[mou] Jim and John Fitzpatrick give talk

[Laura Erickson]

Last night I went to the Carpenter Nature Center annual members and 
volunteers banquet.  The invited speaker, John Fitzpatrick, spoke about the 
Ivory-billed Woodpecker and his brother, Jim, who was one of the search 
team members who saw one of the reported birds, described his own 
sighting.  John showed the "Luneau" video--the whole part where they were 
approaching the bird, and then slowed it down (this footage, by the way, is 
out on DVD now) and also played a few of the recordings they are in the 
process of analyzing.  Some really are tantalizing--I can't think of 
anything else that could have made the "kent" calls except possibly a Blue 
Jay with an Arkansas accent--but to be honest, I really can't imagine one 
doing such a perfect imitation without having heard the real thing a 
LOT.  Blue Jay imitations seem, in my experience with them in the midwest, 
to be based on sounds that are heard frequently or involve some sort of 
extraordinary, maybe stress-producing, event.  I would love to hear 
anyone's recording of a non-captive Blue Jay (or even a captive Blue Jay?) 
making these "kent" calls.

John also played a few of the "double knocks."  One of those recordings 
included two sets of double knocks, one much louder than the other.  I'm 
not at all convinced that was two birds--I've heard Downy and Pileated 
drums that were louder, and then softer, as the bird changed orientation in 
the same tree, and since these recordings were from remotes, with no one 
seeing the birds producing the sounds, I can't be certain about this.

I can't wait till the AOU meeting in Santa Barbara at the end of the month, 
which I will be attending.  The search team is presenting four papers, with 
detailed analyses of the recordings, videos, and sight records.  It 
promises to be most enlightening.

Anyway, I've posted this on my blog today, along with some interesting 
links, one by a skeptic, and also how to get the DVD of the Luneau video.

http://www.birderblog.com/


Laura Erickson
Duluth, MN


www.birderblog.com

There is symbolic as well as actual beauty in the migration of 
birds.  There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of 
nature--the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter.

                                 --Rachel Carson