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more word from Cornell
- To: <birdtalk@utahbirds.org>
- Subject: more word from Cornell
- From: "John CAVITT" <JCAVITT at weber dot edu>
- Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2005 09:39:59 -0600
- Reply-to: "John CAVITT" <JCAVITT at weber dot edu>
- Sender: owner-birdtalk@utahbirds.org
Wes has provided additional information and the official press release.
JFC
*-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
John,
a couple points that were probably extremely underemphasized in any of this press
fodder are that:
(1) The last time that anyone saw a bird was over 1 month ago, and in total
there have only been 7 "good" sightings in over a year of extremely
intensive searching by many people who have spent entire weeks sitting in a
swamp. Even one of the best sightings was of about 4 wing-beats as the
bird flew across a clearing: just enough for the person to be able to
convince herself that it was not a Pileated Woodpecker. The only film
footage can charitably be described a really crappy. Basically, if anyone
is thinking of buying a plane ticket and getting to Akransas ASAP, the
likelihood of seeing or hearing an Ivory-bill is extremely remote. The
bird(s) are very good at not being seen. If it's about the bird and not
the twitch, the money likely would be better spent being donated to TNC.
(2) If people are going to go, please, PLEASE respect the rules (no tape
playbacks, and all of the usual ABA-type ethics stuff, plus I believe
attempts to control access to the areas) and attempts at chaos control put
in place by people on the ground there. The evidence is so slim to date
that it's not even clear how many birds have been observed. However, it
seems obvious that it's not many birds. They deserve as much respect as
they can get.
Wesley
* * * *
It's True! The Ivory-billed Woodpecker has been found alive in eastern
Arkansas. We are excited to make this announcement on behalf of
the Big Woods Conservation Partnership, which has launched an unprecedented
search effort after credible sight reports emerged from the
Cache River National Wildlife Refuge in 2004. Below is the complete press
release, summarizing the news to be published in this week's journal, Science.
Birders interested in visiting the site and searching for the bird are
urged to consult www.ivorybill.org for details about opportunities for
access into the area. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Arkansas Game
and Fish and Natural Heritage Commissions, and The
Nature Conservancy are working hard to provide managed access for birders
and other visitors. If you are planning a visit, please be prepared to
cooperate with local authorities and obey all local regulations established
to protect the highly endangered Ivory-bill and
it's habitat. Absolutely no play back of Ivory-Billed Woodpecker calls or
drumming sounds will be allowable. Please observe your highest standards of
birding ethics. Also, please be aware that the chances of actually making
a sighting of this elusive bird are extremely small -- a massive search
effort over the last year has yielded very few detections. And please be
prepared to document your sighting with a
photo or video!
We will send updates soon about how birders can help in this historic
effort to study and conserve the Ivory-billed Woodpecker.
For more information about the search, visit www.ivorybill.org.
Good luck!
* * * *
News Release
April 28, 2005
For Immediate
Release Cornell
Laboratory of Ornithology
Contact:
Cornell University:
Simeon Moss, 607-255-2281, sfm4@cornell.edu
The Nature Conservancy
Karen Foerstel, 703-841-3932, kfoerstel@tnc.org
Long Thought Extinct, Ivory-billed Woodpecker
Rediscovered in Big Woods of Arkansas
Multiple sightings, video footage show bird survives in vast forested areas
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."
"It is a landmark rediscovery," said Scott Simon, director of The Nature
Conservancy's Arkansas chapter. "Finding the ivory-bill in Arkansas
validates decades of great conservation work and represents an incredible
story of hope for the future."
Joining the search team at a press conference in Washington DC, Secretary
of the Interior Gale Norton announced a Department of the Interior
initiative to identify funds for recovery efforts.
Through its cooperative conservation initiative, the Fish and Wildlife
Service has a variety of grant and technical aid programs to support
wildlife recovery.
"These programs are the heart and soul of the federal government's
commitment to cooperative conservation. They are perfectly tailored to
recover this magnificent bird," Secretary Norton said. "Across the Nation,
these programs preserve millions of acres of habitat, improve riparian
habitat along thousands of miles of streams and develop conservation plans
for endangered species and their habitat."
The largest woodpecker in North America, the ivory-billed woodpecker is
known through lore as a bird of beauty and indomitable spirit. The species
vanished after extensive clearing destroyed millions of acres of virgin
forest throughout the South between the 1880s and mid-1940s.
Although the majestic bird has been sought for decades, until now there was
no firm evidence that it still existed.
