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Ivory-billed woodpecker: The Elvis of the swamps
Orlando Sentinel ^ | 08 April 2007 | Kevin Spear

Posted on 04/10/2007 7:18:32 AM PDT by Dacb

A small band of searchers rousts itself each morning from a secret camp deep in the woods of a forgotten northwest Florida swamp.

They have endured freezing nights, foul drinking water, long stints without showers and an outhouse with only one wall, all in a search for a ghostly creature that may not even exist. They are on a quest to find and photograph an ivory-billed woodpecker to show the world the bird is not extinct.

They have invited me along for a two-day glimpse into a mission that is as inspiring as it is mundane.

In the past few years, bird experts in the Southeastern United States have collected sightings, recordings and fuzzy video images. The latest evidence comes from Florida along the Choctawhatchee River. But no one has the ultimate proof: a clear photo.

No doubt such a find would bring fame to this assembly of highly trained birding experts mostly from universities. But more thrilling is the chance of discovering one of the nation's most majestic birds was not wiped out by logging and suburban sprawl. They are now in the fourth month of a second fall-through-spring season.

(Excerpt) Read more at orlandosentinel.com ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; US: Florida
KEYWORDS: bird; chat; cryptobiology; ivorybill; ivorybilled; ivorybillwoodpecker; ornithology; swamp; woodpecker
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1 posted on 04/10/2007 7:18:34 AM PDT by Dacb
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To: Dacb

Can someone post a pic of one so we’ll know what it is if we see one?


2 posted on 04/10/2007 7:22:01 AM PDT by Frapster (Don't mind me - I'm distracted by the pretty lights.)
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To: Frapster

Unless you want to travel at least ten miles via canoe or johnboat into dense swampland in a few remote areas of the US, you won’t have to worry about seeing one.


3 posted on 04/10/2007 7:23:36 AM PDT by dirtboy (Duncan Hunter 08/But Fred would also be great)
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To: Dacb

Ornithologists at Cornell have woodpecker “egg” on their face ever since they bought into a preposterous sighting of an Ivory-billed several years ago. They are, unfortunately, extinct. These sighting expeditions have been going on now for several years. Every once in a while a blurred video turns up, but no specimens. A sad story, but that’s the way it goes!


4 posted on 04/10/2007 7:25:46 AM PDT by Doc Savage ("You couldn't tame me, but you taught me.................")
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To: Dacb

I saw a double breasted mattress thrasher the other day.


5 posted on 04/10/2007 7:28:30 AM PDT by Lokibob (Some people are like slinkys. Useless, but if you throw them down the stairs, you smile.)
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To: Dacb

Maybe they should follow Audubon’s approach and start shooting anything that moves. Eventually, they’ll shoot an Ivory Billed Woodpecker. I’m sure a carcass will provide the proof they need.


6 posted on 04/10/2007 7:33:06 AM PDT by MediaMole (9/11 - We have already forgotten.)
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To: Frapster
In the past few years, bird experts in the Southeastern United States have collected sightings, recordings and fuzzy video images. The latest evidence comes from Florida along the Choctawhatchee River. But no one has the ultimate proof: a clear photo.

What picture?

7 posted on 04/10/2007 7:36:15 AM PDT by TruthWillWin
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To: Frapster
Looks like Woody Woodpecker...


8 posted on 04/10/2007 7:51:15 AM PDT by Rio (Don't make me come over there....)
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To: Rio; TruthWillWin

Thanks!


9 posted on 04/10/2007 7:54:19 AM PDT by Frapster (Don't mind me - I'm distracted by the pretty lights.)
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To: Frapster

No, you can’t see my Ivory Billed Woodpecker. I keep it with my Grail, and you can’t see that either.


10 posted on 04/10/2007 8:04:20 AM PDT by massgopguy (I owe everything to George Bailey)
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To: Doc Savage

Maybe, maybe not, it is very possible that a small population still exists. There are still wild corners in the swamps. I wish I was younger and healthier, I’d be looking.


11 posted on 04/10/2007 8:06:50 AM PDT by SWAMPSNIPER (THE SECOND AMENDMENT, A MATTER OF FACT, NOT A MATTER OF OPINION)
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To: Jemian

:-))


12 posted on 04/10/2007 8:14:00 AM PDT by Molly Pitcher (We are Americans...the sons and daughters of liberty...*.from FReeper the Real fifi*))
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To: Frapster
Ivory Billed Woodpecker

Pileated Woodpecker

13 posted on 04/10/2007 8:15:21 AM PDT by Malone LaVeigh
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To: Dacb
We have had a piliated woodpecker visiting us. I still haven't seen him but I know he's been here.

14 posted on 04/10/2007 8:24:39 AM PDT by armymarinemom (My sons freed Iraqi and Afghan Honor Roll students.)
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To: Frapster

IIRC, it looks a lot like a pilliated woodpecker, except different. :)


15 posted on 04/10/2007 9:15:43 AM PDT by ApplegateRanch (Islam: a Satanically Transmitted Disease, spread by unprotected intimate contact with the Koranus.)
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To: Dacb

And they don’t even taste that good.


16 posted on 04/10/2007 9:21:57 AM PDT by PAR35
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To: Molly Pitcher

Thanks for the ping. The white markings on the back are unmistakeable. I know I saw one in 1989. I just can’t prove it.


17 posted on 04/10/2007 9:57:01 AM PDT by Jemian (PAM of JT ~~ "There is no honor for the man who runs from battle." Spc. Josh Lott)
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To: Dacb

I hope that somebody eventually finds one and can prove it. But then again I am still waiting for someone to find a live thylacine.


18 posted on 04/10/2007 10:17:58 AM PDT by CollegeRepublican
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To: armymarinemom

We have pileated woodpeckers around the place here in north Louisiana. Their call sounds (to me) like an old mechanical-ringer phone; loud, but not at all musical. I don’t hear them hammering, though. Nests may be too far from the house.


19 posted on 04/10/2007 10:24:23 AM PDT by 19th LA Inf
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To: 19th LA Inf
I don’t hear them hammering, though.

This tree isn't far from out home so all of this pecking must have been done when we were out. This guy has attacked all sides of the tree which is going to have to come down now.

20 posted on 04/10/2007 11:06:37 AM PDT by armymarinemom (My sons freed Iraqi and Afghan Honor Roll students.)
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