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> This message is in MIME format. Since your mail reader does not understand this format, some or all of this message may not be legible. --Boundary_(ID_/HB3jBWih8mgJIcfh8GRfQ) Content-type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: quoted-printable ---------- From: Jim Wolford <jimwolford@eastlink.ca> Date: Sun, 17 Feb 2008 01:18:58 -0400 To: Jim Wolford <jimwolford@eastlink.ca> Subject: The great woodpecker hunt -- Naturalists try to confirm sightings of =8Cextinct=B9 bird -- Chronicle Herald, Feb. 16/08 Subject: The great woodpecker hunt -- Naturalists try to confirm sightings of =8Cextinct=B9 bird -- Chronicle Herald, Feb. 16/08 Chronicle Herald, Saturday, Feb. 16, 2008 The great woodpecker hunt Naturalists try to confirm sightings of =8Cextinct=B9 bird By COLIN NICKERSON Boston Globe PHOTO: Scientists are desperate to see an ivory-billed woodpecker, thought extinct. (Roger Tory Peterson / NYT) PHOTO: At the White River National Wildlife Refuge in Arkansas, Cornell University researchers Abe Borker and Martin Piorkowski look for an ivory-billed woodpecker in White River National Wildlife Refuge in Arkansas= . (MARK WILSON / BOS) AWAY DOWN in the swampy bottomlands of Dixie, the most intensive search eve= r for a bird is gearing up for a make-or-break season. Big reputations are riding on the controversial quest for the ivory-billed woodpecker, the most magnificent and most elusive of America=B9s tree-knockers. Here in the vast White River National Wildlife Refuge, naturalists are trying to confirm hotly-debated sightings of a bird written off as extinct until four years ago. The terrain is tough and even treacherous. Catclaw briars snag boots, whip vines slash faces, and cruel honey-locust thorns stab through clothing and skin. Cold muddy water can rise to the armpits of researchers fording swamps in duct tape-patched waders. "It=B9s a labour-intensive slog, for the most part. Not an idyllic ramble," said Martjan Lammertink, project scientist for an ivory-billed research tea= m from Cornell University. He lowered his binoculars after long scrutiny of a nesting cavity carved by a woodpecker beak into the upper trunk of a dead ash tree, finally pronouncing, "Too neat and only 3-1/4 inches =8B too small.= " The camouflage-clad scientists, venturing into what one described as the "most woodpeckeriest" woods to be found from South Carolina to East Texas, are backed by an array of high-tech tools, from GPS co-ordinate monitors to satellite imagery. Automatic cameras catch digital images, their infrared flash strobes blinking near rotted trees and other likely roosting sites. This month, for the first time, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service helicopters were enlisted in the chase, flying low-level "flush" missions meant to spoo= k birds into breaking from the treetops. The idea is that airborne scientists might catch a glimpse of an ivory-billed and supply coordinates to help ground teams hone searches ongoing across hundreds of thousands of wilderness acres. The last ivory-billed sighting claimed by a bird scientist occurred on Valentine=B9s Day 2005, in Arkansas, when a researcher from Cornell=B9s famed Laboratory of Ornithology, Casey Taylor, spied what she is convinced was on= e of the huge woodpeckers being harried by a mob of crows. But skeptics scoff at that sighting almost as loudly as they jeer at a fuzz= y 2004 videotape purporting to show an ivory-billed. Such critics say the woodpecker has almost certainly been extinct since the 1940s and that the search is a colossal waste of money and scientific energy. They maintain ivory-billed scientists, however expert, are simply fooled by glimpses of similar-looking =8B but commonplace =8B pileated woodpeckers. The dispute has shaken the bird community, with mud-slinging between prominent biologists. Doubters last year used a professional journal to accuse the ivory-billed scientists of practicing "faith-based ornithology." Meanwhile, in the real muck of the bottomlands, the search continues. The best hope is that a few breeding pairs of ivory-billeds linger in isolated floodplain forests. These forests were cut down by loggers startin= g in the 19th century and continued until a few decades ago. Because