The rediscovery has galvanized efforts to save the Big Woods of Arkansas,
550,000 acres of bayous, bottomland forests and oxbow lakes. According to
Simon, The Nature Conservancy has conserved 18,000 acres of critical
habitat in the Big Woods, at the request of the partnership, since the
search began. "It's a very wild and beautiful place," Simon said.
The Search and the Evidence
While kayaking in the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge on Feb. 11,
2004, Gene Sparling of Hot Springs, Ark., 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, Huntsville, Ala., 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 Feb. 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.
It's like a funeral shroud has been pulled back, giving us a glimpse of a
living bird, rising Lazarus-like from the grave," he said.
The sightings by Sparling, Gallagher and Harrison led to the formation of a
search team, which later became the Big Woods Conservation Partnership. On
April 5, 10 and 11, three different searchers sighted an ivory-bill in
nearby areas. The views were fleeting, leaving little opportunity to take
photographs.
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.
On three occasions, members of the search team heard series of loud
double-raps, possibly the ivory-billed woodpecker's display drumming. On
Feb. 14, 2005, Casey Taylor of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology heard the
drumming for 30 minutes, then watched as an ivory-billed woodpecker, being
mobbed by crows, flew into view.
In addition, autonomous recording units detected sounds, among thousands of
hours of recordings, which resembled double-raps and possible calls of the
ivory-bill--reminiscent of the sound of a tin horn. Researchers say ongoing
analyses of the recordings have not yet enabled them to rule out other
potential sound sources, such as the calls of blue jays, which are
notorious mimics.
In all, during more than 7,000 hours of search time, experienced observers
reported at least 15 sightings of the ivory-bill, seven of which were
described in the Science article. Because only a single bird was observed
at a time, researchers say they don't yet know whether more than one
inhabits the area.
So far, the search team has focused its efforts in approximately 16 of the
850 square miles in the bottomland forests of Arkansas. Fitzpatrick of the
Cornell Lab of Ornithology said that the next step will be to broaden the
search to assess whether breeding pairs exist and how many ivory-bills the
region may support. To expand the area being monitored and minimize
disturbance to the endangered woodpecker, the team will continue to use
acoustic monitoring technologies as well as on-the-ground searching.
Fitzpatrick said the team will also encourage others to search for the
ivory-bill elsewhere in suitable habitats throughout the South.
Simon of The Nature Conservancy said that over the years, state and federal
agencies, conservation organizations, hunters and landowners have
aggressively worked to conserve and restore the bottomland hardwood and
swamp ecosystem. "Now we know we must work even harder to conserve this
critical habitat not just for the ivory-billed woodpecker, but for the
black bears, waterfowl and many other species of these unique woods," he added.
The partnership's 10-year goal is to restore 200,000 more acres of forest
in the Big Woods. The effort will include conserving forest habitat,
improving river water quality, and restoring the physical structure of the
river channels, focusing in locations with maximum benefit in reconnecting
forest patches and protecting river health.
"The ivory-bill tells us that we could actually bring this system back to
that primeval forest here in the heartland of North America," said
Fitzpatrick, who is also a member of The Nature Conservancy's board of
governors. "That's the kind of forest that I hope some generation of
Americans and citizens of the world will get to come and visit."
For more information about the search and the efforts to save the
ivory-billed woodpecker and the Big Woods, visit www.ivorybill.org.
***
The Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology is a nonprofit membership institution
with the mission to interpret and conserve the Earth's biological diversity
though research, education, and citizen science focused on birds. From its
headquarters at the Imogene Powers Johnson Center for Birds and
Biodiversity in Ithaca, N.Y., the Lab leads international efforts in bird
monitoring and conservation, and fosters the ability of enthusiasts of all
ages and skill levels to make a difference.
The Nature Conservancy is a nonprofit organization that preserves plants,
animals and natural communities representing the diversity of life on Earth
by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. To date, the
Conservancy has been responsible for protecting more than 15 million acres
in the United States and more than 102 million acres in Latin America, the
Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. Since The Conservancy's Arkansas office
opened in 1982, it has worked with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the
Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission
as well as private citizens, corporations, and foundations, to bring into
conservation management more than 120,000 acres in the Arkansas delta.
The Big Woods Conservation Partnership includes the Cornell Lab of
Ornithology, The Nature Conservancy, Oakwood College in Huntsville, Ala.,
Louisiana State University, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, the
Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission, the Arkansas Game and Fish
Commission, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Birdman Productions, LLC,
and Civic Enterprises, LLC.
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