Scenario For The Ivory-bill's Future (1 Viewer)

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gws

Guest

• May 12, 2005

• #21

Stuart Watson said:

Fantastic that the IBW`s haven`t dissapeared into the history books (yet), but the cartoons (although initially funny) do outline the potentially disasterous reality -i cant help but feel deeply sadened at the thought of such a magnificent bird fading out. I feel so helpless - the government must be ultimately held responsible for the future of this species. Rules , boundaries , laws should be brought in immediately - though even this i fear may worsen the situation.

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The thing to do is to expand habitat, connect the corridors in AR, LA, and Mississippi as much as possible, and hope. I would educate the hunter groups that their rights in the refuges will not be taken away, only that certain areas may be off-limits if a breeding roost is found. If a breeding site is found, I would hope EVERYBODY leaves the site alone.

 

Stuart Watson

Well-known member

• May 12, 2005

• #22

yeah - fair enough, but i was thinking along the lines that if you tell everyone that they are almost extinct and try to educate that they need peace and privacy then there is always going to be some sicko hunters who would love to have a `special` in their taxiderist throphy cabinet. Pretty grim view i know- but over here protected rare birds of prey are still being illegally poisoned and they do no harm to anyone. Look at Elephant / Tiger / Gorilla - the rarer they are the more money some hunting freak will pay to shoot one for their killed species tick list. Its a cruel world.
Poachers cant be stopped - but they can be punished strictly when they are caught. As it is now there is no `law` to discourage hunters or trappers from targeting IBWs and even if there was - some would still run the risk for the financial rewards. This is why i said Bush administration must do something , or at least threaten to do something. The species is there for the taking and ithink the best thing that couldve been done to save them was to let them be - but that is impossible now , because obviously word of the IBWs survival is too great news to be witheld from the birding world and inevitably will attract the wrong attention from many outlets.
I pray that they will recover in large numbers. I hope also that some day in the near future we are fortunate enough to have an insight to the private life and some quality film of IBWs in their natural habitat and maybe we will be better able to protect them as a result.
Congratulations to all who have witnessed this living legend - you are soooooooooooooooo lucky!

 

Last edited: May 13, 2005

choupique1

Well-known member

• May 12, 2005

• #23

any person that would shoot an ivory bill is no more a hunter than a guy that snatches a purse and runs away with it is a jogger or a track athlete. and quite honestly.... the talk has long been amongst hunters being more adamant about the IBW still being out there than you birders did.... think of most of the reliable reports since 1950.. who'd they come from... and there were an awful lot of them they were and never will be made public.....

the lord god bird survived in large part because of hunters not in spite of us!

 

choupique1

Well-known member

• May 12, 2005

• #24

gws.. and fang.. I just sent you a private message...

I think it may sum up what is going on in LA......

and it may also prove whether or not I know what I am talking about......

 

Stuart Watson

Well-known member

• May 13, 2005

• #25

sorry for being so negative guys - youre probably right, i have no knowledge of the subject - so i shouldnt even be commenting. It is amazing though that this bird lives on , like i say above - i hope i am lucky enough to see some footage of this bird -or even a nesting pair, and manage a small glimpse into their mysterious lives.

 

samuel walker

It's OK to be a little blue........

• May 13, 2005

• #26

Popularity will play a key role in the protection and effort toward the IBWP.Today the bird is hot news with even the non-birders.Bald eagles were close to being writen off several years ago mostly because of DDT.Public demand played a key factor in saving them and by happenstance the Peregrine falcon.I like to think that since President Clinton,Arkansas hasn't had much to brag about.This sighting has put them in the public eye. I'm trusting the powers in Little Rock will take actions as strong to husband this bird's habitat as California did with its condor.
Sam

 

choupique1

Well-known member

• May 13, 2005

• #27

hey GWS and fang.... if Birders start showing up in that area... it will be history....and all the effort will be for naught..... I have some pretty interesting pics from some private land which is not too far away......

Stuart.. do you know who probably killed more ivory bills that any man in history?

A nesting pair is obviously the target next.... the problem lies in the wariness of this bird.. it is rarely seen in the same area twice.... let 25 turkeys go in a state that doesn't have any yet has suitable habitat.. and you would NEVER see them... period... same wariness..

I like a lot of hunters here didn't realize the bird was thought to be extinct since the 99 sightings here...... I have been carrying a camera since..... 3 rock solid sightings.... no photo.... I will say this.. It is certainly something you don't forget....and being a duck hunter... well... let's just say it does fly a lot like a duck... but it more closely resembles a duck that a lot of hunters don't want to shoot than the pintail(a very much wanted duck) that some say it flies like.... at first i thought one was a hooded merganser... but thought it looked a little odd.. but the yellow eyes and white beak.. yeah clearly white.. were dead giveaways....