the ivory-billed=B9s big body needs more food than smaller woodpeckers, the birds require substantial tracts of "old growth" trees on which to forage. Male ivory-billeds, measuring 50 centimetres tall with a half-metre wingspan, boast brilliant red crests. Both sexes possess jagged white stripes that resemble lightning bolts. Their tallow-colored beaks shred through bark, allowing them to impale beetle grubs with long, harpoon-like barbed tongues= . "The decline of the ivory-billed is an unspeakable American tragedy," said John W. Fitzpatrick, director of the Cornell lab. "This country was unable to save even a single square metre of pristine bottomland habitat." For a trio of scientists from Cornell, last Wednesday was a more or less typical day of field work =8B one that started before dawn with departure fro= m the duck-hunting lodge that is their temporary home and ended in the darkness as they clambered, filthy, from the bayou. Lammertink, project biologist Martin Piorkowski, and camera specialist Abe Borker would spend 1= 1 hours forging 25 kilometres through woods and swamp land, seeking signs of large woodpecker. The scientists moved cautiously, making little noise even slipping through bramble thickets. At the barest hint of movement =8B a tiny flutter of feather, say, in a tangle of branches =8B the trio would freeze, three pairs of powerful binoculars snapping instantly to three keen pairs of eyes. They made fast identifications sotto voce, in near unison. "Red-breasted woodpecker." "Yellow-rumped warbler." "Rusty blackbird." These weren=B9t the quarry. Naming them was just professional reflex. Part of this day=B9s job was locating some of the dozen Reconyx cameras strapped to trees facing possible roosting holes. Each camera snaps an imag= e every four seconds for two hours at sunrise and in late afternoon, times when nesting ivory-billeds should be lurking close to home. As he downloade= d a week=B9s worth of images =8B some 25,000 pictures =8B from one camera, Borker reflected on the uncertainty of pursuing a bird that might be ghost. "You=B9v= e got to start every day with fresh optimism: This will be the day we prove this bird (is alive)." Last week=B9s long days ended in disappointment: No ivory-billeds spotted, no fantastically encouraging signs. Just the grunt work of bird science. Winter is prime time to go looking for the ivory-billed. The deciduous foliage is gone, allowing longer views. Seasonal flooding makes it possible to venture by canoe or kayak into the deepest swamps. Most critically, midwinter is when ivory-billeds should be thinking about love, using powerful muscles and long beaks to send out their double-rap knock as a signal of yearning for the opposite sex. The South-wide search is partly bankrolled by an annual $1.2 million in grants from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "We think a few breeding pairs may be out there. And we feel like Arkansas is the strongest bet," said Laurie Fenwood, co-ordinator of the service=B9s ivory-billed woodpecker program. "If we keep coming up empty, though, big decisions will have to be made." The ivory-billed became a household name across America following its "rediscovery" in Arkansas in 2004 (the mystery bird caught on video plus multiple "eyeball" sightings by Cornell scientists were officially announce= d in 2005). The comeback of a creature thought extinct triggered jubilation among wildlife lovers and even excitement among nonbirders who normally wouldn=B9t know a bobolink from a turkey buzzard. Headlines proclaimed an ecological miracle and celebrated the Cornell lab. Fitzpatrick, a foremost ornithologist, put the university=B9s Ivy League prestige behind the four-second video taken by M. David Luneau Jr., an engineer and amateur birder who had volunteered to help the Cornell search. The video became "Exhibit A" for those insisting the bird has survived more than a century of depredations by clear-cutting loggers and expansionist farmers. The federal government pledged $27 million for an ivory-billed "recovery" program. Then came skeptics, arguing the videotape showed a pileated woodpecker. Talk show hosts compared the ivory-billed reports to "Elvis sightings." Ornithologists also made at least seven "hard" ivory-billed visual sighting= s near