FreeLists / birdky / [birdky] White ibis: a retraction

[BenYand@xxxxxx]

Well, this is very embarrassing.  I am so sorry for my report of a white 
ibis.  I now believe that report was an error on my part (an error which made 
me very happy for about 24 hours).  

Here's what I saw:  
Driving along I-24, I noticed a great egret flying toward the southeast 
across the road.  Not far behind it was a smaller, all-white bird which I 
absent-mindedly took to be a snowy/cattle egret.  (It was raining, there was 
a fair amount of traffic around me ...)  Just after the second bird crossed 
the Interstate, I happened to see its bill, and I did a double-take.  

The bird had a long, down-curved bill.  

The bird was just off the Interstate, to the left of the car at this point, 
and I stared out the driver's-side window at the bill for a full second, to 
be sure I was seeing it clearly.  I then had to pay too much attention to 
traffic to look again until the bird was behind me and too far away for 
details.  

The bird was strongly backlit during my look at it, but I did catch a flash 
of red, which I took to be the bird's legs.  The bill was too backlit for me 
to be sure about its color.  I was on the Texas coast 3-4 weeks ago, and the 
bird's size, leg color, and bill length, thickness, and curvature were 
identical to the white ibises I'd seen several times.

White bird, red legs, long down-curved bill.  White ibis, right?  

I have a more likely alternate explanation.  If you like mysteries, you might 
try to see if you can come up with the explanation before reading further.

Here's what I can't rule out:  
What if what I saw was a cattle egret carrying a stick for its nest, a stick 
that extended just the right length and shape to mimic the bill of an ibis?  
I did not notice the black wingtips of an ibis (but I wasn't concentrating on 
the wings, so that didn't bother me at the time), and now I don't trust my 
recall of the bird's neck length (I thought "ibis" at the time, but remember 
I had a short look and I was studying the bill).  

I spent over an hour looking at the birds at the Kuttawa heronry today, 
hoping to pick out a white ibis among all the cattle egrets carrying sticks 
to their nests.  Instead, I scratched white ibis off my trip list (and my 
Kentucky life list).

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof, and should require 
extraordinary caution before you humiliate yourself before your peers.  I 
hope you can find it in yourself to trust my future reports.  I should have 
been more cautious.  Sigh.

P.S.  If you spot a white ibis at Kuttawa, you'll make me a happy man.  As 
for me, I'm not reporting another rarity without a videotaped confession from 
the bird itself.

Ben Yandell
Louisville
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