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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

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    Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates)

    The pre-Lewis image you are referring to - is that the Allen image from the 1920's?
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    Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates)

    The distinction between plumage anomalies and normal, molting birds is not merely semantic, it is a critical one, particularly when some are doing their best to imply that there is a "population" of abnormal pileateds in the Big Woods. I absolutely stand by what I wrote. As for the molting...
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    Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates)

    This is the last time I'm going to say this. No black pileateds with white secondaries have been reported, let alone documented, from the Big Woods. No pileateds with any plumage anomalies whatsoever have been documented on Bayou DeView. Believe what you like about the sightings. But there...
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    Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates)

    Ilya - Thank you for the clarification and my apologies for the misinterpretation.
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    Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates)

    Ilya - I am only interested in the model as one possibility among alternatives for making management decisions that take the ivory-bill into account. If you are actually suggesting that assuming a constant density of ivory-bills across grassland, forest, and residential areas is a more sound...
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    Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates)

    Ilya - Forgive me, but I hope you're not seriously suggesting that a better alternative is to simply start by assigning "low-density residential" the same relative density as "woody wetlands" and "grass-forb" the same relative density as "sawtimber," merely because the uncertainty in the model...
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    Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates)

    Indeed, clear imagery may already exist. But regardless, I firmly believe we will see some within the next 3 years.
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    Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates)

    Ilya - I appreciate your thoughtful remarks and suggestions. The Draft Recovery Plan should appear soon and we shall see what gets incorporated into it and in what form. I really don't have big concerns about efforts related to this species undermining conservation in general. I see the...
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    Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates)

    Ilya - Thank you. I quite agree that the model is based on some fairly wild guesses, I have already questioned the linearity assumption on snags, although the model is certainly also based on actual data from the 1930's, when I assume we agree that ivory-bills did occur at non-zero densities...
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    Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates)

    Ilya, how about you read the paper linked to above and tell us how they went about parameterizing the model? Then perhaps I will be led to believe that your question is a serious one and I am not wasting my time.
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    Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates)

    The LMVJV has already posted a habitat suitability model for the ivory-bill as well as many other birds. This model is built on historical information about the bird combined with a few very basic assumptions. The relationship between ivory-bill density and snag density, for example, is...
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    Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates)

    Agreed. A bit more general info on conservation easements can be found at: http://www.nature.org/aboutus/howwework/conservationmethods/privatelands/conservationeasements/ http://www.lta.org/conserve/options.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation_easement
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    Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates)

    To give just a limited idea of the carrots and sticks involved - It is easy for those of us who do not own large tracts of land to forget that this usually means large amounts of property tax. Land that is not producing revenue is usually consuming it. Many large tracts are leased to hunting...
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    Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates)

    You misunderstood me. I did not mean to suggest that new info from the rediscovery about the needs of the ivory-bill was being plugged into the management equation now. I meant that before, the managers largely ignored the ivory-bill and every other bottomland woodpecker. Since other...
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    Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates)

    Assuming that the ivory-bill will persist if we merely expand and restore potential habitat, a very tenuous assumption in my view, an achievable solution to the problem begins with a realistic understanding of the prevailing local ethos. Trying to apply a solution that is uninformed about local...
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    Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates)

    The habitat may be expansive but it is hardly untouched. Most of it is very touched. The vast majority of public land has been managed from a forestry perspective which is hostile to snags and old trees. Many areas have seen periodic clear-cutting to provide revenue. The relatively untouched...
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    Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates)

    Sidewinder - For what it’s worth, my analysis of the Nolin videos has not changed other than adding in the 2 new videos. I have calculated cumulative wingbeat rates based on charting wing positions, starting at the middle of the first downstroke, and estimating cumulative rates at frames 5, 10...
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    Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates)

    Russ - I appreciate your attempt to inject productiveness here but the fact is it doesn’t much matter what any of us think about the evidence up to this point. What matters is what the USFWS thinks and they have made their position pretty clear. Every serious searcher understands that clear...
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    Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates)

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    Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates)

    I'll name just one of many - Dr. Jerome Jackson. "Although we have no documentation, Malcolm and I both believe that the bird that responded to our tape was an ivory-billed woodpecker." - Jackson, 2004
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    Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates)

    Jane, you have an odd definition of faith. Taking someone seriously who you don't know requires zero faith in my book. All it requires is basic respect for a fellow human being. The question of whether you should accept their observations as valid is entirely another matter. I take everyone...
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    Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates)

    The dream that seems to be on life support is that a pileated can do what the Luneau bird is doing, flap its wings at 8.6 Hz for a full second. By my calculations Nolin's videos of flushed pileateds have produced one-second rates of 6.7, 7.1, and 7.2 Hz. His new videos both exhibit rates of...
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    Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates)

    It's not clear to me why the media seized upon this particular report. It is by no means the only public report of ivory-bills on Bayou DeView in the last few years. One of the gentlemen apparently attended a workshop on ivory-bill identification. Other than that it is not very different from...
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    Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates)

    In their "Questions and Answers for the 2006-2007 search season," the USFWS expresses my sentiments about the Luneau video well: "There is at this time one published critique of the Luneau video, with the explanation presented that the bird in the video is more likely a normal pileated...
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    Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates)

    In their analysis of the Luneau video, Lammertink et al. stated that the wedge-shaped black stripe down the center of the underwing is "highly variable among individual specimens." As yet there is only one clear photo of a living ivory-bill's open underwing. Many of the various artists'...
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