Arkansas=B9 Cache River in 2004 and 2005, although they didn=B9t get photos. Such identifications by scientists would usually be taken as conclusive evidence. The rift has become so bitter that neutral biologists are hard to find. Harvard=B9s E.O. Wilson comes close; he fears the 2004-05 sightings might merely represent a single freak survivor, doomed without a mate. But Wilson is also adamant that a major search should continue so long as there is a glimmer of hope. "Sadly, reports of the ivory-billed=B9s extinction may be true =8B I don=B9t see much more than a 10 per cent chance we=B9ll ever see a live one," Wilson said in an interview last month, shortly after a trip to the Choctawhatchee River. "But great science discoveries have come from longer odds." [NOTE FROM JIM WOLFORD: note reference above to CHOCTAWHATCHEE RIVER -- thi= s is in the western panhandle region of FLORIDA, a completely different area with some very promising sightings and hearings of one to two ivory-billed woodpeckers in recent years by another team of researchers. THIS ARTICLE doesn't even mention what has happened and is happening? in Florida, and it also doesn't really give much of an idea of what if anything has been found in Arkansas in the past year or two of research.] WEEKLY SCIENCE Students, companies collaborate on water project (2008-02-16)=A0 Stale marriage? Try fresh approach to date night (2008-02-16)=A0 The great woodpecker hunt (2008-02-16) =A0 Correction (2008-02-09)=A0 BIO expert gets up close and personal with ice (2008-02-09)=A0 Movie takes reel leap (2008-02-09)=A0 SCIENCE SLEUTH (2008-02-09)=A0 --Boundary_(ID_/HB3jBWih8mgJIcfh8GRfQ) Content-type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: quoted-printable <HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>FW: The great woodpecker hunt -- Naturalists try to confirm sig= htings of =8Cextinct=B9 bird -- Chronicle Herald, Feb. 16/08</TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY> <BR> ----------<BR> <B>From: </B>Jim Wolford <jimwolford@eastlink.ca><BR> <B>Date: </B>Sun, 17 Feb 2008 01:18:58 -0400<BR> <B>To: </B>Jim Wolford <jimwolford@eastlink.ca><BR> <B>Subject: </B>The great woodpecker hunt -- Naturalists try to confirm&nbs= p;sightings of =8Cextinct=B9 bird -- Chronicle Herald, Feb. 16/08<BR> <BR> <BR> <B>Subject: </B>The great woodpecker hunt -- Naturalists try to confirm sig= htings of =8Cextinct=B9 bird -- Chronicle Herald, Feb. 16/08<BR> <BR> Chronicle Herald, Saturday, Feb. 16, 2008<BR> <BR> <FONT FACE=3D"Trebuchet MS"><H1>The great woodpecker hunt<BR> </H1><FONT COLOR=3D"#666666"><FONT SIZE=3D"4">Naturalists try to confirm sighti= ngs of =8Cextinct=B9 bird<BR> <BR> By COLIN NICKERSON<BR> Boston Globe<BR> </FONT></FONT></FONT><FONT COLOR=3D"#666666"><BR> PHOTO: Scientists are desperate to see an ivory-billed woodpecker, thought = extinct. (Roger Tory Peterson / NYT)<BR> </FONT><BR> PHOTO: <FONT COLOR=3D"#666666">At the White River National Wildlife Refuge in= Arkansas, Cornell University researchers Abe Borker and Martin Piorkowski l= ook for an ivory-billed woodpecker in White River National Wildlife Refuge i= n Arkansas. (MARK WILSON / BOS)<BR> </FONT><BR> AWAY DOWN in the swampy bottomlands of Dixie, the most intensive search eve= r for a bird is gearing up for a make-or-break season. Big reputations are r= iding on the controversial quest for the ivory-billed woodpecker, the most m= agnificent and most elusive of America=B9s tree-knockers.<BR> <BR> Here in the vast White River National Wildlife Refuge, naturalists are tryi= ng to confirm hotly-debated sightings of a bird written off as extinct until= four years ago. The terrain is tough and even treacherous. Catclaw briars s= nag boots, whip vines slash faces, and cruel honey-locust thorns stab throug= h clothing and skin. Cold muddy water can rise to the armpits of researchers= fording swamps in duct tape-patched waders.<BR> <BR> "It=B9s a labour-intensive slog, for the most part. Not an idyllic rambl= e," said Martjan Lammertink, project scientist for an ivory-billed rese= arch team from Cornell University. He lowered his binoculars after long scru= tiny of a nesting cavity carved by a woodpecker beak into the upper trunk of= a dead ash tree, finally pronouncing, "Too neat and only 3-1/4 inches = =8B too small."