Tragic accident in New Mexico involving Rosy-finch researchers

Unfortunately, two young birders who were heavily involved in studying the Rosy-finches at Sandia Crest in N.M. were in an auto accident, and one of the young birders, Ryan Beaulieu, was killed. I visited Sandia Crest House this year and was incredibly impressed with the setup they had there, and these two young men were a big part of that. More info can be found at:

http://www.rosyfinch.com/RyanBeaulieu.html

Northerly Island to BINAC: Birders Go Home!

A BINAC crew was keen to discover if the strong warbler migration on the lakefront over the last few days was also occurring at Northerly Island. So, we showed up at about 7:30 this morning to check it out, but we were turned away by the Chicago Police Department, who told us that the whole area east of the Shedd was closed!!!!!

Of course, the large semi-trailer carrying concert equipment to the sold-out Jack Johnson concert (who the hell is that????) was let through.

The score is now Clear Channel Northerly Island Pavilion 2, Birders 0!

Hurricane Katrina set to blow pelagic species into interior U.S.

Hurricane Katrina has grown into a potentially devastating Category 5 storm, and will likely be one of the strongest storms to ever hit the Gulf Coast.

Obviously, our thoughts and prayers are with the folks in the path of this storm, and everyone in the path of Katrina should take the precautions recommended by their local authorities.

When the storm passes, however, it will inevitably dump hundreds and possibly even thousands of pelagc birds into the interior of the continent. Based on the current projected path of Katrina, there will possibilities for incredible seabirding in a number of landlocked states, including Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, and possibly Southeastern Indiana. The projected track is probably a bit too far east of Illinois to deposit much into Southern Illinois, but places like Carlyle Lake still offer some potential late Tuesday or early Wednesday morning. Every large body of water in the path of Katrina should be birded as soon after the storm passes as is safely possible. Always make your personal safety your top priority.

Many of these seabirds will never make it back to the ocean, and any specimens should be collected and brought to the nearest museum with a bird collection.

Please report any and all rarities to your local RBA or Interet mailing list AS SOON AS POSSIBLE; even if you're not sure exactly what you have seen, post the possiblities so others know what spots are "hot" and what species they should be looking for.

As always, we would be interested in getting any reports from the field from birders searching for "storm birds" this week.

UPDATE 1: There has already been a report of a bunch (flock?) of about 150 Mag. Frigatebirds flying over I-10 near New Orleans.

ALL Ivory-bills, ALL the time.

Here is a nice IBWO blog that I have somehow missed until now: http://ivorybills.blogspot.com/

What is most interesting to me about that blog is that the author is a strong believer in the Arkansas birds but discounts the recent audio evidence presented by Cornell.

AOU IBWO update.

Laura Erickson has a nice update on the IBWO evidence presented at the AOU meeting on her site: http://www.birderblog.com/

Also, I am getting spammed in the comments to some posts so I have had to shut a few of them down...I guess this is a consequence of all the traffic we've had in the last few days...hopefully the spammer computers will sniff elsewhere and everything will go back to normal.

Cornell audio evidence.

Here is a link to some of the Cornell IBWO audio evidence and analysis:

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/ivory/field/listening/

Some other good stuff is at: http://www.birds.cornell.edu/ivory/field/aou2005

I think this shows what Cornell could/should have done at the time of the initial announcement. I get the impression that everything in April was pretty rushed, but they have had the whole summer to play "catch-up" a bit.

Fall warbler migration has -- finally ! -- begun.

Well, I finally saw my first two migrant warblers of the fall at lunchtime. It has been frustrating seeing people report warblers from all over the Chicago area -- and points further south -- for days without seeing any myself. I have not gone out to any real habitat lately but I have been checking some of the downtown traps daily but things have been real quiet.

Hopefully I will be able to hit a few of the lakefront traps and maybe even the Palos area this weekend.

Contact info for Birding is NOT A Crime!!!

Hey, I just forgot that I took any contact info off of the blog. The mind really goes when you hit your 30's.

You can contact us at:

birdingisnotacrime@yahoo.com

AOU meeting schedule/Ivory-billed Woodpecker presentations.

Here are a couple of IBWO-related presentations scheduled for the AOU meeting in Santa Barbara. Hey, I *know* people at the AOU meeting in Santa Barbara are checking out this blog, come on, send me your comments after you see (hear?) the Cornell presentations--signed or anonymous, I'll post any comments unedited as I receive them.

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 24, 2005

10:15 Video evidence and sightings of Ivory-billed Woodpecker in eastern Arkansas in 2004 -2005.

KENNETH V. ROSENBERG, JOHN W. FITZPATRICK, MARTJAN LAMMERTINK
and RONALD W. ROHRBAUGH, Lab. Ornithol., Cornell Univ., Ithaca NY.

10:30 Status of recent acoustic search for Ivory-billed Woodpecker in the U.S.

R. A. CHARIF, K. A. CORTOPASSI, K. M. FRISTRUP, H. K. FIGUEROA, K. V. ROSENBERG and J. W . FITZPATRICK, Lab. Ornithol., Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY.

10:45 When standard techniques fall short – novel and adapted survey methods for finding the
Ivory-billed Woodpecker and other ultra rare species.

R. W . ROHRBAUGH, M. LAMMERTINK, E. C. H. SWARTHOUT, P. H. WREGE, K. V. ROSENBERG, S. BARKER SWARTHOUT and J. W . FITZPATRICK, Lab. Ornithol., Cornell, Univ., Ithaca, NY.

