Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Mr. Guppy Goes Bye-Bye!

Well, our favorite Ivory-billed Woodpecker searcher, Mr. Guppy, has decided to stop posting new material to his web site. Apparently, it is too darn easy to find those pesky IBWOs in Florida so it's just not a challenge anymore. Mr. Guppy has, all by his lil' ol' self, found multiple IBWOs in multiple locations after searching for just a couple of months. Mr. Guppy even found and identified a couple of IBWOs at 50 m.p.h. from his car. But hey, who *doesn't* find relict populations of birds that were previously thought to be extinct while driving?

Maybe Cornell should hire Mr. Guppy him and send him down to Arkansas, he'd find Elvis in a day or two, tops. Of course, he won't be able to help Cornell take any IBWO photos, I guess it's too hard to focus with one hand on the steering wheel.

Mr. Guppy has now proclaimed himself to be a snake expert, too. Given his prior statements that he is an: 1) experienced bird trainer; 2) accomplished fish breeder; and 3) expert on "big cats", it's not surprising that he found so many IBWOs so quickly.

The only good thing that might come out of Mr. Guppy's travels is that more credible searchers could be inspired by his "sightings" to explore other parts of Florida, where relict populations of IBWOs very well may exist...

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