<BR> <BR> The camouflage-clad scientists, venturing into what one described as the &q= uot;most woodpeckeriest" woods to be found from South Carolina to East = Texas, are backed by an array of high-tech tools, from GPS co-ordinate monit= ors to satellite imagery. Automatic cameras catch digital images, their infr= ared flash strobes blinking near rotted trees and other likely roosting site= s.<BR> <BR> This month, for the first time, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service helicopters = were enlisted in the chase, flying low-level "flush" missions mean= t to spook birds into breaking from the treetops. The idea is that airborne = scientists might catch a glimpse of an ivory-billed and supply coordinates t= o help ground teams hone searches ongoing across hundreds of thousands of wi= lderness acres.<BR> <BR> The last ivory-billed sighting claimed by a bird scientist occurred on Vale= ntine=B9s Day 2005, in Arkansas, when a researcher from Cornell=B9s famed Labora= tory of Ornithology, Casey Taylor, spied what she is convinced was one of th= e huge woodpeckers being harried by a mob of crows.<BR> <BR> But skeptics scoff at that sighting almost as loudly as they jeer at a fuzz= y 2004 videotape purporting to show an ivory-billed. Such critics say the wo= odpecker has almost certainly been extinct since the 1940s and that the sear= ch is a colossal waste of money and scientific energy. They maintain ivory-b= illed scientists, however expert, are simply fooled by glimpses of similar-l= ooking =8B but commonplace =8B pileated woodpeckers.<BR> <BR> The dispute has shaken the bird community, with mud-slinging between promin= ent biologists. Doubters last year used a professional journal to accuse the= ivory-billed scientists of practicing "faith-based ornithology."<= BR> <BR> Meanwhile, in the real muck of the bottomlands, the search continues.<BR> <BR> The best hope is that a few breeding pairs of ivory-billeds linger in isola= ted floodplain forests. These forests were cut down by loggers starting in t= he 19th century and continued until a few decades ago. Because the ivory-bil= led=B9s big body needs more food than smaller woodpeckers, the birds require s= ubstantial tracts of "old growth" trees on which to forage. Male i= vory-billeds, measuring 50 centimetres tall with a half-metre wingspan, boas= t brilliant red crests. Both sexes possess jagged white stripes that resembl= e lightning bolts. Their tallow-colored beaks shred through bark, allowing t= hem to impale beetle grubs with long, harpoon-like barbed tongues.<BR> <BR> "The decline of the ivory-billed is an unspeakable American tragedy,&q= uot; said John W. Fitzpatrick, director of the Cornell lab. "This count= ry was unable to save even a single square metre of pristine bottomland habi= tat."<BR> <BR> For a trio of scientists from Cornell, last Wednesday was a more or less ty= pical day of field work =8B one that started before dawn with departure from t= he duck-hunting lodge that is their temporary home and ended in the darkness= as they clambered, filthy, from the bayou. Lammertink, project biologist Ma= rtin Piorkowski, and camera specialist Abe Borker would spend 11 hours forgi= ng 25 kilometres through woods and swamp land, seeking signs of large woodpe= cker.<BR> <BR> The scientists moved cautiously, making little noise even slipping through = bramble thickets. At the barest hint of movement =8B a tiny flutter of feather= , say, in a tangle of branches =8B the trio would freeze, three pairs of power= ful binoculars snapping instantly to three keen pairs of eyes.<BR> <BR> They made fast identifications sotto voce, in near unison.<BR> <BR> "Red-breasted woodpecker."<BR> <BR> "Yellow-rumped warbler."<BR> <BR> "Rusty blackbird."<BR> <BR> These weren=B9t the quarry. Naming them was just professional reflex.<BR> <BR> Part of this day=B9s job was locating some of the dozen Reconyx cameras strap= ped to trees facing possible roosting holes. Each camera snaps an image ever= y four seconds for two hours at sunrise and in late afternoon, times when ne= sting ivory-billeds should be lurking close to home. As he downloaded a week= =B9s worth of images =8B some 25,000 pictures =8B from one camera, Borker reflecte= d on the uncertainty of pursuing a bird that might be ghost. "You=B9ve go= t to start every day with fresh optimism: This will be the day we prove this= bird (is alive)."