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Ivory-Billed Woodpecker Possibility (1 Viewer)

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Larry Lade said:
Information from The Audubon Society's "Encyclopedia of North American Birds" by John K. Terres states that the Ivory-billed Woodpecker makes (made) a sharp, plaintive, nuthatch like, single note, kent or pait, like tooting of a child's toy trumpet, sometimes this note is uttered in series, kent, kent-kent, kent.
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But what widowmaker describes is more likely to be the "kik-kik-kik-kik-kik-kik-kik" call of the Pileated wp, which seems to be similar to the Black wp's call. There are several sites where you can listen to recordings of all these species, the Cornell lab site has recordings of both the Pileated and the Ivorybill ... perhaps Widowmaker could let his father listen to these, just to be sure.
I personally feel the Ivorybill's call could be mistaken for some sort of duck's call - no joke, it really does have a somewhat duck-like quality.
 
I personally believe the bird that was seen was a Pileated Woodpecker. I just posted the above for information purposes.
 
My sister who lives a short distance from me here in Missouri recently returned from a couple of weeks in Florida. She knows I am a "bird watcher" but is not on the internet and is unaware of the discussion going on about the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. I gave her a call today on the telephone, sort of to welcome her back home and chat. I was very surprised when she informed me of an interesting occurance while they were in Florida. She and her husband stopped to have lunch in a certain "Huck Finn Restaurant" in Ocalla, Florida. As they entered the establishment they noticed a photograph of a bird with the caption of something like "No, the Ivory-billed Woodpecker is not extinct!". I have been "googling" to see if this photo could be made available or to get some more information about the photo. I have not been able to find anymore on the internet, except that there is a "Huck Finn Restaurant" in Ocalla, Florida. My sister retrieved an address from their receipt for their lunch, 3821 N.W. Blitchton Road, Ocalla, Florida, 34475. I may try to find their phone number and see what this is all about. I do not know if this is for real or some sort of hoax. Trevor, how far are you from Ocalla?

PS: I found this phone number for "Huck Finn's Restaurant" in Ocala (only one "l" in the town's name). 352-402-0776

I may call just to see what is going on!
 
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That's interesting ... well keep us posted here. But I'd be surpised if this is for real, wouldn't a serious birdwatcher rather go to the authorities with this?

My guess is that this is perhaps one of them fanatical "believers" - there are for example a good number of people who spend all of their time looking for not only the Ivorybill but also for example the Bigfoot that supposedly lives in the same swamps. This hunting for extinct and mythical species is called "Cryptozoology". It is all very amusing and exciting of course, and I personally do like those stories about Thylacines, Moas, Yeti's and so on... but I don't really believe them.

I wish that photograph you talk about would be for real. It would be great.
 
Hi Larry,interesting story and I'll be interested in your findings.
I'm about 70 miles from Ocala (you're now correct,1 L )which would be well within my range for an Ivory-billed!
Ocala National Forest is a well known site and if the IBW is in there,400,000 acres is a lot to search!
 
Cryptozoology is probably worth a bit of a google search if you're not familiar with it

For every Ivory-billed Woodpecker there is a few Gurney's Pittas, Black-breasted Pufflegs and Royal Cinclodes facing a similar fate that need support now.

Grousey, you'd better get down there to Ocala and find a couple!
 
Tim Allwood said:
For every Ivory-billed Woodpecker there is a few Gurney's Pittas, Black-breasted Pufflegs and Royal Cinclodes facing a similar fate that need support now.
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This is very true. And then it's about time a decision is made wether the Ivorybill is extinct or not.... OK, let me put it in a more gentle way: it's time for one last, thorough search, and then a final report on the status of this species. So that the threatened species you mention can get undivided attention.
 
I did call the lady in Florida about the alleged Ivory-billed Woodpecker. She was friendly but would not give me any pertinent information or make the photo available (she said if I saw the photo it would give away the location). She said it was not a hoax, she had seen more than one (as had some of her friends) and she was the one who took the photos. She said there were also some Pileated Woodpeckers in the same general area. In order to protect the birds and not have them disturbed she is not reporting them to any agency and not giving out any information as to their whereabouts, other than they were in Florida. So, from this I guess you can decide for yourselves whether this may be a viable sighting or not. I guess I will just wait and see if there are any further developments.
 
I'm trying to keep an open mind about this, but I can't help feeling that Larry's lady sounds as if she's a bit in the "I've been abducted by aliens" class. I know it's not necessarily watertight, but if the photos are good enough to ID the birds, the chances are very much against them showing enough to identify the precise locality.

Jason
 
Larry Lade said:
I did call the lady in Florida about the alleged Ivory-billed Woodpecker. She was friendly but would not give me any pertinent information or make the photo available (she said if I saw the photo it would give away the location). She said it was not a hoax, she had seen more than one (as had some of her friends) and she was the one who took the photos. She said there were also some Pileated Woodpeckers in the same general area. In order to protect the birds and not have them disturbed she is not reporting them to any agency and not giving out any information as to their whereabouts, other than they were in Florida. So, from this I guess you can decide for yourselves whether this may be a viable sighting or not. I guess I will just wait and see if there are any further developments.
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Dear Larry,

If there really are still Ivory-billed woodpeckers around overthere, then indeed that lady in Florida is right about keeping this a secret - after all I'm sure there's still poachers around who want to make a fistful of $ and even a few $ more by selling their skins to collectors...

So, she's keeping it a secret she says .... but this is what your sister and her husband saw upon entering that restaurant:

I quote : "As they entered the establishment they noticed a photograph of a bird with the caption of something like "No, the Ivory-billed Woodpecker is not extinct!"."

Is that what we call "keeping a secret" ? More like shouting it from the rooftops, no?

Personally I feel it's about time scientists said the final word in this matter. The Ivory-billed woodpecker is becoming a "joke", a "farce" really, while the least thing we humans could do is to study the available material while we still have it and write the history of this extinct species, kind of paying some respects for it.
 
I posted a rather long e-mail to Mark Robbins, chair of the American Birding Association Checklist Committee, detailing the "Florida Ivory-billed Woodpecker". He was less than enthusiastic about the alleged sighting. He stated that he believed the recent Louisiana sighting was contrived and that this report was also fictitious. I do have mixed emotions about the matter, but I am leaning heavily toward the "invented" sighting theory.
 
Good idea, that e-mail. So there we have the opinion of an expert, and it's interesting to hear that he thinks the Pearl River sighting (Louisiana) was contrived...

I really have wondered, ever since I got interested in the history of the Ivory-billed wp, why people still believe that it exists somewhere in the USA - R T Peterson in 1942 (!) was aware that there were less than five left, and he went to the Singer Tract to catch a glimpse of two females (possibly the last two birds of the US subspecies C. P. Principalis) and add them to his life list.
 
Karwin said:
It is one of those few birds I can daily observe from my yard. - I lived some years ago in Louisiana and the rarest pecker I spotted was Picoides borealis (see post 15 in http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=11254).
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You can daily observe Black woodpeckers ?? Wow ! You are so lucky !!! I know, Finland is a magnificent country, maybe the most beautiful in the EU, hope to see it one day.... Black woodpeckers, Snowy owls, maybe Great grey owls too... :bounce:


Cogratulations on seeing that Picoides borealis - the Red-cockaded woodpecker is quite rare and endangered.
 
Hey Karwinen, are you in Eastern Finland? Hauho Hauho, all I remember is the Leskinen song. I am from Turku, so these backwoods have sort of gotten fuzzy in my memory. ;) OK, found it between Tampere and Lahti, a road I never traveled.

And, did you write some articles for Amerikan Uutiset on nature? What was your "nimimerkki"? Charles Karwinen? Small world.

Have not seen pileated woodpecker..close to your black.. in Missouri, though I think I have heard it a few times.
 
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