11:00 What do we know about the effects of current management practices in the Mississippi
Alluvial Valley on Ivory-billed Woodpeckers?

ROBERT J. COOPER, Warnell School For. Res., Univ. Georgia, Athens, GA.

Thursday, 25 August

Plenary 2

20:00 Rediscovery of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker and its conservation
implications.

JOHN W. FITZPATRICK, Lab. Ornithol., Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY.

AOU meeting updates wanted.

I am not going to the AOU meeting because...well, because I am not a member of the AOU, am not an ornithologist, and in fact, some would say that I barely qualify as a birder.

Anyway, I haven't asked anyone to send me updates (on the IBWO or any other interesting presentations) from the meeting, but if anyone out there is at the meeting and wants to send in updates or comments, fire away and I'll post them. We can make it an anonymous report if you'd like.

Harvard astrophysicist performs calculations: IBWO in Arkansas will never be found!

So, there is plenty of new info on the Ivory-billed Woodpecker in the newest issue of North American Birds, including additional details on some of the sightings. It is a must-read for anyone who is interested in this subject. Anyway, I will be commenting on a few other interesting things in that issue later.

In the meantime, I thought this was fun: The folks at apparently Cornell invited Tim Spahr, a Harvard astrophysicist who specializes in asteroid movements and the calcucation of rare events, to help with the search in Arkansas. Tim created an algorithm based on Tanner's observations and on the habitat at Bayou de View in Arkansas. His conclusion:

"By [Spahr's] calculcations, a single Ivory-billed Woodpecker occupying that area
could manage to avoid detection by 20 observers indefinitely!"

That's pretty cool, we've got a Harvard astrophysicist calculating the probability of rare bird sightings! Hey Tim, if you're reading this, what are the chances that I will see White-eared Hummingbird in Illinois before I die?

Tours to Search for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker -- $325 per person (let the fleecing begin)!!!!!!!!

Well, it had to happen sooner or later. An outfit just started a new web site for tours to see the Ivory-billed Woodpecker in Arkansas. Check out the prices: www.ivorybilledexpeditions.com the cheapest option is $325.00 per person!!!!!!

Oh yeah, you can also buy *deluxe* packages for $1300 or $2300. For that price, Gene Sparling will be your guide!

Now we know why access into the best areas has been restricted...not to save habitat, but so that the local Razorbacks can make some money!

There is quite a bit on the IBWO in the latest edition of North American Birds, and I think that some of the information in that issue will create a firestorm of controversy...at least, it will here at BINAC.

Cedar Waxwing R.I.P.

Today I found my first window-kills of the fall migration, two Cedar Waxwings. One was fresh, the other was pancaked and had been there for a while, both in the same alley. There was a nice big pane of glass that these birds probably ran into, but it was odd that they found their way into that particular alley in the first place.

For more info on the subject of window-kills in Chicago, check out the link at the right for the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors.

It's Almost Labor Day -- Time to Start Planning for this Year's Christmas Bird Counts!!!

Well, the tick-filled summer breeding season is almost over, and shorebird migration is starting to slow down a bit as well. (At least there *was* a shorebird migration in Chicago this year, and it was a pretty good one.)

As temperatures hover in the mid-80's, a young man's fancy turns to the more important things in life...like the fast-approaching Christmas Bird Counts! It is never too early to begin scouting or doing a dry-run of your routes, and we at BINAC have been scouting since, well, I guess about February.

OK, this might sound a bit extreme, but as the weather gets colder and the holiday season approaches (and daylight decreases), most people find it hard to spend a lot of time walknig their CBC routes. So we get the grunt work done early, that way we know exactly what the habitat is like this year, work out any new routes or areas, and see what is accessible this year that was not last year. This means that we can concentrate on seeding and actual birding in the last few weekends before the count. This is really critical in most northern Illinois CBCs, because there is almost always a hard freeze right around the first or second weekend in December.

It is crucial to know where your "deep water" is before December; you have to know which ponds have ducks on them, and where the ducks will go if their ponds freeze up.

For example, in the COS/Lisle/Morton Arboretum CBC, Area 6 (aka the "best" area) has a lto of little ponds that will hold puddle ducks if there has not been a freeze. If there has been a light freeze, most puddle ducks will leave, but there will still be at least some waterfowl on the deeper ponds and quarry lakes. If there is a really hard freeze, we have one or two really deep quarries that will usually not freeze until January, and we also have some spots on the Des Plaines River that don't typically freeze (if at all) until after the count.

Field Trip to Northerly Island on October 1.

There will be a DuPage Birding Club field trip to Northerly Island at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday, October 1, 2005.

Those in attendance will be lucky enough to hear the wisdom of BINAC in its full glory, as the head honcho himself will be leading this trip, and a bunch of other BINAC underlings and hangers-on will also be in attendance. This is partially to ensure that if the head honcho gets pushed in front of a bus (or oversleeps), the show will still go on. This trip will be quite entertaining, and we might even see a few birds. More details (including expected species lists) as the date approaches.

NOTE: There will be no poetry on this field trip. That's a totally different Northerly Island trip. All BINAC trips are 100% certified to be poetry-free.

Little Gulls in Indiana

Little Gulls continue this week at Miller Beach in Indiana. Two hearty BINAC correspondents made the trip to Miller Beach last Saturday, August 13, and were rewarded with the sighting of one Little Gull. It was windy and raining very hard and even our rain gear didn't keep us dry, but at least we got one of our target birds. Missed on the Arctic Tern, though, even though it was seen both before and after our visit.

