Hi All,

So last week I alluded to a paper that should be published tomorrow (I
think) in Science about the Ivory-billed Woodpecker.

The message below was sent to the Ohio Birds Listserv by Kenn Kaufman
regarding the Ivory-billed Woodpecker search in Arkansas, and his, and
others', experience searching for Campephilus woodpeckers.  It's safe to
say that his message is a prelude to the Sibley et al. paper scheduled
to drop tomorrow.

I mentioned the "talking points" that I received last week regarding
this upcoming paper.  Here is some more information regarding that paper
from Tom MacKenzie, External Affairs, USFWS Southeast Region.

"Dr. Jerome Jackson recently authored a "Perspectives in Ornithology"
article which appeared in the most recent issue of the Auk, questioning
the conclusion that Ivory-billed woodpeckers have been confirmed to
occur in Arkansas.  In addition, a paper authored by David Sibley and
others is expected to appear in Science magazine March 10 <the paper's
publication date was pushed back-C.T.>.  While we have not seen the
paper, the focus of the analysis by Sibley et al., is expected to be on
the conclusion that the bird in the David Luneau video is a Pileated
Woodpecker."

I have been asked by a couple of people about what my opinion is on this
issue since my visit to Arkansas back in February, and unfortunately I
haven't had much time to cobble together my own thoughts on this matter
yet since I've returned due to work obligations.  I think Kaufman's
message below is sorta' on the same track as my thoughts on the matter,
but I'm probably a little closer to the middle of the road in that I do
think the bird in the video is/was a Pileated Woodpecker, but I'm
optimistic that Ivorybills do still exist somewhere.

So watch for the Sibley et al. paper tomorrow or very soon, and draw
your own conclusions.  It sounds like there will be numerous
opportunities in Ohio to speak to different folks on both sides of the
debate.

David Sibley will be at the Cincinnati Zoo on April 6th:
http://www.cincyzoo.org/Education/Barrows%20Conservation/barrows.html

Tim Gallagher (author of 'The Grail Bird') will be at the Cleveland
Museum of Natural History on April 21st:
http://www.cmnh.org/explorer-series.html

Richard Prum (one of the three authors who originally questioned the
video analysis, but then retracted the paper) will be at the OSU: Museum
of Biological Diversity on Friday April 7th (look in the blue left-hand
column): http://www.biosci.ohio-state.edu/~eeob/ 

The Ohio Ornithological Society is hosting Phillip Hoose who authored
the children's book 'The Race to Save the Lord God Bird' as part of
their 2nd annual meeting at the end of April:
http://www.ohiobirds.org/calendar/annual_meeting/meeting.php

Audubon Ohio will be hosting another key figure in the debate in
November as part of our state Audubon Assembly.  More details on that to
come later.


Thanks,

Casey
************************************************************************
****
On Behalf Of Kenn Kaufman
Sent: Wednesday, March 15, 2006 9:59 AM 
Subject: Woodpecker behavior


The reported rediscovery of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers in Arkansas has
been 
mentioned on ohio-birds many times over the last 11 months, which
suggests 
that this is an acceptable topic for this forum.

Last month in Ecuador we caught up with a related species, the Powerful 
Woodpecker (Campephilus pollens).  I'd missed it on previous trips to
South 
America -- not surprisingly, since it's rather rare.  In The Birds of 
Ecuador, Vol. 1, Robert Ridgely says that it's "rare to uncommon and
perhaps 
local."  In Vol. 2, he expands on this to say that its habits are
"similar 
to other Campephilus woodpeckers, though Powerful's home range seems 
exceptionally large and as a result the species is encountered only 
infrequently."  We found a family group in forest on the east slope.
The 
birds were wary, as one would expect with a large woodpecker, and they
were 
in dense forest, but we were able to follow them at a respectful
distance 
for a long time, and Kim even got decent photos with her small digital 
camera.

The encounter got me to thinking about our North American species of 
Campephilus, and I went back and reread Roger Tory Peterson's account of

seeing the Ivory-bill in 1942. (This was in RTP's wonderful book, Birds
Over 
America, published in 1948.)  He had sought the bird in South Carolina
on 
the basis of rumors there in the 1930s, but finally he went to the
Singer 
Tract in Louisiana, the last place where there were still known to be
any 
living Ivory-bills (two adult females had been seen there a few months 
earlier).  The Singer Tract was big, 80,000 acres, and there were no 
stakeouts such as roost sites, so Peterson and his companions knew it 
wouldn't be easy.  It wasn't:  it took them a whole day and a half to
find 
the birds.  Once they found them, though, they were able to follow them
for 
almost an hour.

Now, about these freakishly elusive, supernaturally un-photographable
birds 
in Arkansas... Once you look at the only "proof," the famous four-second

video, and realize that it actually shows a Pileated Woodpecker, you
have to 
wonder: What's really going on there?

Kenn Kaufman
Rocky Ridge, Ohio