From John Lennon, Columbus Ohio: From: John Lennon [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Sunday, August 29, 2010 11:31 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Can you post this Darlene Ivory billed woodpecker I second Jeffery Cullen's comments. I spent a January in Arkansas with the Cornell people and never enjoyed a vacation more. We spent all day walking through the woods without regard to staying on trails, or canoeing through swamps and then came home after dark to talk with our fellow searchers, all very interesting people. I got to see my first bobcat, learned about greenbriar, will never forget what a yellow bellied sapsucker sounds like or where hermit thrushes spend the winter, or forget almost having a heart attack when a turkey looked over a log at me while I was staking out a big hole about dark. I also lost nine pounds. Dot com bubbles, housing bubbles and probably gold bubbles may hurt a lot of people, but I can't see any downside to an ivory billed woodpecker bubble. And I'm not so sure about the standards necessary for proof of something's existance. If Jim McCormic or Bill Whan or Ken Kauffman tell me they've seen a Mississippi kite or a raven in Ohio, or arctic tern, I'd believe those birds exist and were seen. I don't have a problem with wanting a picture for official documentation, but that's not always as easy as it sounds. I tried frequently to take pictures of piliated woodpeckers in Arkansas, just for practice in case I saw the real thing, but never could get a good one. Those aren't like Metro Park birds - get close and they leave, and it's not easy to sneak up on something when you're walking through dry leaves. My immediate disappointment is there are no screenings scheduled for Ohio. I'm going to call the Drexel Art Theater about that - maybe others could too. ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]