Just call me Thomas – Doubting Thomas

My first reaction to the news of the rediscovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker in the Big Woods of Arkansas was, “Sure, just like the ones that got away at Pearl River in Louisiana.”

Readers may remember that I predicted an ivory-billed no-show when the Great Louisiana Ivory-billed Expedition began. Researchers could not document the bird in Louisiana.

However, news of this sighting is a bit different. Cornell and others in charge of the Big Woods search sat on information for more than a year. According to reports, between February 2004 and February 2005, single ivory-billeds were seen at least eight separate times, many in the same vicinity. Four of the sightings were of males, the others of unknown gender.

And there are a couple of other significant differences. One is a sighting made by two experienced birders, one from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and one from a college in Alabama. The second is an “accidental” video clip from a camcorder left on in a kayak.

That clip was dissected for Cornell by an expert videographer and researchers say there is no doubt the bird in the video is an ivory-billed.

But, and you knew there would be a “but” didn’t you, for those of us who are dyed-in-the-wool skeptics there are questions begging for answers. The first, and one I emailed Cornell about but have received no answer, is about the video. I viewed the video online and there was no way I could discount it being a pileated woodpecker. Of course, I don’t have the videographer’s skill or equipment. My question is – if this video can be sliced and diced and enlarged to show definite proof of an ivory-billed, can’t those sliced and diced segments be reproduced in some format that would satisfy us doubting Thomases?

There are other questions. Where have four or five generations of ivory-billeds been for the last 60 years? I wouldn’t think you would have to be an ornithologist to know you had seen something special had you seen an ivory-billed. In fact a legislator from Tallulah discovered the last known population in Louisiana and a kayaker reported the Big Woods bird(s).

It is also curious that only single birds have been reported. All accounts I have seen regarding documented interactions with ivory-billeds note that they are quite pair-bonded – hardly ever seen alone and always calling back and forth and communicating with one another. This “lone bird” scenario is puzzling.

I also find it hard to believe that a coterie of experts with today’s technology could not come up with anything better than a “Bigfoot” video clip after a year of searching, especially with repeated sightings from the same area. When Jim Tanner, also of Cornell, went into the Singer Tract in Louisiana in the late 1930s and early 1940s, he found ivory-billeds.

Researchers are packing it in now. They plan to renew their efforts in November. The word is that with all the trees in the Big Woods leafed out, ivory-billeds would just be too hard to see. Now if you were looking for three-inch long treetop dwelling blackburnian warblers, I would say you might have a case. But we’re talking about woodpeckers the size of hawks. And we’re talking about woodpeckers the size of hawks that would be foraging with this year’s brood – so we’re talking about ivory-billeds in family groups banging on trees, looking for food and yelling at one another in the process. This might go unnoticed in the Bronx, but if you were in the woods and this spectacle passed within earshot you would know it.

So – Dear Cornell, I’m not John Kerry, but “send me.” I have a boat and a paddle and a camera. Just outfit me and pay me two months of ivory-billed experts’ going wages and I will go to the Big Woods and get you some photos of ivory-billeds – if there is such a thing.

Sincerely,
Doubting Thomas

(Don Hendershot can be reached at ddihen@earthlink.net)