 |
|
|
|
|
IN-BIRD for Thursday, January 17, 2002
[ Prev Day
| Next Day
| Calendar Month
| IN-BIRD Info
]
|
|
To use email addresses replace '(AT)' with '@'.
This is done to confuse the spam 'bots.
|
[ << | >> | ^^ ]
Subject: Woodpecker in Wall Street Journal
From: Bill Murphy <billmurphy8(AT)home.com>
Date: 17 Jan 2002 7:36am
January 16, 2002
Ruffled Feathers: Woodpecker 'Extinct'
For Six Decades Inspires a Search Party
By DAN MORSE
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREETJOURNAL
From the moment the turkey hunter explained what he had seen in
the swamp, Van Remsen knew they were headed down a treacherous
path.
"It's worse than you think," Dr. Remsen, an ornithologist at
Louisiana State University, told the hunter. "You're going to be
put in the same category as people who say they saw Bigfoot,
UFOs, Elvis.&q uot;
The turkey hunter, a soft-spoken student named David Kulivan,
said he didn't care. He was sure of it: He had seen a pair of
ivory-billed woodpeckers.
That was almost three years ago. Now the 52-year-old Dr. Remsen
is trying to prove the kid was right.
Thursday, Dr. Remsen will send an all-pro birding team -- six
researchers from North America and Indonesia -- into the marshes
of southeast Louisiana. They will begin a 30-day search for the
least-seen bird in Americ an history, the ivory-billed
woodpecker. The birds once soared through Southeastern hardwood
swamps, alighting on cypress, oak and sweet gum trees and
pounding off chunks of bark the size of hubcaps. Then loggers
devastated their habitat. Nearly 60 years have passed since the
last definitive sighting. Many experts consider the bird extinct.
Now, "the idea that it may live just has this huge ray of hope
inside all of us," says John W. Fitzpatrick, director of the
Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology in Ithaca, N.Y. "Nobody who
knows about maj or birds in North America wouldn't give a major
organ to see" an ivory-bill.
Ivory-billed woodpecker
Mr. Kulivan's claims have sparked a frenzy in birding circles.
Carl Zeiss, a German company that makes fine binoculars that
bird-watchers prize, came up with the idea for the expedition and
offered to finance it. Reporters from network television, radio
and about a half-dozen ne wspapers are ready to follow alongside
Dr. Remsen's team.
All the attention has made his team slightly uncomfortable and
raised the stakes. Failure to find the bird could make future
ivory-bill expeditions more difficult to launch.
"This is all kind of embarrassing for us," says Dr. Remsen, who
works as the bird curator at Louisiana State's Museum of Natural
Science. "If we find the birds, then, yeah, bring it on -- we'll
be happ y to gloat. ... Right now, it's more stressful than a
dream come true."
It was back in the early 1900s that people started talking about
ivory-bills in the past tense. The bird had a wingspan of nearly
three feet and a head that looked oddly human. It had a long
white bill, big yellow ey es and sharp red or black crests. The
birds' bodies, glossy and black (with some white), gave off a
hint of purple. The largest woodpeckers in America, they hammered
away at trees with awesome power, feeding all day on fat beetle
larvae.
A famous audio recording of the bird was made in 1935. A group of
ornithologists in Louisiana, their bulky equipment piled into a
mule-drawn wagon, captured the ivory-bill's distinctive call,
often likened to a child 's tin trumpet. The last definitive
sighting recognized by scientists took place a few years later.
Over the next three decades, birders were forever claiming to
have spotted an ivory-bill. Some of the reports, including
several out of Cuba, seemed credible, offering hope that the bird
was alive. In 1971, somebody approached George Lowery, Dr.
Remsen's predecessor at the museum, with photos purporting to
show ivory-bills. Mr. Lowery presented the photos at a conference
where some ornithologists belittled them, suggesting they were
the art of taxidermists, says Jero me H. Jackson, a professor at
Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers and a noted
ivory-bill historian.
