Well as Mark Greene mentions apparently what I requested concerning unaccepting
the Ivory-billed Woodpeckers may actually have been done very, very, very
quietly during 2017 as mentioned in this intro on the Cornell NAB website now:
"Editor's Note (February 2017)—Since reported (and controversial) sightings of
the Ivory-billed Woodpecker in the Big Woods of northeastern Arkansas in 2004
(Science: June 2005), extensive efforts to locate this species in Arkansas,
Florida, and elsewhere have proven difficult, and no unequivocal evidence of
the species has emerged. This account will be updated in 2017 to reflect
developments."
It is interesting that I follow multiple state listservs pretty regularly
(usually Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio every single day) as well as numerous
Birding FB groups, as well as watching and reading quite a large quantity of
national news each and every day, that I never saw any announcement on this.
Last I had checked (probably less than two years ago) it was still listed as
factual on eBird. Considering all the hoopla and publicity entailed when the
records were accepted by the Arkansas State Records Committee, with Gale Norton
at the Interior Department announcement and even a presentation made at the
AOU. There was even an article in Audubon Magazine very recently reaffirming
the sightings totally factual. And Brainard was right, one of the guys from
Cornell that swore then he saw the bird, is also the same person announcing the
3 Billion less birds information on the Cornell Website.
Frank RenfrowFort Thomas, Kentucky
-----Original Message-----
From: Frank Renfrow <frankrenfrow@xxxxxxx>
To: birdky <birdky@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sun, Sep 22, 2019 8:14 pm
Subject: Ivory-billed Woodpecker eBird Cornell 3 billion less birds etc.
Since Brainard brought up the topic, I thought it might be a good time to ask
for thoughts from other birders. Isn't it about time eBird, Cornell, Arkansas
State Records Committee, the ABA, the AOU now AOS et al etc. admit there was
not really adequate evidence presented on the 21st Century Ivory-billed
Woodpecker reports for any of them to have been accepted? Isn't it about time
for them to move those records into the unaccepted records category?
Frank RenfrowFort Thomas, Kentucky
