Mike Collins Poll Results

OK, some of you might have noticed that I have kept my mouth shut on the IBWO for a few weeks now. This is despite the fact that there has been *plenty* of material for me to use...Sibley published his article, Mike Collins announced that he had contracted West Nile (but later deleted that from his web site), and Mr. Guppy even made a brief reappearance. (But don't worry about Mike, I'm sure he never really had West Nile...he must have just *assumed* he had West Nile, based on incomplete information, and jumped to a conclusion that was later disproven by the facts. I'm sure that's the first time he's ever done anything like that, right?)

So why did I lay off all of these juicy things? Frankly, I thought the whole atmosphere was just too negative. This site has been skeptical of Cornell from the start, but that skepticism has always been based on a dislike of their (in hindsight, obviously) flawed tactics, not on some crazy conspiracy theory. Reading some of the blog and other comments floating around out there, I get the impression that a lot of the skeptics don't want the IBWO to exist. Which is really, really sad.

Anyway, now that things have cooled down a bit, you might see a bit more in this space on the IBWO. Which brings us to the results of our last poll:

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What do you see in the photos taken by Mike Collins and posted at fishcrow.com?

Votes

An Ivory-billed Woodpecker!!!
34%
33

Some kind of woodpecker--species TBD.
17%
17

Well, it could be *some* kind of bird.
21%
21

I see nothing!!!
24%
24

Who really cares?
3%
3

98 votes total

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Those results pretty much speak for themselves. I think the visitors to this site are a good cross-section of the birding community, comprised of both skeptics and True Believers, so the results are probably a pretty good representation of what the birding community at large (as opposed to the readers of Tom Nelson's or Cy's sites) is thinking.