Curtis Croulet said:
As Martin has pointed out, Cornell shows an abnormal Pileated on their website. They've spent a lot of time looking at Pileateds.
AFAIK, there are no recordings of double-knocks and "kents" of any kind at the same time, and, AFAIK, there are no recordings of Ivory-bill "kents" and Blue-Jay "kents" at the same time. Gallagher said there's "no such thing as an audio 'smoking gun.'" Maybe not, but a recording of Ivory-bill "kents" and Blue Jay "kents" at the same time would come pretty close! If they had such recordings already, they probably would have them on the website now, since their value for defusing skepticism is obvious. Remember, though, the current search season isn't over.
The recorded kents and double-knocks are concentrated in areas where Ivory-bills have been seen. But the autonomous recording units are spread over a much larger area, not just in places where they saw the birds.
Edited to add: It's important to realize that there are thousands of hours of recordings. The recorders operate for a couple of hours in the morning and a couple of hours in the late afternoon, when the birds are deemed most likely to be calling. They use computers to isolate promising sounds, but it still takes a lot of time. It could be months before we know everything the ARUs have picked up this season.
Given the discussion about Tim Gallagher's talk at the SDNHM on Monday, I thought people might be interested in the talk I attended given by Bobby Harrison last night at the American Museum in NYC.
Much of the talk focused on the history of the demise of the IBWO and the searches that have taken place over the past 75 years (most of this was discussed at length in Grail Bird and other books on IBWO). Approximately 1/4 of the talk was dedicated to the science of documenting the species. Bobby is not at all discouraged by the Sibley et al. article. He did not speak at length concerning details of the Luneau video but said that the ongoing debate is part of the scientific process and he welcomes it. He argued that keeping the IBWO on the front page of newspapers is a good thing (either he didn't say why or I can't remember his rational). The most interesting part of the talk for me was the sound recordings. He played recordings of both kent calls and double-knocks made by Cornell's ARU's. He acknowledged that the blue jays make kent calls, but also suggested that these are typically intermingled with conventional blue jay calls. In addition, he showed the sonogram (but did not play) of a 26 second segment that contained three double knocks, two apparently made close to the ARU and the third distant to it. He did not provide any alternative explanation for the double-knocks.
Bobby also recalled his sightings of the IBWO. He has seen them twice, once with Tim Gallagher (the only sighting by two experienced birders at the same time) and another by himself in June of 2004 (or 2005?). He showed field notes from both occasions (the first were included in the supplementary online material of the original Science article). On both occasions his eyes were drawn to the white secondaries. He readily acknowledged that on neither occasion did he note the bill. Before the talk, as Bobby mingled about the gathering audience, one guy playfully waved in Bobby's face last Friday's New York Times article that described the challenge by Sibley et al. In response, Bobby smiled and said "We're really confident [in the sightings]". It is clear from hearing him speak (and talking with him) that there is NO DOUBT in Bobby Harrison that there are Ivory-billeds out there.
The mood in the room was light-hearted and not at all hostile (the questions afterward reflected this). Bobby is clearly a jovial fellow who does not appear to take life too seriously. He is extremely enthusiastic and is brimming with excitement about the ongoing searches. He indicated that no one wants a mug shot of the IBWO as badly as him and he believes that it will come eventually. He fully understands why people continue to doubt, afterall no one knows the history of IBWO woodpecker sightings and the skepticism that surrounds them better than Bobby (he is more or less the unofficial historian of the IBWO in North America).
Bobby did mention the video of the large woodpecker diving at his decoys (large wooden woodpeckers painted to match the color-patterning of an IBWO female). He also indicated that while white was evident on the wings the video was not conclusive. Interestingly, while much of the attention has shifted to the White River NWR, Bobby continues to spend much of his time in Bayou de View. He indicated that Bayou de View is narrow and should increase the chances of detecting a bird on the move. Furthermore, he suggested that this should also increase the chances of a fly-by IBWO seeing his decoys. In addition, he mentioned that he (or the team?) have three cameras that take pictures at four-second intervals of candidate roost holes in the morning and evening. Apparently, one of these cameras has recently been purchased for Bobby by a member of the Explorer's Club.
The questions following the talk did not challenge the sightings. There were two questions about IBWO in Cuba, one about other locations where IBWO may be in the south, one about blue jays, and one about the life expectancy of IBWO. The only question that seemed to at all question the sightings was asked in a unthreatening way. "Has the American Ornithological Union accepted these sightings?". Bobby said that they had not, but that they had been accepted by the Arkansas rare bird committee.
An important question that I have not seen discussed at any length is why aren't the double knocks considered to be more definitive than they apparently are. It is clear that other woodpeckers could inadvertently make a similar sound, but under what circumstances would three double knocks be made from two locations in a 26 second interval. Furthermore, as pointed out by Curtis Croulet, Tim Gallagher apparently presented evidence that the double knocks were concentrated in specific areas. In the absence of a photo or an unpixelated video confirming an IBWO in the Big Woods, the series of double knocks seem like a key piece of the puzzle. I am interested in alternative explanations.
Jonathan Flowers
Stony Brook, NY