Grilling Claimants
That incident has never been far from Dr. Remsen's mind. A birder
since the age of five, he remembers watching a cardinal, a tufted
titmouse and a white-breasted nuthatch feed from his uncle's
hand. Dr. Remsen is the man to see in Louisiana on the subject of
ivory-bill sightings. He listens patiently to all claimants and
then grills them. Almost always, the birds in question are found
to be pileated woodpeckers, a smaller cousin of the ivory-bill.
In April 1999, 21-year-old David Kulivan walked into Dr. Remsen's
office. The tale he had to tell was compelling: While dressed in
camouflage and sitting against a tree, Mr. Kulivan had seen two
ivory-billed woodpeck ers -- a male and female -- fly within 30
feet, stick around for about 15 minutes, then fly away. Males
have a red crest, and females are all black.
Dr. Remsen kept firing questions. Mr. Kulivan kept giving the
right answers. "I was certain of this," he says in an interview.
So the college student, who later graduated from Louisiana State
University wit h a degree in forestry, went back to the swamp
with other birders, but they couldn't find an ivory-bill. Word
made its way to Bruce Reid, a birder and environmental reporter
at the Jackson (Miss.) Clarion-Ledger.
"The ghost of the Southern swamps has appeared again," began Mr.
Reid's article on Jan. 30, 2000. The story began to spread
nationwide. All this looked like good news to the people at Carl
Zeiss. From offic es the German company has near Richmond, Va.,
the optical-products maker found its way to Dr. Remsen and
offered to pay for a search party.
The scientists had reason for pause. Dr. Remsen remembers
thinking: "Other ornithologists, they're going to look at this
and say, 'You guys are trying to grab publicity.' " Yet he didn't
want to look back y ears from now and know he had passed up the
chance to mount an exhaustive search. He typed out a want ad,
posted it on the Internet, and waited: "Experienced birders
needed for 30-day intensive search for ivory-billed woodpecker in
Pearl River area, Louisiana. Pay: $2,000 per person."
Fifty applications came in -- ranging from professional
ornithologists to a North Carolina fish veterinarian whose
passion for the elusive woodpeckers inspired him to write "Ivory
Hunters: A Novel of Extinction, " a 211-page mystery. Its hero, a
Florida game warden, saves a pair of ivory-bills from poachers.
Joined by two scientists from the Louisiana Department of
Wildlife and Fisheries, Dr. Remsen tapped two "black-belt
birders": Alan Wormington, of Ontario, and Rick Knight from
Tennessee. "Those are the kind of people finding rare birds all
the time," Dr. Remsen says. "If it's out there, they're going to
hear it or see it."
'Woodpecker Heads'
He then picked three "woodpecker heads," as Dr. Remsen calls a
trio of scientists who have published research on woodpeckers
from around the world. Rounding out the team is electronics
engineer David Luneau from Arkansas.
The scientists will divide into three, two-person teams and
navigate, by foot and canoe, the 35,000-acre Pearl River Wildlife
Management Area, about 40 miles north of New Orleans near the
Mississippi border. Cornell University researchers will lash 12
recording devices to trees. The devices, also used to record
whale moans and lemur screams, will provide 30 days' worth of
data, which eventually will be analyzed by computer.
It's a good time to look for the bird. The trees have few leaves,
making it easier to see and hear. As for proof of a sighting,
either photographs or audio recordings will suffice. One reporter
will be allowed to acc ompany each two-person team for one-day
sessions.
Should the magic moment occur, reporters might not be around to
see it. Given long days in the swamps, sitting and waiting -- and
waiting some more, "I think the luster will wear off a bit from
the reporting,&qu ot; says Dr. Fitzpatrick, the Cornell Lab
director. At that point, he adds, the press will simply want to
know, "Did those guys find that bird or not?"
Write to Dan Morse at dan.morse(AT)wsj.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mary Talbott" <Met61bird(AT)AOL.COM>
To: <IN-BIRD(AT)LIST.AUDUBON.ORG>
Sent: Wednesday, January 16, 2002 10:37 PM
Subject: [IN-BIRD] Woodpecker in Wall Street Journal
> Did anyone see a recent article in the Wall St. Journal about a
"plausible"
> ivory-billed woodpecker sighting? Someone told me about it
but didn't know
> the date of the Journal. If anyone has further information
about the
> article (date) or the sighting, I'd appreciate any help.