<BR> <BR> Last week=B9s long days ended in disappointment: No ivory-billeds spotted, no= fantastically encouraging signs. Just the grunt work of bird science.<BR> <BR> Winter is prime time to go looking for the ivory-billed. The deciduous foli= age is gone, allowing longer views. Seasonal flooding makes it possible to v= enture by canoe or kayak into the deepest swamps. Most critically, midwinter= is when ivory-billeds should be thinking about love, using powerful muscles= and long beaks to send out their double-rap knock as a signal of yearning f= or the opposite sex.<BR> <BR> The South-wide search is partly bankrolled by an annual $1.2 million in gra= nts from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "We think a few breeding p= airs may be out there. And we feel like Arkansas is the strongest bet,"= said Laurie Fenwood, co-ordinator of the service=B9s ivory-billed woodpecker = program. "If we keep coming up empty, though, big decisions will have t= o be made."<BR> <BR> The ivory-billed became a household name across America following its "= ;rediscovery" in Arkansas in 2004 (the mystery bird caught on video plu= s multiple "eyeball" sightings by Cornell scientists were official= ly announced in 2005).<BR> <BR> The comeback of a creature thought extinct triggered jubilation among wildl= ife lovers and even excitement among nonbirders who normally wouldn=B9t know a= bobolink from a turkey buzzard. Headlines proclaimed an ecological miracle = and celebrated the Cornell lab.<BR> <BR> Fitzpatrick, a foremost ornithologist, put the university=B9s Ivy League pres= tige behind the four-second video taken by M. David Luneau Jr., an engineer = and amateur birder who had volunteered to help the Cornell search. The video= became "Exhibit A" for those insisting the bird has survived more= than a century of depredations by clear-cutting loggers and expansionist fa= rmers.<BR> <BR> The federal government pledged $27 million for an ivory-billed "recove= ry" program. Then came skeptics, arguing the videotape showed a pileate= d woodpecker. Talk show hosts compared the ivory-billed reports to "Elv= is sightings."<BR> <BR> Ornithologists also made at least seven "hard" ivory-billed visua= l sightings near Arkansas=B9 Cache River in 2004 and 2005, although they didn=B9= t get photos. Such identifications by scientists would usually be taken as c= onclusive evidence.<BR> <BR> The rift has become so bitter that neutral biologists are hard to find. Har= vard=B9s E.O. Wilson comes close; he fears the 2004-05 sightings might merely = represent a single freak survivor, doomed without a mate. But Wilson is also= adamant that a major search should continue so long as there is a glimmer o= f hope.<BR> <BR> "Sadly, reports of the ivory-billed=B9s extinction may be true =8B I don=B9t= see much more than a 10 per cent chance we=B9ll ever see a live one," Wi= lson said in an interview last month, shortly after a trip to the Choctawhat= chee River. "But great science discoveries have come from longer odds.&= quot;<BR> <BR> [NOTE FROM JIM WOLFORD: note reference above to CHOCTAWHATCHEE RIVER -- thi= s is in the western panhandle region of FLORIDA, a completely different area= with some very promising sightings and hearings of one to two ivory-billed = woodpeckers in recent years by another team of researchers. THIS ARTIC= LE doesn't even mention what has happened and is happening? in Florida, and = it also doesn't really give much of an idea of what if anything has been fou= nd in Arkansas in the past year or two of research.]<BR> <BR> <FONT COLOR=3D"#333333"><H5>WEEKLY SCIENCE<BR> </H5></FONT><BR> Students, companies collaborate on water project (2008-02-16)=A0<BR> Stale marriage? Try fresh approach to date night (2008-02-16)=A0<BR> The great woodpecker hunt (2008-02-16)<BR> =A0<BR> Correction (2008-02-09)=A0<BR> BIO expert gets up close and personal with ice (2008-02-09)=A0<BR> Movie takes reel leap (2008-02-09)=A0<BR> SCIENCE SLEUTH (2008-02-09)=A0<BR> <BR> <FONT COLOR=3D"#1E1E1E"><BR> </FONT><BR> <FONT COLOR=3D"#1E1E1E"><BR> </FONT><BR> <BR> <BR> </BODY> </HTML> --Boundary_(ID_/HB3jBWih8mgJIcfh8GRfQ)--
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