 

Kevin Mac

Just sleeping

• May 13, 2005

• #28

I always thought you hunted ducks on major flyways, not up on some out of the way channel or bayou.

 

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fangsheath

Well-known member

• May 13, 2005

• #29

I am hoping that mosquitoes, cottonmouths, and sheer muckity muck will dissuade the vast majority. (Thank goodness for all three!) But during high water at least, much of the floodplain is probably accessible by small boat. I am encouraged by the sheer size of White River NWR and the fact that the ivory-bills there probably have territories on the order of 10 square miles or more. A bird that is spooked by a power boat can fly a mile or two away and still probably be on familiar ground.

Have you seen trees that you were reasonably sure were stripped by ivory-bills?

 

choupique1

Well-known member

• May 13, 2005

• #30

yes i have

Kevin Mac where do you think those flyways end?

 

Strandman

Well-known member

• May 13, 2005

• #31

There's been no follow-up on the west nile virus point raised earlier, which I had been wondering about even before those posts. Are Pileated Wodpeckers (which I know are not as closely related to IBW as one might think) known to be prone to WNV?

 

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fangsheath

Well-known member

• May 13, 2005

• #32

Is there something to look for on stripped trees that you think points strongly to ivory-bills? (Message me if you don't want it advertised.)

 

choupique1

Well-known member

• May 13, 2005

• #33

several things.....

and ironically these things never(at least that i have not seen) appear in non-remote areas...

1. it is a dead tree that is still very hard..... the stripping leaves large chunks of bark and wood on the ground...

2. the tree damage is pretty impressive looks like it was shot with a shotgun.

3. there are always strips running down out of the major damage area....

i'll send you some pics we took recently

 

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fangsheath

Well-known member

• May 13, 2005

• #34

What about Luneau's photos (www.ibwo.org/search.html), do you think that's ivory-bill work or probably something else?

 

jurek

Well-known member

• May 13, 2005

• #35

fangsheath said:

Is there something to look for on stripped trees that you think points strongly to ivory-bills? (Message me if you don't want it advertised.)

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Just had a random idea. I wonder if somebody involved in ivorybill conservation may be interested?

I suppose size of "hits" on the tree should match woodpecker bill-tip size. This could be relatively certain way to tell ivory-bill from pileated marks.

It would need feedback from somebody in S. America where related big woodpeckers live.

 

Robert L Jarvis

Robert L Jarvis

• May 13, 2005

• #36

Do you mean in the states that you can't tell the difference between woodpeckers and ducks. Strewth it must be bloody dangerous when you lot are out in the hunting season. "" If it moves whack it""

 

G

gws

Guest

• May 13, 2005

• #37

fangsheath said:

What about Luneau's photos (www.ibwo.org/search.html), do you think that's ivory-bill work or probably something else?

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Just a guess, but I don't think IBW is doing the tree in the Luneau photo. It seems too close to the ground. IBW scaling is normally farther up the trunk.

 

Last edited: May 13, 2005

C

curunir

Well-known member

• May 13, 2005

• #38

Buck Fever

Robert L Jarvis said:

Do you mean in the states that you can't tell the difference between woodpeckers and ducks. Strewth it must be bloody dangerous when you lot are out in the hunting season. "" If it moves whack it""

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I think it's similar to buck fever. In Colorado a number of years ago, a hunter was convicted of manslaughter. He was sure he was shooting at a deer, the second in a group of deer crossing his sights. What he actually shot was a kid on a motocross bike. The mind can do really strange things.

 

choupique1

Well-known member

• May 13, 2005

• #39

robert nobody said we couldn't tell the difference.... only that it resembles..... big difference....

i would say david's photos are IBW scaling.....

oddly many sightings on trees have come CLOSE to the ground......


look at a hooded merganser.. look at an IBW... now... think about this if you have never been in a swamp.. the lighting isn't the best...

neither bird lets you get close....

 

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fangsheath

Well-known member

• May 13, 2005

• #40

There is little doubt in my mind that it is possible to develop diagnostics to distinguish ivory-bill scaling. It is by no means merely a matter of penetration depth. The microstructural patterns would be an almost certain giveaway, and there are probably macrostructural features that can be used as well. There may be chemical traces that are species-specific. Who knows? Now that CLO is on board that there are undeniably ivory-bill(s) out there, it is something that will be seriously looked at. Since it is far easier to find scaling than to find the birds, it seems likely to become a key means of surveying for new populations.

Everyone should save samples of suspicious bark stripping. Don't yank it off the tree, of course, but small fragments on the ground should be saved. And photograph as much as possible.