My record keeping is not very good, but I'm pretty sure that the Little Gull was a lifer for yours truly, and there ain't too many lifers that I can get these days and be able to wake up in my own bed and return to it at night.

OK, this report is, like, eight days late, but hey, it's been real busy around here. Things are getting better, though...much better.

White-eared Hummingbird in Michigan!

A bird in Michigan thought originally to have been a Broad-billed Hummingbird has now been identified as a White-eared Hummingbird. This is a pretty spectacular record for Michigan, but makes me wonder why we don't often get these type of hummingbird rarities in Illinois. I would be willing to bet that, solely because of population density, there are more hummingbird feeders in Illinois than in any surrounding state, so why aren't more rarities being reported?

Cornell wants you to help search for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker.

Cornell has posted several IBWO job openings on its web site. Pretty interesting, they apparently need a "volunteer coordinator" to wrangle volunteer searchers:

***

Bioacoustics Team Leader – 04330

Job Description

Description

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is seeking a motivated Bioacoustics Team Leader to aid in the search for Ivory-billed Woodpeckers in the Cache River and White River, National Wildlife Refuge (NWRs), Arkansas from October 17th, 2005 through April 30th, 2006. The position will be tasked with leadership responsibility for one technician, deploying, retrieving, and harvesting data from acoustic autonomous recording units (ARUs). Applicants must have demonstrated experience with maintaining and basic troubleshooting of electronic equipment (preferably under field conditions). Assist with the coordination of logistics, assign tasks, and follow-through to assure tasks are completed on a daily basis. The incumbent will receive supervision from the Field Supervisor. Ensure that all field protocols and procedures adhere to safety requirements. Position will require living in eastern Arkansas with housing and some meals provided by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. This position is a rare opportunity for a top-quality person to apply their technical and birding skills toward the conservation of North America’s most critically endangered bird. Incumbent is responsible for providing their own travel to and from Arkansas.

This is a temporary appointment for approximately 6.5 months.

Qualifications
Bachelor’s Degree in Natural Resources or Electrical Engineering; 1-2 years of experience or equivalent combination.

Must have demonstrated leadership experience. Experience in troubleshooting electronic circuitry. Experience in acoustical analysis. Strong auditory and visual bird identification skills; excellent navigation skills; boat/canoe experience. Excellent organizational skills, record-keeping skills, and meticulous attention to detail is a must. Must have a valid driver’s license.

Moderate physical work is required, as well as the ability to lift 50+ pounds. Must be willing to work under varying climatic conditions (heat, cold, dust, etc.) and capable of enduring difficult field conditions. Work hours will vary and may be lengthy during this field season.

Knowledge of bottomland hardwood forest ecosystems and/or woodpecker ecology helpful. Experience using GPS technology, GIS databases, and general field and laboratory data management desired.

All application materials must be received by Tuesday, August 30, 2005.

Visa sponsorship is not available for this position.

***

Lead Volunteer Coordinator – 04334

Job Description

Description

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is seeking a motivated Lead Volunteer Coordinator to train and direct volunteer birders in the search for Ivory-billed Woodpeckers in the Cache River and White River, National Wildlife Refuge (NWRs), Arkansas from October 17th, 2005 through April 30th, 2006. Provide leadership for a small team of volunteer searchers in 2-week cohorts, who will be tasked with using a variety of protocols to conduct systematic and adaptive surveys for Ivory-bills. Assist with the coordination of logistics, assign tasks, and follow-through to assure tasks are completed on a daily basis. The incumbent will receive supervision from the Field Supervisor and make routine decisions within the parameters outlined by the Field Supervisor. Ensure that all field protocols and procedures adhere to safety requirements. Position will require living in eastern Arkansas with housing and some meals provided by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. This rare opportunity is for a top-quality person to apply their field and birding skills toward the conservation of North America’s most critically endangered bird. Incumbent is responsible for providing their own travel to and from Arkansas.

This is a temporary appointment for approximately 6.5 months.

Qualifications
Bachelor’s degree in biology/natural resources or related field; 1-2 years of experience or equivalent combination.

Must have demonstrated leadership experience; excellent auditory and visual bird identification skills; previous professional experience conducting bird surveys; excellent navigation skills; boat/canoe experience. Must have an outgoing and engaging personality to effectively deal with dozens of birders volunteering for our effort. Must have a valid driver’s license.

Moderate physical work is required, as well as the ability to lift 50+ pounds. Must be willing to work under varying climatic conditions (heat, cold, dust, etc.) and capable of enduring difficult field conditions. Work hours will vary and may be lengthy during this field season.

***

Field Team Leader – 04337

Job Description

Description
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is seeking a motivated Field Team Leader to aid in the search for Ivory-billed Woodpeckers in the Cache River and White River NWRs, Arkansas from October 17th, 2005 through April 30th, 2006. Provide leadership for a small team of searchers who will be tasked with using a variety of protocols to conduct systematic and adaptive surveys for Ivory-bills. Assist with the coordination of logistics, assign tasks, and follow-through to assure tasks are completed on a daily basis. The incumbent will receive supervision from the Field Supervisor and is responsible for making routine decisions with in the parameters outlined by the Field Supervisor. Ensure that all field protocols and procedures adhere to safety requirements. Position will require living in eastern Arkansas with housing and some meals provided by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. This position is a rare opportunity for a top-quality person to apply their field and birding skills toward the conservation of North America’s most critically endangered bird. Incumbent is responsible for providing their own travel to and from Arkansas.

This is a temporary appointment for approximately 6.5 months.

