Like some other members of the family rosacea, the leaves and seeds of the black cherry contain small amounts of cyanide.
Don't get hung up on tree diameter too much. I have seen trees of 30 inches in diamter scaled, and I have seen trees of maybe 4 inches in diameter get scaled.
This Old growth concept is somewhat of a misleading thing. These birds feed on many things, and insects and rot will set in on any tree that is susceptible. An ivory bill certainly does not care if it is feeding off of ants from a black cherry or ants from a spruce provided that the tree itself does not contain toxins that are carried over into the insect.
Birds when they find food are going to eat it whether it is on a 6 inch tree or 26 inches. Black cherries were noted in one stomach. Most cherries with which I am familiar (and I am not very with black cherry so someone please correct me) do not get more than 8" in diameter. Don't think for a minute that the bird wouldn't hop on a 6 inch in diameter cherry to chow down.
Please take pictures of the scalings and post the same if you can.
Remember, we know almost nothing about this bird, and information that looks unusable today may turn out to be the key puzzle piece tomorrow.
Excellent post.
Not that it matters, but mature black cherries can easily exceed 8 inches DBH, as long as they are getting the sunlight and other requirements. They can be a fast growing, fast maturing, and relatively fast declining tree. There is one on record in PA as being 258 years old, but most of them die out long before that, typically in that 60-100 year range.
As you point out, a woodpecker wouldn't care if it 8 inches or 24 inches in diameter, they just care if there is food there.
Thanks for the info on black cherries. I never knew that there was cyanide in them, either, and I love cherries of all types.
Before I forget I have heard that black gum and sweet gum are trees in which IBWO will be found. I frankly think that they will be found in any tree that they want, but I think they like the trees around the swamps as opposed to cypress themselves. Don't know why I think that.
The pits of a number of popular fruits, including cherries, plums, and peaches have small amounts of hydrogen cyanide. My understanding is that peach pits have been used in the past as a source of cyanide in the manufacture of chemical weapons.
A number of ivory-bill nests were found in cypress trees. However my impression is that ivory-bill foraging is focused on hardwoods, or pines when available. This may simply be because cypress is a very insect-resistant, long-lived tree. Hardwood- or pine-dominated forests tend to produce higher densities of snags and dying trees. Some pine and mixed pine/hardwood forests particularly are susceptible to large beetle outbreaks, providing abundant forage.
Cornell Mobile Search Team Finally UpdatesGo to Top
The Mobile search team finally updated their web log. While the habitat was the best they have seen to date, no sightings, scaling, kents, double knocks of Ivory Bills has yet been detected. This would not be a surprise given that the team has only covered a small fraction of suitable IBWO habitat. They have much more exploring to do in there. The initital reports are encouraging to say the least. The attached quote is from their recent web log.
"The habitat in the east part of the park was amazing! These are simply the biggest hardwoods in such a high concentration that I have seen anywhere. We all agreed that this was perfect Ivory-billed Woodpecker habitat. Huge sweetgums, sycamore, sugarberry, green ash, loblolly pine, swamp chestnut, cherrybark oak, Shumard oak, elm, and many other species. An impressive tree Utami came across was a huge old sweetgum whose base was larger than our stretched out arms could reach. Sweetgums in particular are very interesting to us since James Tanner reported during his study of ivory-bills in the mid to late 30s that large sweetgums were a highly preferred foraging tree for Ivory-billed Woodpeckers. "
Covering territory will never get it done. Sitting and waiting will probably be much more effective. Even in Arkansas merely walking will probably flush the birds long before they are seen.
This is a luck game to a great extent. Being in the right spot is half the battle.
Covering territory will never get it done. Sitting and waiting will probably be much more effective. Even in Arkansas merely walking will probably flush the birds long before they are seen.
This is a luck game to a great extent. Being in the right spot is half the battle.
This is a very interesting point, at the heart of the matter. In fact, in may be the main reason people have had such difficulty locating the IBWO. I wonder how many searchers are patient enough to actually sit and wait in one spot for hours at a time. Mike Collins advised me not to do this when I asked him for search tips. But then again, most of Cornell's search team used the sit-and-wait technique last season. Funny thing actually: I bumped into 2 Cornell searchers on separate occasions that nearly caused me to faint. Both times I wasn't expecting to meet anyone and the shock is evident. Imagine absolute silence and solitude as you stealthily make your way through a swamp, only to have a deep, quiet voice seemingly come from nowhere asking "how is your search?". You look around and see nobody until they move.
