[Birdtalk] Fwd: The Search is Over

[birderb at aol.com]

 Article regarding the search for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker that my brother has been involved with.

Regards,


 


Bill Fenimore
Utah Audubon Policy Advocate
801-525-8400 Business
801-525-8415 Fax
801-699-9330 Cellular






























 


 

-----Original Message-----
From: LENFENIMOR at aol.com
To: BirderB at aol.com
Sent: Sun, 10 Jun 2007 9:28 am
Subject: The Search is Over














Bill


 


    Below is an article 
from our local newspaper.  The reporter did a telephone interview with me 
the other day.    I remain hopeful, but skeptical.


 


Lenny


    


There’s hope for the ol’ bird 





By MLADEN RUDMAN 
mladenr at nwfdailynews.com 


    BRUCE — The local search for a woodpecker 
officially listed as endangered and unofficially accepted as extinct has ended 
the same way it started: with hope. 

    Researchers 
from Auburn University and the University of Windsor, Canada, have no concrete 
proof ivory-billed woodpeckers — aka Lord God or grail birds — still exist 
despite a five-month search in roughly two-square-miles of bottomland forest 
along the Choctawhatchee River in southern Walton and Washington counties. 


    The search ended last month. 


    “We have more than anecdotal evidence from both 
our 2006 and 2007 search” that the birds aren’t extinct, team leader Geoffrey 
Hill of Auburn wrote in an e-mail. “It is a substantial body of evidence but it 
is not definitive proof that ivory-billed woodpeckers still exist in the forests 
along the Choctawhatchee River.” 

    Hill, an 
ornithologist, noted that bird identification 
experts have spotted ivory bills many times. Also, remote listening stations 
have detected hundreds of sounds unique to the birds. 


    Ornithologists and birders would consider good 
pictures or video or DNA samples from, say, a feather, as definitive proof 
ivory-bills have not gone the way of dodos. 


    Despite the second expedition’s inconclusive 
results — researchers also chased ivory-bills from mid-December 2005 to May 2006 
— Hill remains hopeful solid evidence will eventually be gathered. 


    “I am still very optimistic that a clear photo 
of an ivory-billed woodpecker will be taken, and I think there is a good chance 
that a local outdoorsman who knows the area well will get the photo,” Hill 
wrote. 

    The birding world’s reaction to the 
ivory-bill search is still to be determined. Participating scientists plan to 
write a research summary this summer. 

    “If we can 
get to the point of proving the existence of ivory-billed woodpeckers it will 
make the region around the Choctawhatchee … one of the better known birdwatching 
spots in North America,” Hill wrote. 

    That 
sounded about right to Lenny Fenimore, a member of the Choctawhatchee Audubon 
Society. 

    Fenimore took part in three ivory-bill 
searches sponsored by Nokuse Plantation, a private land preserve near Bruce. 


    Nokuse supplemented the Auburn-Windsor search by 
fielding experienced volunteer birders. 

    One 
search took Fenimore from Holmes Creek south to State Road 20. Another time, he 
searched near East River Island. 

    Lenimore 
suspects ivorybills exist because accomplished researchers such as Hill claim to 
have seen them. 

    He said that the 
Choctawhatchee’s bottomlands are ideal habitats for ivorybills and added that it 
was too bad that no photographs or video were produced. 


    “It sort of deflates you,” Fenimore said. But, 
“I’m always the optimist, so that’s the slant. … Everybody, I think, is 
hopeful.” 

    Because of his experiences 
photographing birds, he figured the best chance for a long-awaited, indisputable 
image of an ivory-bill rests with the much less obtrusive automatic cameras 
still in the forest. 

    Fenimore said that even a 
stealthy approach by a researcher toward a perched or nesting bird could be 
ruined by the simple act of moving a limb while reaching for the camera. 


    “It’s very, very tough” taking a picture, he 
added. “The bird isn’t going to come over to see you.” 

Daily News Staff 
Writer Mladen Rudman can be reached at 863-1111, Ext. 443. 



  

  

    

      


      
Publication:DailyNews; 


    
Date:Jun 8, 2007; 

    
Section:Front page; 

    
Page Number:1

    



    














See what's free at AOL.com. 

 


________________________________________________________________________
AOL now offers free email to everyone.  Find out more about what's free from AOL at AOL.com.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://secureserver.securesites.net/pipermail/birdtalk/attachments/20070610/da8b9fbc/attachment.htm