Qualifications
Bachelor’s degree in biology/natural resources or related field; 1-2 years of experience or equivalent combination. Must have demonstrated leadership experience; excellent auditory and visual bird identification skills; previous professional experience conducting bird surveys; excellent navigation skills; boat/canoe experience. Must have a valid driver’s license.

Moderate physical work is required, as well as the ability to lift 50+ pounds. Must be willing to work under varying climatic conditions (heat, cold, dust, etc.) and capable of enduring difficult field conditions. Work hours will vary during this field season.

All application materials must be received by Tuesday, August 30, 2005.

Visa sponsorship is not available for this position.

***
Field Researcher – 04340

Job Description

Description

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is seeking 12 motivated Field Researchers to search for Ivory-billed Woodpeckers in Cache River and White River, National Wildlife Refuge (NWRs), Arkansas from October 31st, 2005 through April 30th, 2006. Incumbents will be required to work independently, under general supervision, using a variety of systematic and adaptive sampling protocols to search for ivory-bills in the bottomland hardwood forests of east-central Arkansas. Required to follow and adhere to all safety and field protocols and procedures. Position will require living in eastern Arkansas with housing and some meals provided by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. This rare opportunity is for a top-quality person to apply their field and birding skills toward the conservation of North America’s most critically endangered bird. Incumbent is responsible for providing their own travel to and from Arkansas.

This appointment is for approximately 6 months.

Qualifications
High School Diploma and training in field research techniques required. Bachelor’s degree in biology/natural resources or related field and 1 year of experience, or equivalent, preferred. Minimum of two years experience in field research required. Must have excellent auditory and visual bird identification skills; excellent navigation skills; boat/canoe experience.

Moderate physical work is required, as well as the ability to lift 50+ pounds. Must be willing to work under varying climatic conditions (heat, cold, dust, etc.) and capable of enduring difficult field conditions. Work hours will vary and may be lengthy during this field season.

Knowledge of bottomland hardwood forest ecosystems and/or woodpecker ecology helpful. Experience using GPS, GIS databases, and basic data entry is a plus. A valid driver’s license is preferred.

All application materials must be received by Tuesday, August 30, 2005.

Visa sponsorship is not available for this position.

CRESCENT-CHESTED WARBLER in SE Arizona

A CRESCENT-CHESTED WARBLER has been reported at Miller Canyon near Sierra Vista in SE Arizona. I think there are less than ten North American records for this species, but I'd have to check to be sure.

UPDATE: The Crescent-chested Warbler was still being seen as of August 15. No reports yet for Aug. 16...I'm sure people looked for the bird...I don't understand why people don't post when they see (or miss?) a great rarity such as this!!!

Also, what's up with the Aztec Thrush in Arizona? Is it still being seen?

Arctic Tern in Gary, Indiana!

Apparently, Ken Brock has found an adult-plumaged Arctic Tern at the Lake Street Beach in Gary, Indiana, not too far from Chicago.

This reminds me of the Arctic Tern that was at Great Lakes in Illinois a few years back. I tried several times and never saw it, just bad luck on my part, I guess; one time I was there for a few hours and a number of birders came by and ticked a tern as an Arctic Tern that was clearly nothing more than your average Common Tern. Sometimes people see what they want to see.

UPDATE: The Arctic Tern was apparently still present at 2:30. A Little Gull was also seen at Miller Beach today.

UPDATE: Today (Saturday) the Arctic Tern and a Little Gull have both been relocated.

Recent sightings of IBWO in Arkansas?

Mike Miller pointed out to me that I missed a pretty interesting post on the Arkansas list from an out-of-town birder who may have recently seen an Ivory-billed Woodpecker:

***

In response to Bill Shepherd's message about the Ivory-billed Woodpeckerthat I am fairly confident that I saw at Pine Bluff on 7/28/05, here aremy details (Cornell's form plus additional), sent to Cornell Laboratoryof Ornithology and to Max Parker. I should add, I had no doubt at allthat I was viewing a large woodpecker, resembling a Pileated Woodpecker.

1. Name/Address/State/ZipWilliam D. Ellis, PhD 6012 Snowdens Run Road, EldersburgMaryland 21784-6737443-520-8809 (secondary)billellis AT ellislist.com (primary)

2. Date07/28/05

3. Time1745 hours

4. State Arkansas

5. CountyJefferson

6. CoordinatesEstimated from DeLorme Arkansas book map, page 50, index G3: 34 deg 14 min 10 sec N91 deg 59 min 30 sec W

7. General LocationSE of Black Dog Lake, Delta Rivers Nature Center, Pine Bluff RegionalPark, 1400 Black Dog Road, Pine Bluff

8. Specific LocationFlying East overhead about 75 to 100 feet high, above trees that wereabout 50 ft in front of me. I was on the boardwalk on the SouthEastside of Black Dog Lake (which I believe is a wide area of a bayou).(Note: This report was prepared from written notes that were preparedabout 3 hrs after the sighting.)

9. Weather & Lighting Mid-80s (F), calm, clear sky, sun behind me and to my right, about 2.5hours before sunset.

10. My EncounterWhile I was birding, I saw a large bird flying ESE above the trees,which were about 25-50 ft tall. I was facing S. My initial bare-eyedimpression was of a cormorant, based on shape and level flight. Afterviewing the bird through binoculars, I thought that the bird was aPileated Woodpecker (PIWO). After consulting a Sibley - East guide, Irealized that it could not be a PIWO (see item #18). My initialbare-eyed view was forward of lateral, and all views were ventral. Mybinocular view was just rear of lateral, then from the rear as the birdflew further away.I have extensive experience viewing PIWOs, but aerial views have mostlybeen without binoculars, of birds gaining elevation or coming down. Idid not remember where the white on a PIWO underwing is; all I have seenis a flash of white and red from a mostly black bird. After consultingthe Sibley PIWO supplementary page to his large guide, I realized thatthe bird had to be an Ivory-billed Woodpecker (IBWO), because of theunderwing pattern (see item #18).