>
> Thank you!
>
> Mary Talbott
> Indy
[ << | >> | ^^ ]
Subject: Re: Woodpecker
From: Alicia Craig <craiga(AT)WBU.COM>
Date: 17 Jan 2002 9:26am
John Fitzpatrick, the Director of the Lab of Ornithology, was =
interviewed=20
Wednesday for "All Things Considered" which aired on NPR=20
last night.=20
He talked about Lab founder Arthur Allen's=20
expedition in recording the calls of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. "Doc" =
Allen recorded the Ivory-billed Woodpecker in 1935, the last known=20
recording of the species.=20
It is on NPR's web site. =
http://search.npr.org/cf/cmn/cmnpd01fm.cfm?PrgDate=3D01/16/2002&PrgID=3D2=
"Doc" Allen's recording of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker's calls and =
tapping=20
can be heard on track number 61 of the Diversity of Animal Sounds audio=20
guide which is available through the Wild Birds Unlimited shop located =
at the lab. =20
Alicia Craig
Senior Manager, Nature Education
Wild Birds Unlimited, Inc.
11711 N. College Ave. #146
Carmel, IN 46032
317.571.7100
mailto:craiga(AT)wbu.com
http://www.wbu.com
Be a Citizen Scientist, visit http://birds.cornell.edu/citsci/
Watch BirdWatch on PBS, visit http://www.pbs.org/birdwatch
[ << | >> | ^^ ]
Subject: Where to find Black Rail
From: Peggy Harger-Allen <dpmallen(AT)WORLDNET.ATT.NET>
Date: 17 Jan 2002 9:35am
How does one go about finding a black rail in NA. today?
Thanks, Peggy Harger-Allen
[ << | >> | ^^ ]
Subject: Thanks for the help on the Wall St. woodpecker
article
From: Mary Talbott <Met61bird(AT)AOL.COM>
Date: 17 Jan 2002 9:45am
Thank you all for your help.
Mary
[ << | >> | ^^ ]
Subject: crane updates, swans
From: John Castrale <jcastrale(AT)DNR.STATE.IN.US>
Date: 17 Jan 2002 11:31am
I've had reports of swans (most likely trumpeters) hanging around some
of the ponds/lakes at the Chinook mines (Clay Co.). In past years,
these birds had been pretty regular at the Universal Mine. If anybody
sees trumpeter swans with neck collars (usually green or yellow), try to
read the numbers and letters and I'll forward them on to the Wisconsin
folks.
I received a recent newsletter from the North American Crane Working
Group and thought I would pass along some numbers about whooping cranes.
In early December 2001, the population of nonmigratory Florida whooping
cranes was 87. Six captive-reared birds were released there earlier in
the fall and more should be released there this month.
The Aransas, TX, population of migratory whoopers stood at 176 birds in
mid-December and another bird is believed to be in the Texas panhandle.
This includes 15 surviving chicks produced in Wood Buffalo Provincial
Park this past breeding season.
John Castrale
[ << | >> | ^^ ]
Subject: Re: Snowy Owl history
From: Eric Lundquist <brewbird1(AT)YAHOO.COM>
Date: 17 Jan 2002 11:48am
There was one just east of Richmond, along I-70,
inside the Ohio border, in 1980 or 1981.
Eric Lundquist
Mundelein, IL (formerly of Richmond, IN)
brewbird1(AT)yahoo.com
--- Peggy Harger-Allen <dpmallen(AT)WORLDNET.ATT.NET>
wrote:
> Does anyone remember the year that snowy owl was on
> the World War Memorial
> in downtown Indianapolis, or the one that was over
> by Richmond on the
> highway sign?
>
> Thanks, Peggy Harger-Allen
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Send FREE video emails in Yahoo! Mail!
http://promo.yahoo.com/videomail/
[ << | >> | ^^ ]
Subject: Re: Woodpecker in Wall Street Journal
From: arcpub(AT)INDIANA.EDU
Date: 17 Jan 2002 12:33pm
It is the January 16 issue. This is an article about the Zeiss
sponsored search that has been reported before on this list. The
search is based on a report from April 1999.