I usually use a combination of waiting and very quietly moving through the swamp. Although it hasn't worked yet, I think that waiting in one place may decrease you chances of seeing the bird because if it's not in the immediate area, you definitely won't see it. At least if you cover multiple areas you give yourself that many more chances. Drifting along in a canoe/kayak is probably the quietest way of moving through the habitat. I do however, believe that the IBWO has learned to recognize the shape of a canoe as "the enemy".
Dr. Lammertink has suggested dividing the time between 25% stationary watches of 15-60 minutes and 75% moving around. Unless you happen to stake out the right spot the chances of an ivory-bill passing close to you are slim. It is extremely difficult to be stealthy on foot and if water features are available I think a kayak is a much better alternative. In any case I would suggest emphasizing stationary watching (and listening) early and late in the day, either at suspect cavities or taking advantage of rights-of-way, water features, or anything else that improves visibility.
This book about the Carolina Parakeet has some information about IBWOs in SC during the mid to late 30s. It may be of some use but is rather depressing.
Cornell is devoting quite a bit of effort to the Congaree area. Although not well-publicized, they have had ARUs there for two years. They are not saying anything about ARU results from that location, but their effort may be indicative that this is the area outside ARK that is most promising to them.
Cornell is devoting quite a bit of effort to the Congaree area. Although not well-publicized, they have had ARUs there for two years. They are not saying anything about ARU results from that location, but their effort may be indicative that this is the area outside ARK that is most promising to them.
Agreed, Cornell really likes something there. And there's Nature Conservancy support also.
National Geographic's recent version of the unconfirmed post-1944 sightings map:
is unlike others in that there is a 2006 data point from the Congaree. Jackson, John Fitzpatrick, and the USFWS are listed as having contributed the data.
Does anyone know more about a possible 2006 encounter in Congaree?
I am new to the site and trying to navigate my way around
What might one be able to conclude if anything about the
2006 date out of the Conagree area ?
Shawn
Would the IBWP need vast areas of timber for potential nest sites
or would the vast areas that were once thought it needed
only thought about in this way becasue they existed then and is not the case today ... it is a very large bird with specific needs I will give you that
Maybe the informattion that has come from Tanner/Allen others
was not all inclusive
That is maybe the IBWP was/is much more adaptable than information of that
era led folks to believe. Look at the PWP for example ...
Quite possibly it could survive on other things like fruits, insects, nuts
and not solely on beetle larvae.
Seems that with so many detections over the years by folks honorable and
knowledgable, allbeit maybe not totally verified, that the IBWP is actually
alive in multiple areas that still have enough of what it needs to survive and
multiply ... maybe not as densely populated as it once was say in 1900
but nonetheless propagating and living despite mans agression on its environment. I know you all have proabaly been over this territiry already
but I am quite interested in this bird and its survival and hoping like everyone else that it can come back from the edges of oblivion ...
Thanks for the opportunity to post on here
Shawn J
I'm really not sure what the 2006 dot is about, there were some double-knocks heard early last year but there may be other encounters that I am unaware of.
As for the bird and its needs, I do think they require comparatively large areas but are adaptable to a range of forest conditions. The Congaree may have no higher a density than other areas that are more "disturbed." This appears to be a disaster species and relatively undisturbed old-growth may in fact not provide optimal habitat.
Black cherry trees are very common in the southern Appalachian woodlands where I grew up. Although the trees may grow larger, I cannot recall any black cherry trees with a diameter larger than 8 in. Like some other members of the family rosacea, the leaves and seeds of the black cherry contain small amounts of cyanide.
Hi Joe:
In Maritime Canada Black Cherries get to be a good sized despite the severe winters as they thrive near river flood plains with rich aluvial soil. Here is a good link to Wilkipedia re: Black Cherry size and other desciptions of the species. Gary Smith pointed out a previous post with similar information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Cherry
Personally I love sitting under black cherry where wild honeybees fill the air in springtime with all of their activity. My impression is that this is a relatively short lived species and very very subject to disease and decay. In IBWO territory I would think it would be a great food source.
Thanks for the link, Don! Seeing a picture of the tree brings back memories of my boyhood in the southern Appalachian mountains. I remember that the black cherries in our area were all inflicted with a fungus that caused swellings in the trunks and branches and eventually killed many of the cherries. No doubt the cherries would provide a tasty snack for the birds in ibwo territory-better than poison ivy berries, anyway!
South Carolina and difficulty of searching hereGo to Top
Hi folks:
I am simply wondering if searching in South Carolina would be considered more difficult than working areas in Florida where the Auburn team are working or does the habitat provide easier navigation. Any special concerns about searching in the habitat that fellow searchers need to be aware of?
South Carolina
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