11. HabitatMoist bottomland woods along a bayou - cottonwoods, sycamores, willows,and hickories were dominant; also baldcypress, sugarberry and dogwood.Vernal pools (dried up) were present. (Note: I am not sure that thishabitat is relevant, since the bird appeared to be overflying the site.Its trajectory was toward an extensive area of forest on an "island"surrounded by Lake Langhoffer, and lacking roads or human disturbance.Some of the north end of this area (about 1 mile E), that I did access,appeared to be bottomland forest with ponds and dried vernal pools - agood potential home base for an IBWO.)

12. How long observed?View of bird was about 15 to 20 seconds total - 5 sec w/o binoculars, 5sec with binocs and near-lateral view, and 5-10 sec with binocs and rearview.

13. Distance to birdAbout 90 to 110 ft (simple trig from data given).

14. Using Binocs?Yes

15. Brand/Model/PowerNikon LXI 10x42

16. Supporting evidence?No

17. If so ...n/a

18. PlumageRear half of underwing was white (my most significant field markobserved); balance of bird appeared dark. No white was seen on fronthalf of wing.

19. Body sizeAbout the size of a PIWO; no objects were nearby to base a size estimateon).

20. Body shapeBill, head, and body forward of wings was about the same length as thebody and tail rearward of the wings - that is, the the bird looked aboutsymmetrical about the wings. I do not remember seeing a crest. Tailwas pointed, not fanned.

21. Bill LengthLong, stocky, pointed bill that merged smoothly with head.

22. Bill colorNo bill color was noticed; no impression of a white bill was perceived.(Note: background was blue sky.)

23. Length of neckBill, head, and body were continuous; no separate proportions werenoticed.

24. Length of tailTail was not distinguished from body; no length was discerned.

25. Flight patternFlight was straight, direct, without any undulations such as seen withPIWO and other woodpeckers. Bird did not change altitude or direction.Wing flapping was slow and steady; a rough estimate of flapping speedwould be similar to a Turkey Vulture, and slower than a Black Vulture.(NB - no white existed on primaries forward of midline of the wing, aswould be seen on a TUVU)

26.Behaviorn/aFinal Note - I having been a serious birder for the past 4 years, andalso during 1978 to 1990. Of course, I have never seen an IBWO! I alsodid not expect to find one in Pine Bluff, although I have searchedDagmar State Park (within the Cache River NWR) for one.

Supplement #1I returned to the general area tonight where my sighting of 28 Jul 2005 occurred. In the woodlot, there were at least 4 to 5 trees that appeared to havebeen stripped of their bark. All were topped - the trunks appeared tohave been broken off, although they were all about 6 inches or more in diameter (lightning? tornado?). I understand that Tanner reported IBWOs to be disaster area opportunists (per William Shepherd, Little Rock). The most convincing tree was about 20 ft high, 10-12 inches in diameter,with a section of bark missing from the top down about 3-4 ft; the stripped area was about 4-6 inches wide at the bottom, and squared off in shape, and about 10-12 inches wide at the top. There was at least one large hole in the middle of this bare area, about 2-3 inches in diameter. (There were Red-headed (adult & immature) and DownyWoodpeckers present in the woodlot during my visit.) Another tree, still alive with (willow?) leaves on the branches, wasabout 6-8 inch dia., but completely denuded of bark the top 1 to 1.5 ft.(Also "topped".) Another tree with bark missing, about 8-10 inch dia., appeared to be missing bark along crack lines also apparent in the barkstill present. That is, the bark may have fallen off as the dead treeaged. Unusual, however, was the large hole in the middle of this de-barked area. A shallow conical hole about 5-6 in dia. with a centerhole about 2 inch dia. that went through the tree, letting lightthrough.

Supplement #2 will follow (more stripped trees)

Bill Ellis
Back in Eldersburg, MD (Baltimore area)

Possible Blue-footed Booby in Texas?

A FOBINAC ("Friend Of Birding Is Not A Crime") discovered an interesting sulid, possibly a Blue-footed Booby, along the Texas coast this morning. Here at BINAC, we pride ourselves on having more interest in boobies than any other birding blog in the entire world. Our obsession with boobies may be immature, childish, and even insulting, but it is genuine. I haven't seen the photos of this particular booby yet, but it goes without saying that Blue-footed Booby is a pretty good bird for Texas.

UPDATE: I still haven't looked at the photos, but the consensus now appears to be that the bird is a Northern Gannet.

Ivory-billed Woodpecker: Why all the secrecy?

So, at some point I will try to crystalize my thoughts on the Ivory-billed Woodpecker saga. The "controversy" is not yet over, as some have claimed, and there are still plenty of skeptics (try www.tomnelson.blogspot.com) who are not yet concinved.

And while I have tons of respect for everyone at Cornell (especially John Fitzpatrick, a former denizen of the Windy City), I have to say that they have not handled the post-announcement publicity very well. Cornell's failure to timely disseminate information has only fueled the rumors that have been spreading through the birding community for months.

