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["Shane" <tshane@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Birders,


More information on the Ivory-billed Woodpecker from the news from Cornell Lab 
of Ornithology.


Shane Adams
East of Hamblen County
Morristown, TN. 37813

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Jennifer Smith 
To: LABOFONEWS-L 
Sent: Friday, May 19, 2006 4:06 PM
Subject: News from Cornell Lab of Ornithology


May 19, 2006

Ivory-bill Search Season Ends

The 2005-2006 search for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker has now drawn to a close 
in Arkansas. Search team leaders from the Lab of Ornithology and Audubon 
Arkansas, plus Recovery Team leaders from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service held 
a news conference Thursday to talk about the field season and what happens 
next. These were the main points from the conference: 

-  During this field season, the search team did not collect any additional 
confirmation of ivory-bills in the Big Woods. They are now fairly sure that 
there is not a pair of ivory-bills residing in the Bayou de View area of the 
Cache River National Wildlife Refuge, the area where there was a number of 
sightings in the 2004-2005 field season. They believe the bird spotted there in 
2004 is no longer frequenting the area. Because of this, managed access 
restrictions have been lifted--a move supported by the Lab.

-  Enough positive data have been gathered to warrant a continuation of the 
search for another field season in Arkansas. It's likely the effort will be 
scaled down somewhat, and rely heavily on volunteers to conduct the fieldwork. 
Remote time-lapse camera systems have been perfected and will also be used, 
along with autonomous recording units to capture sounds in the forest. Search 
efforts have already been expanded into other states, such as Texas, Louisiana, 
and South Carolina, overseen by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Lab staff 
will assist those searches with equipment and methodology. A small, mobile 
ivory-bill search team will also be formed to deploy to areas where promising 
encounters may occur.

-  During the field season just ended, there were four brief possible 
sightings, one by a volunteer, and three by members of the public. In each case 
they saw one field mark: an expanse of white on the trailing edge of the bird's 
wing as it was flying. No pictures were obtained.

-  On a number of occasions, searchers heard possible kent calls and double 
raps that are characteristic of the ivory-bill. Some of the double-raps were 
recorded on video camera sound tracks and are being analyzed now to confirm 
whether or not they match ivory-bill sounds. Although there were fewer visual 
encounters this season, there have been more occasions when people heard 
potential ivory-bill sounds.

-  This season, search teams covered 33,000 acres of forest searching for roost 
holes, nest holes, or signs of ivory-bill foraging. Combined with last year's 
effort, 72,000 acres have been searched. That amounts to 13 percent of the 
total habitat available in the Big Woods. The team has found 10 cavities that 
are the right size and shape for the ivory-bill and much too large for the 
Pileated Woodpecker. That is the number that researchers say they would expect 
to find for a bird as rare as the ivory-bill which requires a large amount of 
territory.


-  Both the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology 
stand behind the conclusion that the bird videotaped in the Cache River 
National Wildlife Refuge in February 2005 is indeed an Ivory-billed Woodpecker. 
It may take years of searching to find the bird or birds again. According to 
the leader of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker Recovery Team from the U.S. Fish & 
Wildlife Service, the agency is a "long way" from declaring that the ivory-bill 
is extinct.

- The Recovery Team has drafted a recovery plan for the ivory-bill for internal 
review, and it will be released for public comment toward the end of September. 
The search team from the Lab of Ornithology will have a final report on the 
findings of this past season later in the summer.

Certainly our deepest thanks go out to all the wonderful volunteers and 
professional full-time staff who joined us in the 2005-2006 search season--more 
than 100 of some of the best field biologists and birders in the nation. They 
were unfailingly eager, enthusiastic, and dedicated. Much good conservation 
work has been done by The Nature Conservancy, Audubon Arkansas, and others 
since news of the rediscovery. Welcome attention has been focused on saving the 
unique ecosystem of the Big Woods and the many birds and animals that inhabit 
its green corridors. We're still in high gear and still going to keep 
searching, using the most rigorous scientific methods, keeping an open mind, 
but being very cautious about our conclusions, as we have been so far.

We're deeply grateful for all the interest in and support for this project that 
you have shown. Stay tuned!

Your friends at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology