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] Ivory-billed Woodpecker search (long)
- To: carolinabirds@duke.edu
- Subject: ] Ivory-billed Woodpecker search (long)
- From: Kate Finlayson <katefin@yahoo.com>
- Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2002 11:26:33 -0800 (PST)
- Sender: carolinabirds-owner@acpub.duke.edu
I just listened to the recording of the tapping the
researchers got in Louisiana. It gave me chillbumps.
For those of you who have not heard, check it out!
-Kate
> Biologists Find Tantalizing Hints of Lost Woodpecker
>
>
> SLIDELL, Louisiana, February 20, 2002 (ENS) - After
> an intensive 30 day
>
> search of Louisiana wildlands, biologists appear to
> be no closer to
>
> determining whether the ivory billed woodpecker is
> extinct in the United
>
> States. But the searchers found several clues,
> ranging from stripped bark
>
> to tantalizing tapping, suggesting the nation's
> largest woodpecker may not
>
> be entirely gone.
>
>
>
> The ivory billed woodpecker averages 20 inches tall,
> with a wingspan of 31
>
> to 33 inches. (Image courtesy Haley & Steel)
>
> There have been no confirmed sightings of the ivory
> billed woodpecker
>
> since the 1950s, but bird lovers remain hopeful that
> the bird survives -
>
> somewhere.
>
>
> The ivorybill was never believed to be a very
> common bird. By the early
>
> 1900s it was one of the rarest in the United States.
>
>
> But the massive old growth trees required by the
> ivorybill were highly
>
> valued by the timber industry, and it is believed
> that logging led to the
>
> extinction, or near extinction, of the bird.
>
>
> In April 1999, a hunter, David Kulivan reporting
> watching a pair of
>
> ivorybills at close range for several minutes while
> turkey hunting in the
>
> Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Pearl
> River Wildlife
>
> Management Area in southeastern Louisiana.
>
>
> Upon reading a newspaper account of the Kulivan
> sighting, Anthony Cataldo
>
> of Carl Zeiss Sports Optics contacted Dr. Van
> Remsen, an ornithologist at
>
> Louisiana State University, offering corporate
> sponsorship for a search.
>
> The search sponsored by Zeiss, a leading
> manufacturer of high quality
>
> sports optics, ended on February 18 without a
> sighting of an ivory billed
>
> woodpecker.
>
>
> On January 27, four of the six members of this
> international search team
>
> did hear a series of loud signal taps suggestive of
> the elusive woodpecker.
>
> A recording of the types can be heard on the Zeiss
> web site at:
>
> http://www.zeiss.com
>
>
>
> Ivory billed woodpeckers search for their insect
> prey by stripping large
>
> sections of tree bark. The Zeiss team found
> concentrations of extensive
>
> bark scaling. (Photo © David Luneau. Three photos
> courtesy Carl Zeiss
>
> Sports Optics)
>
> The searchers marked their location with global
> positioning system units
>
> (GPS units) when they heard the sound but were
> unable to move closer
>
> because of high water in the area. They chose not to
> share news of this
>
> recording at the time, convinced that they could
> find the bird making these
>
> sounds.
>
>
> But after days of scouring this area, they were
> never able to locate the
>
> source of the sound.
>
>
> "The goal of this search was to find the ivory
> billed woodpecker and
>
> photograph it. We did not see an ivory billed
> woodpecker, but we found
>
> potential evidence of its presence in the Louisiana
> Department of Wildlife
>
> and Fisheries Pearl River Wildlife Management Area,"
> said the Zeiss Search
>
> Team in a joint statement.
>
>
> The search team later learned that on the same
> morning that they obtained
>
> their recording, a team from Cornell University also
> heard one double rap
>
> about 1.3 kilometers (0.8 miles) from the recording
> site. While searching
>
> for the source of the sound, the Cornell team saw
> one pileated woodpecker
>
> and one unidentified large woodpecker involved in a
> chase high in the
>
> trees, then flying off.
>
>
> "Having heard one clear example of this unusual
> double rap ourselves,
>
> earlier that same day and in an area not too distant
> from where the Zeiss
>
> team was searching, we remain quite intrigued to
> discover its source," said
>
> Dr. John Fitzpatrick, director of the Cornell Lab of
> Ornithology. "Neither
>
> we nor the Zeiss team ever heard pileated
> woodpeckers giving this display
>
> during many days in the field, yet pileateds were
> the only large
>
> woodpeckers we could locate near where we'd heard
> these double raps."
>
>
>
> Two large, fresh cavity starts on a living cypress
> tree could be the work
>
> of ivory billed woodpeckers (Photo © David Luneau)
>
> "We cannot rule out that these could have been
> displays by pileateds,"
>
> Fitzpatrick added, "but if they were, it would be
> strange that we heard the
>
> sounds only on that particular day, in that
> particular place."
>
>
> After hearing the search team's recording, Dr. Van
> Remsen, an
>
> ornithologist at Louisiana State University and
> curator of ornithology at
>
> its Museum of Natural Science, said, "Having
> listened to pileated drumming
>
> many times, Martjan's recording sent a chill down my
> spine, literally."
>
>
> "For the last 12 years, I have been around pileated
> woodpeckers nearly
>
> daily where I live, but I have never heard them make
> a sound that came
>
> close to this in terms of both power and rhythm,"
> Remsen said. "I would
>
> have given almost anything to have seen what was
> making that sound. I agree
>
> with the search team, however, in regarding it as
> insufficient proof of the
>
> bird's existence."
>
>
> Throughout the search, the Zeiss team discovered
> concentrations of tree
>
> bark scaling, the primary method used by ivory
> billed woodpeckers in
>
> foraging for food - but also used to a lesser extent
> by pileateds. On
>
> January 29, two days after the team made the
> recording, one team member
>
> heard a double rap, and then two team members heard
> several loud raps,
>
> similar to the sounds previously recorded.
>
>
> Team members found extensive bark scaling, plus
> several large, fresh
>
> cavity starts and large, older cavities in the area
> where the sounds were
>
> recorded.
>
>
>
> Alison Styring, a Ph.D. student at Louisiana State
> University Department of
>
> Biological Sciences and Museum of Natural Science,
> photographing bark
>
> scaling. The lower, narrow scaling was done by
> Martjan Lammertink with a
>
> machete for comparison. (Photo © David Luneau)
>
> The search team covered thousands of acres in both
> the Pearl River
>
> Wildlife Management Area and the adjacent Bogue
> Chitto National Wildlife
>
> Refuge to the north. They covered the territory on
> foot and by boat,
>
> equipped with Zeiss binoculars, digital video
> cameras, GPS units and
>
> waterproof field books to record bird and habitat
> data for the Louisiana
>
> Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.
>
>
> David Luneau, an associate professor of engineering
> technology at the
>
> University of Arkansas at Little Rock, was one of
> the Zeiss team members.
>
> Before the Zeiss search, he had been to Louisiana
> three times to search for
>
> the bird.
>
>
> "I believe that the ivory billed woodpecker is not
> extinct," Luneau said.
>
> "I am more convinced now than ever before that the
> woodpecker has survived
>
> for 50 years under the radar screen of the world of
> birding and
>
> ornithology."
>
>
> Although the six Zeiss searchers have ended their
> expedition, the Cornell
>
> Lab of Ornithology's Acoustic Recording Units (ARUs)
> will remain in the
>
> field until mid-March when Dr. John Fitzpatrick and
> his team take them back
>
> to Cornell for analysis. Dr. Fitzpatrick anticipates
> releasing Cornell's
>
> findings sometime in April.
>
>
> "We are most appreciative of the searchers'
> dedication to this project.
>
> They have done a great job covering what turned out
> to be very challenging
>
> terrain," said Anthony Cataldo, vice president and
> general manager of Zeiss
>
> Sports Optics North America. "We now look forward to
> hearing of Cornell's
>
> findings once Dr. Fitzpatrick and his team listen to
> their recordings, and
>
> we will determine what our next steps are at that
> time."
>
> For answers to questions about this listserve, as
> well as current Texas
> Birding Links, visit the Texbirds Reference Page at
> http://www.moonmountaingroup.com/texbirds.
=====
Kate Finlayson
N. Chatham Co.,N.C.
katefin@yahoo.com
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