I do still believe that there is at least one IBWO currently living in the swamps in Arkansas. But I am less certain of that than I was in the days immediately following the announcement. And that, in itself, is a testament to Cornell's failure to offer current and relevant information about the ongoing search, the audio evidence, additional bark scaling, etc. And, by the way, I'm still trying to understand why the audio evidence was not made public at the time of the announcement. How can Cornell justify supportingt the conclusions reached in the Science article by using evidence (the audio recordings, for example) that was not presented in that paper?

BREAKING NEWS: Nothing interesting happened today in the world of birds.

Nobody published a paper on the IBWO today, no great rarity was found anywhere that we care about, and nobody did anything stupid enough to tick me off. Bird-wise, at least.

Actually, that's probably not true, I'm sure there were plenty of cool things happening over the past few days, I've just been too busy (birding, front row at the Cubs game, big project at work, etc.) to notice.

But hopefully things will get back on track in the next day or two.

We'll have a report from the BINAC branch office in Florida, maybe some long-delayed shorebirding reports from the Chicago area, another report on the wonderful new concert arena at Northerly Island, and we will insult...ah, why give it away, but some feathers will fly.

Did I mention that I was too busy being in the front row at Wrigley Field? Behind home plate, did I mention that?

City Hall Scandals Strike the Chicago Park District: Federal Indictment Alleges Bribes Paid to Chicago's Former Director of Natural Resources

At a press confernce this afternoon, the federal government announced the indictment of Shirley McMayon, former Director of Natural Resources for the Park District. McMayon is charged with pocketing more than $137,000 in financial benefits in the 4½-year kickback scheme.

According to the FBI, the individuals who allegedly bribed McMayon are cooperating, and the FBI is "aggressively" pursuing leads that have arisen out of this case.

I know many Chicago-area birders might not want to acknowledge the rampant corruption at City Hall, but that corruption is creeping closer and closer to things that we hold dear. As a taxpayer, I'm offended, and as a birder, I'm nervous. Today's indictment essentially alleges that maintenance contracts were awarded not on merit, but were instead awarded to companies that were willing to bribe Park District employees. Even worse, some of the "bribes" were actually paid for by the City itself, because the contractors billed the City for products or services that were never delivered, then kicked back the money for those phony contracts to a Park Distrct employee. Something to think about the next time you go birding in one of the lakefront parks and see maintenance that has been neglected, eh?

I have not been able to determine whether any of the contracts involved were for birding spots like Montrose or Jackson Park; if I hear anything else, I will post it. But this indictment does offer a warning to any birding group that aligns itself too closely to City Hall: the person you talk to today at the Park District may be in jail tomorrow.

More from David Luneau clarifying the sound recordings and the "existence" of two Ivory-billed Woodpeckers.

David Luneau recently posted a further clarification on his web site, www.ibwo.org . I think it is a fair and reasonable statement, and I think that a lot of people who really want to believe in the IBWO sightings have gotten ahead of the evidence a bit. Remember, just because it's in the New York Times doesn't mean it's true. I hope that they get a decent photo of the bird soon, but until they do, doubts will linger. Also, we still haven't really heard from Jerome Jackson on this issue, hopefully he will comment soon.

Here is David's statement:

***
Clarification of the latest confusion

The press has recently covered events related to a paper written, but not published, by Richard Prum, Mark Robbins, Brett Benz, and Jerry Jackson. In response to the many emails and comments I have received, I will attempt to clarify the confusion with the facts.

Fitzpatrick et al wrote a paper that was published in the journal Science on June 3, 2005 (I was one of the authors of this paper). Prum et al wrote a rebuttal to that paper and submitted it to the online journal PLoS in England. We were shown their manuscript and given the opportunity to write a rebuttal to their rebuttal - it's the way science works.

On Friday, July 29, 2005, we submitted our rebuttal to PLoS. On seeing our rebuttal, Prum et al requested samples of acoustic recordings (recorded by Cornell's autonomous recording units) that we referred to in our paper. Upon hearing these recordings, they pulled their paper from publication and announced that they were now convinced that there was not just one IBWO in Arkansas, but at least two.

Interestingly, our team of authors does not agree on the origin of these sounds, which is why we didn't put them in our paper in the first place. We maintain that the acoustic information, while quite interesting, does not reach the level we require for "proof".

We have not found more than one IBWO (yet)!

The misinformation that more than one IBWO has been confirmed is based on statements by Rick Prum and Mark Robbins to that effect, based on their listening to three sound recordings one day. We have listened to thousands of sounds over many months and are not ready to make that conclusion. We would like to, but careful science prevents us from doing so.

Also note that Nature.com states, "Prum says he still thinks that the video is of a pileated woodpecker." Maybe someday they will publish their manuscript and our response so you can decide for yourself.

I hope you better understand the timeline and facts.

***

Tom Nelson, a Minnesota birder, has a different take on the whole situation, check out his blog at: http://www.tomnelson.blogspot.com/ I do believe that there is at least one IBWO in Arkansas, but Tom raises some good points. Remember, as someone (can't remember who) said, extraordinary claims demand extraordinary proof.

If you think *your* state birding list is entertaining, check out the Missouri list.

In my opinion, most of the better state birding listserves (Texas, Indiana, Illinois, California, etc.) have a moderator or administrator who keeps a pretty close eye on things. The Missouri list, however, is a bit more free-wheeling, and almost always provides some interesting gossip, rumors, flames, whatever. There is some real news on that list right now (photographs of the Royal Tern that had been reported earlier this summer have been reviewed, and most of the original observers no longer believe that the bird in question was a Royal Tern), but the IBWO discussion is pretty entertaining, too. This is the kind of trash talking we want on BINAC!!!!!!!Check it out:

http://www.birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/MOBD.html

The Ivory-billed Woodpecker debate continues: Are the sound recordings conclusive or not???

So, David Luneau just posted to the Arkansas list that the "astounding" and "conclusive" sound recordings referred to in recent news articles may not be recordings of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers! This is starting to get interesting again:

***
The sound recordings that have been referred to in recent news reports are still being analyzed. It is premature to assume that they are recordings of IBWOs as reported in the press, as that conclusion has not been reached by everyone involved. There will be a presentation on the results (to date) of the acoustic data given by Russ Charif of Cornell at the AOU meeting in late August. As of now, none of the recordings are available to the public.
***

The Selasphorus are on their way!

As "fall" shorebird migration begins to heat up, so does the annual dispersal of wandering/wintering Selasphorus hummingbirds. For most of the year, the Ruby-throated Hummingbird is the only hummingbird that is found in most of the eastern United States.

However, birders and ornithologists have slowly but surely established (especially through banding) in the last few years that many hummingbirds (Selasphorus and others, especially Rufous, Allen's, Broad-Tailed and Black-chinned) tend to wander in late summer/early fall.

Some of these birds just wander around, but some of them try to winter in places you would not expect. Banding returns have shown that not all of tehse wanderes freeze to death, because in some locations the same bird returns for two or three years in a row.

I don't know why Illinois seems to have fewer records of Selasphorus and other wandering hummingbirds than do the surrounding states. I haven't added up all of the recent records, but it seems like Illinois gets fewer birds every year. I find bird migration in general -- and vagrancy in particular -- to be a fascinating subject, so this is something we'll talk about more if any unusual hummingbirds show up in the Midwest this year.

Anyway, if you see a strange hummingbird in your yard, contact a local birder so he or she can check it out. And don't hesitate to keep your feeders up even if your local hummingbirds have already departed. You never know what might turn up...

One more Ivory-billed Woodpecker story.

OK, here is one more story on the IBWO, from the Washington Post and other papers, looks like it was an AP story. I'm posting it because it has a few different quotes than the NYT story, but the substance is the same.

***
Hearing is believing for woodpecker doubters
Skeptics accept claims about ivory-billed bird after listening to audio

Updated: 10:43 p.m. ET Aug. 1, 2005
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Researchers who last month questioned the existence of the ivory-billed woodpecker, saying blurry videotape of a bird in flight wasn’t enough evidence, have changed their minds after hearing recordings from the wild.

The doubters had prepared an article for a scientific journal questioning whether the bird, once thought extinct, had really been found in an Arkansas swamp. They now plan to withdraw the article.

“We were very skeptical of the first published reports,” Richard Prum, an ornithologist at Yale University, said in a statement. “But the thrilling new sound recordings provide clear and convincing evidence that the ivory-billed woodpecker is not extinct.”

The audiotape evidence also seems to indicate more than one ivory-billed woodpecker in the area.

“The bird that we saw had to have a mommy and a daddy,” said Scott Simon, director of the Nature Conservancy in Arkansas. “We have solid evidence for one. We believe there are more.”

Ornithologists announced in April that an ivory-billed woodpecker — a bird believed to have been extinct since 1944 — was living in a swamp in the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Arkansas. A kayaker had reported seeing the bird a year earlier.

Bird experts at Yale, Kansas and Florida Gulf Coast universities last month questioned the evidence, saying it was only strong enough only to suggest the presence of an ivory bill, not proof.

Then the recordings were provided to them by the Cornell ornithology lab.

“We sent them some sounds this summer from the Arkansas woods,” said lab director John W. Fitzpatrick, who initially helped confirm the claim. “We appreciate their ability to say they are now believers.”

Using audio equipment set out in various places near the Cache and White rivers in Arkansas last winter, the Cornell ornithologists made 17,000 hours of recordings. “Some sounds were explainable only by being an ivory-billed woodpecker,” Fitzpatrick said.

One portion of the tape includes the bird’s distinctive double raps on a tree — one echoing from the distance, the other very close.

“It’s communication typical of the ivory-billed. It’s one of the more exciting cuts from the tape,” and indicates there is likely more than one bird, Fitzpatrick said.

He said the audio had only recently been discovered on the tapes, which are being analyzed with computer assistance.

The Cornell researchers plan to release the audio publicly at the American Ornithologists Union meeting in Santa Barbara, Calif., Aug. 23-27.

The ornithologists went to the site where the audio was made but were unable to find the birds.
“We’re definitely on the trail,” Fitzpatrick said.

In the Cache River area, 320,000 acres of public land has been set aside in an effort to protect the rare bird’s habitat, and Simon says his group hopes to expand the area to 600,000 acres — a region about half the size of Delaware.

Ivory-billed Woodpecker DVD now available.

David Luneau, the long-time IBWO searcher who captured the now-(in)famous video of "Elvis," has just made a dvd of his Ivory-billed footage available. This dvd aparently includes the entire video clip, stills from the clip, some magnified versions of the clip, narration by David, and stills from the Ivory-billed/Pileated recreations performed by the Cornell search team. I'm not sure if any of this footage is "new" or not, but check out David's web site if you're interested: www.ibwo.org

More on the Ivory-billed Woodpecker controversy: Controversy no more? "Astounding" audio recordings of two IBWOs convince skeptics???

