The best news....

[Puck]

The Red sox win a World Series, The Patriots have a dynasty and now this....http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4622633

 

[spencer]

I heard all about it this morning, too. What a fascinating story.

Long live those folks who won't give up...

I think I saw a passenger pigeon on the Penobscot this morning

spencer

 

[jjmcgo]

You Dodo

You did not. Nothing lives in the Penobscot. Tried fishing it without success near Stockton Springs and a tourist-boat operator said dioxin from paper mills killed all the fish.
You'd think if a species were down to its last couple of birds, the woodpecker would be the hardest to hide for 50 years. Especially the loudest one.

 

[spencer]

Well, I happen to live on the Penobscot and frequently see the bald eagles that nest a couple of miles upstream. A great blue heron also likes to trudge around under my deck.

Then, come June, I pop smallmouth after smallmouth from within 100 feet of my house.

But don't come looking for wildlife b/c the Penobscot doesn't support any...



spencer

 

[sapblatt]

There is a Pteradactyl on my bird feeder



That is cool...I thought the last ones were in Cuba.

 

[afka_bob]

May I add my cheers but also a quibble to the article's writer or editor?

Starting at the end of the fourth paragraph into the fifth:

... Many other similar sightings over the last 60 years have raised false hopes.

But this time, Joyce reports that experts associated with the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology in New York and The Nature Conservancy were able to confirm the sighting....

Why would previous sightings of a bird that was feared extinct but is now confirmed to still exist raise "false hopes"? Unconfirmed hopes, yes, but ultimately proven to not be false.

 

[Grumpy]

The artist’s rendering of the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker with the linked article reminds me a lot of the Pileated Woodpecker (general shape, etc, and that distinctive Woody Woodpecker head). The observation is not made to suggest that someone was seeing things . . . or got wrapped up in a case of mistaken identity.

Having watched the recovery of Bald Eagle, Osprey and Blue Heron populations, this kind of thing always makes an interesting story, in my book.

G.

 

[beverly]

Confirmed

AP is reporting (front page on NY times website) that there have been 15 sightings in 7000 hours of search time and that there is a video - although not a link to it. They were able to positively ID the bird by magnifying and analyzing individual frames of the video.
It's nice to hear good news for a change!
Let's hope the place isn't overrun with birders!

There is a video at the Nature Conservancy site - but I haven't been able to get it to play:

Ivory-billed woodpecker

 

[beverly]

More

This really is amazing. No longer 'presumed extinct'. I love seeing and hearing woodpeckers on the trails. Imagine seeing a woodpecker with a thirty inch wingspan! Last seen in 1944. The Times now has a story(registration required). Not that I'll ever see one in the wild, but it's nice to know they are still out there.
They kept the sightings secret for a year, in order to protect the woodpecker:

Their announcement today provoked rejoicing and excitement among birdwatchers, for whom the ivory bill has long been a holy grail: a creature that has been called the Lord God bird, apparently because when people saw it they would be so impressed they would utter an involuntary "Lord God!"

Fortunately, Dr. Fitzpatrick said in an interview, the bird is already in a national wildlife refuge, and is already being protected. The ivory bill itself, as a species, is also doing a good job of "protecting itself," he said, adding, "It is really scarce and really wary."

Now the effort to protect the bird will continue, as will the search for other individuals. So far, the scientists are certain of seeing only one male. If it does not have company, the discovery will be bittersweet.

Artist rendering

When they wrote down their notes independently and compared them, Mr. Gallagher said Mr. Harrison was struck by the reality of the discovery and began sobbing, repeating, "I saw an ivory bill."

It sounds like an amazing experience.

 

[Puck]

I get excited when a Redheaded woodpecker wanders this far east. Seeing a yellow bellied sapsucker and each Pileated has been a religious experience. I might soil myself when I see a three toed woodpecker. Just think what I would do if I saw an Ivory Billed.

 

[Umsaskis]

It was the first thing I heard when I got to work this morning and it sure made my day. I'll probably never get to see one, and that's ok - but it may put Arkansas higher on my list of places to visit.

Sometimes we get good news on the conservation front....

 

[Sixer]

The first sighting was back in 2003;

http://www.birdingamerica.com/Ivorybill/ivorybilledwoodpecker.htm

Now someone has to just find one of the 'extinct' Passenger Pigeons in some remote corner of the 'dacks.

 

[arghman]

Now someone has to just find one of the 'extinct' Passenger Pigeons in some remote corner of the 'dacks

Just recently read David Quammen's "Song of the Dodo" (great book, btw) which talks about biogeography & species extinction; it mentions along the way that one of the reasons the passenger pigeon apparently went extinct is that their threshold population was rather high (e.g. you need thousands of them still alive & breeding in a group; below that and they would almost certainly go extinct). I forget the reason, however, something to do with either feeding habits or ways to keep from being eaten by predators. If true, this would (unfortunately) make the existence of a lost viable population impossible.

On the flip side, the book talks about some kind of bird (falcon, I think it was? nested on cliffs.) on one of the islands in the Indian Ocean which was literally saved from extinction by the actions of a few people who managed to boost the bird's survival rate enough so its population rebounded from maybe a dozen to a few hundred. (!@#@#%, I can't remember details)
edit: it was the Mauritius kestrel -- see http://www.mauritian-wildlife.org/fauna.htm

 

[Sixer]

The problems that led to the pigeon's extinction were the numbers taken and their low reproduction. They only produced one egg during breeding and could rebuild the loss from hunting.

 

[forestgnome]

Thanks, a fantastic story. Cheers to The Nature Conservancy, the one environmental protection group that acts positively, instead of ranting negatively. They are very productive and deserve our support.

Good luck to the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker!!!

 

[arghman]

Cheers to The Nature Conservancy, the one environmental protection group that acts positively, instead of ranting negatively. They are very productive and deserve our support.

I second that (mostly): although they are not the only group that puts their money where their mouth is & protects large blocks of land (Audubon does quite a bit as well, as does Trust for Public Land; and SPNHF has probably protected more acres in NH than TNC has), they are definitely the largest nationwide / worldwide land conservation group. If you have a favorite spot that you like hiking or bird watching, and it's not protected from development, contact one of these groups and ask how you can help; if you wait until you see a "for sale" sign or read about a proposed subdivision or Wal-Mart in the paper, it's probably too late.

 

[Puck]

The passanger pigeons extinction was the hunting impact (there are acounts of piles of these birds the height of a man) and the loss of habitat. They needed the northern hard woods, lots of them because the nested in huge numbers as has been pointed out.

 

[funkyfreddy]

Here, here! Another vote for the Nature Conservancy! I wish I was a billionaire and could throw them a huge chunk of money!

 

[forestgnome]

(Audubon does quite a bit as well, as does Trust for Public Land; and SPNHF has probably protected more acres in NH than TNC has), .

You are correct, my freind. I was not fair to those good people. I wanted to stress the idea of actually protecting land by purchasing it, a style that is NOT Exclusive to TNC. So, cheers to TPL, Audubon, and SPNHF

 

[prino]

Great story!

Very Interesting Puck. It seems quite incredible that such a huge bird could stay out of site for such a long time. Let's hope they can multiply.

My new avatar is a picture of a Great Gray I took back in February not far from where I live. They were still being spotted as recently as two weeks ago...they usually fly north before the snow melts.

-Phil