[TN-Bird] More on the Controversy over the Ivory-billed Woodpecker

From yesterday's New York Times:

July 24, 2005
Mystery Woodpecker Upends a Bird Lover's Life
By JAMES GORMAN
HUNTSVILLE, Ala., July 23 - In the church of birds, where passions run high and 
prophets emerge from swamps and thickets with revelations, nothing can ruin a 
reputation like admitting that you have seen an ivory-billed woodpecker.

Bobby Harrison, a large, gentle man with thinning hair and a soft Alabama 
drawl, knows this and can recite the casualties. Consider John V. Dennis, one 
of Mr. Harrison's heroes. He took the last accepted photograph of an ivory bill 
in Cuba in 1948. But when he testified to seeing one in the Big Thicket area of 
southeast Texas in 1966, he was ridiculed. 

Even worse, at a 1971 meeting of ornithologists, George H. Lowery Jr., head of 
the Louisiana State Museum of Natural Science, presented what he was convinced 
were photographs of an ivory bill, taken by an acquaintance he would not name 
at a location he would not specify.

"Look at what happened to him," Mr. Harrison said, sitting in his office here 
at Oakwood College, where he teaches photography. "He was just ostracized by 
the ornithological community for the rest of his life." 

Mr. Harrison is willing to take the risk. He has had a major part in the most 
recent report that the ivory bill lives and now, after a period of acceptance 
and celebration, some scientists and birders are questioning the strength of 
the evidence: a videotape of a bird and eyewitness accounts. What the critics 
want is an absolutely clear photograph and a bird that can be seen repeatedly 
by a variety of observers.

It is 17 months since the day - Feb. 27, 2004 - when he and Tim Gallagher of 
the Cornell Lab of Ornithology were paddling a canoe in the Cache River 
National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Arkansas, bumping into cypress trees and 
searching tall tupelos for some hint of an ivory bill. 

They were following up on the report of Gene Sparlin, a kayaker who had seen 
some sort of bird but was not sure what it was. "We knew what we were looking 
for," Mr. Harrison said. 

Then a bird appeared in the distance and he and Mr. Gallagher watched its 
flight, wondering what it was. "As soon as it broke over the bayou and tipped, 
I knew what it was," Mr. Harrison said.

When it flew over land, they tried to chase it through the swamp, running over 
the wet ground, carrying binoculars and notebooks.

Finally they stopped, he said, and he wept. Recalling the moment in an 
interview, he choked up again.

Like other birders, Mr. Harrison developed his passion early in life. He has 
been looking for an ivory bill since 1972, when he was 17. He is a particular 
species of birder; he has always had a single-minded dedication to one bird. It 
is no surprise that he picked the ivory bill. It was - or is - the largest 
American woodpecker and has long haunted the imaginations of birders because of 
its elegance and its disappearance.

He took a video of another ivory bill sighting, one that has not been widely 
released, that he has provided to the Cornell Lab. The video, played at normal 
speed, shows about a quarter-of-a-second glimpse of something fast flying by a 
tree where he had placed a decoy bird. Shown in slow motion after some 
technical manipulation to separate each frame, the video shows a black and 
white bird. 

This is not what he wants. He wants to get a photograph that nobody can argue 
with, the kind that does not need an expert to interpret it, so that the 
average person can clearly see the bird. 

He will be back in the swamp in Arkansas in August and this fall, and in other 
swamps after that. He knows he has seen the bird. "I've waited all my life for 
this," he said. "Still haven't got that photograph I want."

Mr. Harrison said he always called the people who had seen ivory bills "the 
chosen few." 

"And I was one of the chosen," he said. "It's a moment I waited for most of my 
adult life. And it happened. Never thought it would really happen."

The sighting that day was the beginning of a major - and secret - search, by a 
team of experts from the Cornell Lab and other groups. It culminated last April 
in a public announcement and a paper by a gaggle of experts in the June 3 issue 
of Science. The ivory-billed woodpecker, the group reported, was alive.

