Like many, as a youngster I poured through bird guides learning everything I could from each species' page. When it came to the Ivory-bill the message appeared gloomy. If not extinct, it seemed inevitable that this magnificent woodpecker was destined to travel the same road to extinction that its predessors had gone. The Carolina parakeet and passenger pigeon were no more... if it hadn't already disapeared, the Ivory-bill was soon destined to join them.
As recently as 2005 reports from keen observers have rocked the ornithological community. The big woodpecker lives! Never has there been so much excitement generated during our modern era about a bird in North America. Fast on the heels of eye-witness reports have come the skeptics. Those who simply believe that many competent individuals were mistaken. If you are still a skeptic this site may not be a good fit for you. There are many forums and blogs already online where you may feel free to participate and interact with others.
This forum is for those who deal with stifling heat and field conditions, who spend time and a great deal of personal effort gathering more information about the Ivory-bill. We also whole-heartedly welcome others who have silently cheered behind the scenes and simply want to learn more about the Ivory-billed woodpecker. This is your place to share openly with others in a warm environment.
I look forward to learning from you and others that will participate here.
I am also planning to spend a lot of time this coming winter/early spring in a few spots I know about in Louisiana and Mississippi. Maybe I'll be the next one with some interesting news.
I look forward to learning from you and others that will participate here.
I am also planning to spend a lot of time this coming winter/early spring in a few spots I know about in Louisiana and Mississippi. Maybe I'll be the next one with some interesting news.
Hi Gary:
Its such a delight to have you here. I hope you will just kind of breathe deep and relax here and express whatever you would like to about IBWO's!
congratulations on being our first poster! I must have grew 2 brains trying to get the forum air-borne but of course I would love any suggestions from you and others that would make the forum and site more useful!
It is terrific to see this researcher's forum come to fruition. This happens at a time when many ivory-bill searches are being initiated in many states, by many different people, along with others that have been ongoing for some time. I am personally now aware of search activities in no less than 10 states, and there are no doubt others that I am unaware of. Many are being conducted very quietly. It is my hope that this forum can provide a vehicle for many of these people to make contact with each other and share knowledge that can aid us all in finding, documenting, and protecting these birds. I am well aware that many people have information they cannot share openly. I am no exception! But I hope that all my fellow searchers will be encouraged to connect with each other here. Thank you all for your efforts, large and small.
Thanks to Don for setting this up, and it's good to see Fangsheath as a moderator. Best of success to this forum--I look forward to a productive and rewarding experience here.
Great to see this site up and running. I think I will permanently migrate over here from the other one.
As I mentioned previously, I will be heading south on my 8th Ivorybill expedition very soon. The plan is to leave on November 27th and return December 3rd. That is all the time I can afford at present. I will be with a former Cornell volunteer and also with my brother who has accompanied me on 2 previous expeditions.
I will post updates on here when possible. In the meantime, good luck to you all and I look forward to interesting and insightful conversations with you.
Don, congratulations on putting this together. And thank you for doing so. I look forward to an uplifting and informative discussion and hope the site will attract a growing number of knowledgeable and serious searchers. I also hope (and expect) that in a matter of months the existence issue will be completely settled and that this forum will continue to function as a place for sharing data about the IBWO. So little is known at this time, and I'm hoping we can protect it for future generations.
I was captivated by the bird at age of about 10 and remain so today. I'll find a way to get out in the field sometime this season.
Hello there Don and congratulations on launching this very ambitious project.
I already see there are new members pouring in, so I hope there will be a great deal of attention from bird scientists.
I wish you the best in this whole endeavor.
Val thank you so much for your hard work behind the scenes of assisting me with a multitude of technical issues while building this exciting project! Without your kind assistance I would have been in dire straits. Your patience and professionalism is deeply appreciated and crucial to the site being available today. A whole-hearted thank you!
Excellent forum Don. As I look out the window at a foot of snow on the Canadian prairies, I'm a long way geographically from helping out the search personally. But as you say "We also whole-heartedly welcome others who have silently cheered behind the scenes and simply want to learn more about the Ivory-billed woodpecker."
There are a lot of very sincere folks cheering on the people who have the guts and commitment to actually be out there in the field. Here's to a great year and the "million dollar photo" which hopefully comes out this winter and gives everyone the proof they want/need.
Timeshadowed and Bernie your posts both reminded me again of how valuable it is to have folks like you and others offering encouragement to those out in the field. Also EVERY person is needed to brainstorm and work in a cooperative fashion regarding this rare bird. Pressure from the average person who shares his/her passion for the species can influence many, including those who hold positions of power in a variety of places.
Thanks for creating this new forum. It is needed and is a good fit for me.
Soon I will be spending a week in the swamp looking for IBWO. I'm in the market for a digital camcorder. Does anyone have any suggestions on the best one for this sort of work? There are many many choices but I don't want to spend a fortune
I am pretty happy with my little Panasonic GS-59. It is very small and light and has a good, fast zoom (30x). It focuses very fast. However, for ivory-bill work you may prefer a camcorder that records to a hard drive, such as the JVC Everio series.
Thanks for starting the forum, Don! Although I will probably be "lurking" on the forum most of the time, I will post from time to time. I hope to make a trip or two this winter to the areas near the Neches River in the Big Thicket Area of east Texas where John Dennis and others saw the ibwo in the late 1960s and Dennis recorded a putative ibwo "kent". In addition, I hope to spend some time with my buddy in central Louisiana who has some 300 acres of swampland off of the Red River (which drains into the Atchafalaya). His place is replete with large alligators, water moccasins, night herons, cypresses, water tupelo and the occasional giant cypress that escaped logging a century ago. A colony of red-cockaded woodpeckers resides in a nearby national forest. Although my friend is far more interested in deer, hogs and alligators than large woodpeckers, he is at home in the swamps and the man I want guiding me when navigating the winding bayous in a pirogue!
Whatever camera you get, I would recommend keeping it packed away until you actually find ivorybills. It may take weeks or months of hard work just to get a sighting. If you devote resources to keeping a camera ready all the time, it may be a sufficient handicap to prevent you from having any success. It is my opinion that a video camera is the best bet. Most of the video sequences that I obtained lasted for less than a second. There is no way that I could have gotten still shots. During the past few years, thousands of hours of field work have been logged in Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas, and nobody to my knowledge has had any success with a still camera.
Thanks for starting the forum, Don! Although I will probably be "lurking" on the forum most of the time, I will post from time to time. I hope to make a trip or two this winter to the areas near the Neches River in the Big Thicket Area of east Texas where John Dennis and others saw the ibwo in the late 1960s and Dennis recorded a putative ibwo "kent". In addition, I hope to spend some time with my buddy in central Louisiana who has some 300 acres of swampland off of the Red River (which drains into the Atchafalaya). His place is replete with large alligators, water moccasins, night herons, cypresses, water tupelo and the occasional giant cypress that escaped logging a century ago. A colony of red-cockaded woodpeckers resides in a nearby national forest. Although my friend is far more interested in deer, hogs and alligators than large woodpeckers, he is at home in the swamps and the man I want guiding me when navigating the winding bayous in a pirogue!
Regards,
Joe Hood
Thanks for your post Joe and welcome to the forum! The area that you are going to search sounds very intriguing to say the least. The more keen eyes that are out there the better. I hope you find useful information here as well as encouragement from folks doing searches elsewhere. Again a warm welcome and we are delighted you joined!
Well done Don - great idea. Obviously, being UK based, I won't be posting much, but I look forward to following the discussion here without having to wade through the juvenilia found elsewhere...
Well done Don - great idea. Obviously, being UK based, I won't be posting much, but I look forward to following the discussion here without having to wade through the juvenilia found elsewhere...
All the best,
Sean
Hi Sean!
You can bet that when one sits around with peers that have a common goal- that being Ivory-bill knowledge and preservation, no person is a lesser. The fact that you are from the UK does not in any way hinder the value you have in the researchers community. On the contrary your geographical location certainly does not inhibit the wealth offered of a sharp mind full of ideas. We are so delighted you found us Sean and we look forward to hearing what you have to say.
Whatever camera you get, I would recommend keeping it packed away until you actually find ivorybills. It may take weeks or months of hard work just to get a sighting. If you devote resources to keeping a camera ready all the time, it may be a sufficient handicap to prevent you from having any success. It is my opinion that a video camera is the best bet. Most of the video sequences that I obtained lasted for less than a second. There is no way that I could have gotten still shots. During the past few years, thousands of hours of field work have been logged in Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas, and nobody to my knowledge has had any success with a still camera.
Very interesting Mike. I think that makes sense, although I hadn't thought of it that way.
For the upcoming trip, I am planning on using the sit-and-wait technique for most of the time spent in the field. I will be trying to immitate the behaviour of a hunter, while keeping camera in hand.
For the upcoming trip, I am planning on using the sit-and-wait technique for most of the time spent in the field. I will be trying to immitate the behaviour of a hunter, while keeping camera in hand.
As a mathematican, I have thought about the odds of success of various search strategies. The problem with the sit-and-wait approach is that you have to luck out and pick just the right place within a vast search area. The odds are extremely remote that you will be so lucky. Every now and then, someone wins the lottery (such as Kulivan), but it's risky to play the lottery when you have limited time available for searching. My strategy is to quietly cover as much ground as possible each day. With this approach I managed to get within fifty feet a couple of times before the bird flushed. I got even closer to an ivorybill that was calling from behind a fallen tree. The problem with moving is that it's hard to keep a camera running. On the other hand, you aren't going to get anywhere if you never have any encounters. I would have gotten killer video in February if I had a small kayak with a trolling motor that I could operate with one hand while holding a video camera in the other.
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