Cathy Meyer
Bloomington
-------------------
> Did anyone see a recent article in the Wall St. Journal about a
"plausible"
> ivory-billed woodpecker sighting? Someone told me about it but
didn't know
> the date of the Journal. If anyone has further information about
the
> article (date) or the sighting, I'd appreciate any help.
>
> Thank you!
>
> Mary Talbott
> Indy
>
>
>
[ << | >> | ^^ ]
Subject: Re: Spacing Nest Boxes
From: Kathy Riester <KMRiester(AT)AOL.COM>
Date: 17 Jan 2002 1:44pm
> House wrens are an issue as they often puncture the eggs of other
> birds nesting in their territories.
A total of four wren boxes are in my back yard and the adjoining yard.=A0 Ea=
ch=20
year the resident wrens choose one of them.=A0 One year a pair of Carolina=20
Chicadees successfully nested here while the House Wrens nested next-door.=
=A0=20
The next year I watched sadly as the House Wren went into the Chicadee box=20
repeatedly and brought out the twigs and feathers of the new nest and=20
scattered them on the ground below.
I added a wren box in the front yard several years ago, but have had no=20
occupants.=A0 This fall a Downy Woodpecked enlarged the hole and tried it ou=
t.=A0=20
He flew out hurriedly when I walked near and has not returned.
I tried a large box, hoping for woodpeckers, but only attracted Starlings.=
=A0=20
Last year I filled it with wood shavings in the spring--no Starlings came,=20
but still no woodpeckers either.=A0 Has anyone had success with woodpecker=20
boxes?
These are suburban lots that are approximately 1/2 acre each.
Kathy Riester
Indianapolis
[ << | >> | ^^ ]
Subject: Harris's Sparrow / seed / Atterbury
From: "Bruce M. Bowman" <bbowman(AT)UMICH.EDU>
Date: 17 Jan 2002 4:06pm
I wrote this on Monday, the 14th, but was unable to post it from Lebanon.
I'm back home now. Dan Leach has already posted to IN-BIRD about
Sunday's viewings of the Harris's Sparrow.
Bruce Bowman
---
The Harris's Sparrow (Shelby County) was a life bird for me and quite a
beautiful bird. Too bad it stays for only a minute or so at widely
spaced visits to the seed.
It was nice to find other birders there when Roger, Bill, and I arrived.
But Dan, Jeff, Roger, Bill, and I--and the Harris's Sparrow,
too--wouldn't have been there at all except for whoever has been putting
out seed alongside the road. So, thanks!! (Maybe Dan Leach was
yesterday's contributor. He was the first one there, I think. Or maybe
someone local puts seed out everyday?)
Roger, Bill, and I birded later at Camp Atterbury, hoping primarily to
find owls in the cedars and pines. We found no owls--or whitewash or
pellets. Our species count there was 22. Our best bird was a Fox
Sparrow. Our last bird was a Northern Mockingbird.
Bruce Bowman
----------------------------------------------------------------
Bruce M. Bowman |
Ann Arbor, Michigan USA | The bird is always right.
bbowman(AT)umich.edu ------ | -- Todd Newberry
bmb(AT)biosci.umtri.umich.edu -- +++++++ I'M FOR THE BIRDS ++++++++
http://www.umich.edu/~bbowman/birds/
[ << | >> | ^^ ]
Subject: Ivory Billed Woodpecker article
From: gmwilcox <gmwilcox(AT)MSN.COM>
Date: 17 Jan 2002 5:01pm
The front page of the Life section of today's USA Today
is all about the hunt for the Ivory Billed Woodpecker,
in case anyone is interested.
Georgeanne Wilcox
Oldenburg SE IN USA
[ << | >> | ^^ ]
Subject: Black Rails
From: Bill Murphy <billmurphy8(AT)home.com>
Date: 17 Jan 2002 5:30pm
Dear Peggy,
Elliott Island, Maryland, is the place in America where I've seen
Black Rails the most (seven times in my 44 years of birding).
The rails are found in an extensive saltmarsh with a single-lane
paved road running through it, and only in the short saltmarsh
cordgrass (Spartina patens), not in the head-high stuff (Spartina
alterniflora). So ignore all the places where the vegetation is
tall. And if you venture off the road, you're likely to return
with only one boot, the other having been sucked off by the marsh
muck as you tried to pull it back up from knee depth.
You start on Rt. 50 in the town of Vienna, MD. If coming from
the east, fork right into Vienna on Race Street, then turn right
onto Market Street. The next 19 miles are where birders bird,
and from mile 9 to 18 is the Black Rail marsh. There are six or
seven pulloffs along the way, where cars can pass each other. In
the 1980s, when I was living in Maryland, the technique was to
get out there around 11 p.m. on a night when there was no moon
and no wind. We listened for their distinctive "kee-kee-ker",
then played a tape of their call to lure them onto the white
oilcloth square on which the tape recorder was playing -- then we
could see them. The bird is only about the size of a famished
Starling, and it's black, and it's night, and there's no moon,
and it's hot, and it's sticky, and it's summertime, and that roar
you hear is being made by a quadzillion mosquitoes.
Elliott Island is described in detail in Claudia Wilds' book,
"Finding Birds in the National Capitol Area," a Smithsonian
Nature Guide. For more information, including the current status
of the bird, I'd suggest calling the Audubon Naturalist Society
of Washington at (301) 652-9188.
All the best,
==Bill Murphy
----- Original Message -----
From: "Peggy Harger-Allen" <dpmallen(AT)WORLDNET.ATT.NET>
To: <IN-BIRD(AT)LIST.AUDUBON.ORG>
Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2002 9:41 AM
Subject: [IN-BIRD] Where to find Black Rail
> How does one go about finding a black rail in NA. today?
> Thanks, Peggy Harger-Allen
[ << | >> | ^^ ]
Subject: Re: Where to find Black Rail
From: Liz Day <beebuzz(AT)KIVA.NET>
Date: 17 Jan 2002 5:30pm
>How does one go about finding a black rail in NA. today?
*sigh*
You go to Chicago's Magic Hedge, in about 1989, where you are looking at
warblers and marsh wrens when someone comes up and asks if you've seen the
black rail. Huh? You feel like saying, "Of course; it was right next to
the vermilion flycatcher and the lesser flamingo!" but instead you say "No,
where is it?" and the person directs you to a lone tree in the middle of a
lawn in the middle of a busy Lakefront park with a backpack leaning against
the base of the trunk. The rail has taken refuge in a tiny patch of grass
and someone put a backpack there to protect it. You go up and look under
the backpack and there is the Black Rail, 2 feet from your face, hunched
down in the grass and not going to move. It looks at you. You can see the
brown markings on its black body. It's tiny. You replace the backpack and
walk away. None of the crowd of people in the park who are barbecuing and
playing Frisbee and booming their music seem to notice.
I hope it survived. I wasn't sure what I could do for it so eventually I left.
Liz Day
[ << | >> | ^^ ]
Subject: Harris's Sparrow
From: "Stephen L. Elliott" <slelliott(AT)unidial.com>
Date: 17 Jan 2002 7:08pm
I have made 3 trips to the site of the Harris's sparrow, no luck so far.
(Oh well!!, It happens)
I was there today at noon and spread some seed along the road. I stayed
for 1 hour, very quiet. My next chance to return will be Sunday
afternoon. If anyone sights the bird before then, please email me.
Thanks
Steve Elliott
Greenwood, IN.
Delorme pg. 45 C7
slelliott(AT)unidial.com
[ << | >> | ^^ ]
Subject: Thanks!
From: Beverly Richardson <beverlybaynes(AT)WEBTV.NET>
Date: 17 Jan 2002 9:54pm
Thanks to those who responded to my request for information about
spacing nest boxes. I've forwarded your posts on to my acquaintance,
and she sends her appreciation as well.
Thanks, everyone!
|
|
|
|
BIRDxxxx
US:MidWest
Bloomington
IN-BIRD