[TN-Bird] More on the Controversy over the Ivory-billed Woodpecker
- From: <cpnichol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2005 10:31:14 -0400
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
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