From the New York Times (America's Birding Newspaper?):

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Recordings Convince Skeptics That Ivory Bills Are Not Extinct

By JAMES GORMANand ANDREW C. REVKIN
Published: August 1, 2005

The phoenix had nothing on the ivory-billed woodpecker.
It is hard to keep track of how many times this near-mythic bird, the largest American woodpecker and a poignant symbol of extinction and disappearing forests, has been lost and then found. Now it is found again.

Even the most skeptical ornithologists now agree. More important, even the skeptics now say that newly presented recordings shows that at least two of the birds are living in Arkansas.

Richard Prum, an ornithologist at Yale University, one of several scientists who had challenged evidence in the most recent rediscovery of the ivory bill, said in an interview that he was now "strongly convinced that there is at least a pair of ivory bills out there."

Mark Robbins, an ornithologist at the University of Kansas, and also a critic, listened to the same recordings with a graduate student and said, "We were absolutely stunned."

He said the recordings, provided by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, were "astounding."

Of a critical paper that he and Dr. Prum and another scientist had submitted to the Public Library of Science, he said, "It's all moot at this point; the bird's here."

That was what the Cornell lab said last April, when it announced that an ivory bill had been sighted in February 2004 in the Cache River Wildlife Refuge in Arkansas.

In May 2005, a group of scientists published a paper in the journal Science on the rediscovery, with a heavily analyzed but blurry video. After widespread euphoria, three skeptics - Dr. Prum, Dr. Robbins and Jeremy Jackson, a zoologist at Florida Gulf Coast University - prepared their criticism. Prominent experts like David Sibley and Kenn Kaufman, both authors of bird guides, agreed that the evidence in the Science paper was not conclusive.

But while the skeptics' paper was still in the works, the Cornell team provided several audio recordings to Dr. Prum and Dr. Robbins. Dr. Jackson, who was out of the country, had not had a chance to listen to the recordings, Dr. Prum said.

The evidence was so convincing - the characteristic nasal "kent" call and double raps on a tree - that Dr. Prum and Dr. Robbins withdrew their critical challenge.

"The thrilling new sound recordings provide clear and convincing evidence that the ivory-billed woodpecker is not extinct," Dr. Prum said in a statement.

The snippet of videotape that until now was the strongest individual piece of evidence showed only one bird. But the sound recordings, made over many months in the White River refuge, just south of Cache River, provided vital signs that a potential breeding population persisted, according to experts and officials involved with the search.

"We felt all along that the White River was probably the core of the bird's habitat and it was dispersing out," said Sam Hamilton, the Southeast region director of the federal Fish and Wildlife Service and the chairman of a panel that is overseeing drafting of the federal recovery plan for the bird.

The scientific consensus on the strength of the sound recordings from that region was "very, very exciting," he said. "It gives you chill bumps to think about that vast bottomland hardwood being certainly home to more than one bird."

Dr. Prum said the double raps appeared to be from a pair of ivory bills communicating with each other, one close and one far away. He continued, "I'm thinking about when I should head down to Arkansas."

John Fitzpatrick, director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and a primary author of the Science paper that announced the bird's survival, said, "The birds are there, which we knew." But he said he was happy that a scientific battle in print had been avoided.

"We sent them the sounds. I wish we'd done that earlier," he said. But he noted that the process was "science in action at its messy best."

The manager of the 160,000-acre White River refuge, Larry E. Mallard, said the boggy woodlands there have been actively logged for generations in a way that takes care to protect areas friendly to wildlife. As a result, Mr. Mallard said, one rare species after another has returned, including bald eagles and swallow-tailed kites.

The ivory bill topped it all, he said, adding, "Now Elvis has come along and said: 'I'm the rock star. Look at me.' "

Scott Simon, head of the Nature Conservancy in Arkansas, said: "The work is not done. we still need to save another 200,000 acres at least, for the ducks the bears and the ivory-billed woodpeckers."

In a telephone interview today, Bobby Harrison of Huntsville, Ala., one of the first people to see the ivory bill in the Cache River, said he was never worried about the criticism. He added that he figured that the bird had come north to the Cache River only because there was no room in the White River refuge.

"It's already got ivory bills in it," he said.

***

Birding with the goats.

Yesterday yours truly went shorebirding in the Lake Calumet area, a sort-of industrial wasteland that still has some good marsh/wetland habitat if the water levels are right. The most shocking sight of the day (well, probably second most shocking) was the large herd of...well, goats, that were munching away on top of one of the closed landfills along Stony Island. There have been dozens of birders in that area this summer, and I can't believe no one has mentioned a herd of goats! (Note to our foreign readers: There ain't no goats in Chicago.)

Finally, someone mentioned these goats on IBET (the Illinois birding listserve) yesterday, and I actually stumbled onto an explanation in a story about the southeast side in this morning's Chicago Tribune:


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Other wildlife spotted by the tourists included coyote, deer, geese and, most improbably, a herd of goats at the Paxton Landfill, a 170-foot mountain of debris that closed in the early 1990s.

The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency had been trying to restore the area by maintaining vegetation, but the steepness of the slopes made it impossible to bring in equipment to cultivate.Enter Mary Stowe of Wilmington.

Since May, Stowe has been hired to see if goats could do the job of lawnmowers. So far, the herd has shown no appetite for the native prairie grasses, preferring instead to munch on weeds and thistles.

The observers delighted in the sight of 64 critters descending over the landfill. After a day of some grimness, it was the perfect finale.

***

So there you have it. The mystery of the Lake Calumet goats has been solved. I feel like Scooby-Doo.