Unlike reports of past sightings, this one seemed so solid that it provoked 
only elation, a public sigh of relief and wonder. The re-discoverers floated on 
the almost palpable gratitude of birders and others who treated the news as a 
sign of hope.

Until now. 

Three scientists have a paper in the works at the Public Library of Science 
challenging the report in Science. No details have been released, but there are 
other signs of doubt.

David Allen Sibley, the prominent American birder and the author of popular 
field guides, said Thursday that he had concluded that in the Science paper, 
"the evidence they've presented falls short of proof."

Mr. Sibley said he decided this independently of the three scientists who wrote 
the rebuttal, although he had been in contact with them.

Kenn Kaufman, another major birding author, also said in an interview that he 
was not satisfied with the evidence. Although he said he believed the sighting 
was real, he did not think the re-discoverers had proved their case. 

Mr. Harrison said that he could not comment on an unpublished paper, but that 
he was confident in the finding, and welcomed a scientific discussion. 

"I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner," Mr. Harrison said. 

Nor do the critics question his integrity or that of Mr. Gallagher or of the 
other authors of the Science paper.

"The people who originally announced this thoroughly believe they got an 
ivory-billed woodpecker," said Mark B. Robbins of the University of Kansas, one 
of the three scientists preparing the challenge to the Science report. "They 
believe one thing, we believe another. This is how science plays out, the 
fabric of science getting at the truth."

Except that with the ivory bill, nothing is ever business as usual. Even when 
it was common, the bird had a certain majesty and mystery. For the last 50 
years it has been a symbol of loss, and of human failure. Most people were 
afraid to hope.

So the report in Science, reviewed by other researchers, with multiple 
sightings over the course of a year by respected observers, and a blurry 
videotape that was exhaustively analyzed, was greeted with almost religious 
fervor.

Mr. Kaufman described the initial reaction as: "The bird is back from the 
grave. Eureka! We're saved." 

Pete Dunne, vice president of the New Jersey Audubon Society and a prolific 
author on birds, said he was one of many who thought the ivory bill was gone 
for good. 

"If someone had said to me, what was more likely, the rediscovery of the 
ivory-billed woodpecker or the Second Coming, unhesitantly I would have gone to 
the latter."

He is now a firm believer. "The credentials of the people who saw this are 
stellar," he said. 

Usually, scientists and birders are skeptical. In fact, Mr. Kaufman said, "I've 
actually been shocked that virtually everyone has been embracing this."

He added, "I do in fact believe that there was a bird there last year, but it 
hasn't been proven and we could have a more honest discussion if people accept 
the fact that we don't have proof."

Mr. Sibley is unconvinced. At first, he, too, was elated, and went down to 
Arkansas for 10 days to look for the ivory bill without success.

It was only when he returned, he said, that he began to think critically about 
the Science report. "It's really crushing to come to the conclusion that it 
might not be true, that there is room for some reasonable doubt."

He has been reluctant to speak publicly about his doubts, and described 
doubters as being treated as "heretics" in online discussions. 

The reason he is speaking out now, he said, is that he worried that money might 
be diverted from other conservation efforts. 

What he said he wanted, for proof, was "redundancy. Repeated sightings by 
independent observers of birds really well seen."

This is what Mr. Harrison wants, more than anything. And he understands the 
skeptics, because he has been one. But this time, he and his colleagues are 
following in the long tradition of Mr. Dennis and the late Dr. Lowery. "I know 
the bird is there," he said.

************
Chuck Nicholson
Norris, TN


=================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER=====================

The TN-Bird Net requires you to sign your messages with
first and last name, city (town) and state abbreviation.
-----------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------
To post to this mailing list, simply send email to:
tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
----------------------------------------------------- 
To unsubscribe, send email to:
tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

  TN-Bird Net is owned by the Tennessee Ornithological Society 
       Neither the society(TOS) nor its moderator(s)
        endorse the views or opinions expressed
        by the members of this discussion group.
 
         Moderator: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN
                 wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
     Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society
          web site at http://www.tnbirds.org
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

    ========================================================

Other related posts: