pcoin
Well-known member
But wait, there's more irony to be found...
Of course, the apparent contradictions are in line with the known behavior of 21st century IBWO. It seems that every population of Ivorybill is different from every other one and/or the birds studied when they were known to be extant. Now they don't flush for helicopters, but one did once for a plane, and you have to wear camo on the ground or they will flush and fly across the county; they don't call, but we hear them on ARU's; they are nomadic and wander widely, but they live only in remote areas and never wander into populated ones. Clearly the 21st century Ivory-bill is the Walt Whitman of birds, taking Song of Myself to heart:
Live long and prosper, Cornell. Long may your studies of Pileateds (err, Ivorybills) go on!
But wait just a minute, what about the famous sighting quoted by Matt Mendenhall in his 2005 article in Birder's World here:
5. Altamaha River Basin, Georgia, 1958
Observer: Ornithologist and forest ecologist Herbert Stoddard, who devoted the final years of his life to a study of bird kills at a north Florida television tower. Notable: Stoddard reported seeing the bird from a distance of 50 yards while he was flying in a small plane.
Seems like at least one Ivorybill in Georgia flushed for an aircraft. (Or perhaps the report was unreliable? Could that be?) Clearly, the Arkansas birds are different. Wait, it is Pileateds that don't flush--we know nothing about Ivorybills--that got lost in the Cornell press release somehow. Amazing, the Cornell Ivorybill team has morphed into the Cornell Pileated team. That is just a trifle ironic! And a wonderful feat of circular logic--we know the IBWO are there, but we don't observe them, so they must not flush. We verified this hypothesis by studying Pileateds, which aren't even very closely related to Ivorybills, but Pileateds don't flush frequently, verifying that our lack of observation of Ivorybills supports the idea of their presence. I think they just sprained their cerebral cortices with that logic. Ouch!Observer: Ornithologist and forest ecologist Herbert Stoddard, who devoted the final years of his life to a study of bird kills at a north Florida television tower. Notable: Stoddard reported seeing the bird from a distance of 50 yards while he was flying in a small plane.
Of course, the apparent contradictions are in line with the known behavior of 21st century IBWO. It seems that every population of Ivorybill is different from every other one and/or the birds studied when they were known to be extant. Now they don't flush for helicopters, but one did once for a plane, and you have to wear camo on the ground or they will flush and fly across the county; they don't call, but we hear them on ARU's; they are nomadic and wander widely, but they live only in remote areas and never wander into populated ones. Clearly the 21st century Ivory-bill is the Walt Whitman of birds, taking Song of Myself to heart:
Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)
Of course there are hidden populations--true believers can find them, just not any of those pointy-headed intellectual Ivy-league types. The Ivy Leaguers, however, are not just waiting.....waiting.....waiting.....; they are spending.....spending.....spending..... The end of the fiscal year is fast approaching, and that helicopter sure was good for burning the last bit of cash in the grant. Can't leave grant money unspent--that would violate the prime directive of academics.
Live long and prosper, Cornell. Long may your studies of Pileateds (err, Ivorybills) go on!
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