[mou] FYI.. Ivory-Billed Woodpecker ??

[esteb02@frontiernet.net]

Chuck,

I regularly see them when sitting in my deer hunting near Floodwood, MN.
I have also seen them regularly in past years at Lebanon Regional Park
(Apple Valley/Eagan) and in the back wooded areas of the Minnesota Zoo.
They are fairly noisy when they pound, so it's not hard to locate them
if they are in the vicinity.

BTW, we have a pair exhibited in the Minnesota Trail (Interior) at the
Minnesota Zoo. They are non-releaseable due to injuries, but we are
trying to encourage them to breed. As far as we know, they have not
been successfully bred in captivity. They are very distructive to the
exhibit. They even manage to put holes into the concrete fake trees in
the exhibit!

Steve Estebo
Avian Zoologist
Minnesota Zoo

Quoting Chuck Cole <cncole@earthlink.net>:

> I just dropped in..  more of a wildlife photographer than a birder
> per se, but..
>
> I lived near Orlando FL until moving here in '86.  Ivory-Billed
> Woodpeckers lived in a tall tree in a city park (Kraft Azalea Park)
> on Lake Maitland.  I tried photographing them several times, but the
> only decent vantage point was on my small boat out in the lake,
> so I could not use my long lenses effectively.  I do/did have some
> crummy photos from about 1980, however.
>
> Recently was curious whether they are ever here, and found the notice
> that the Ivory-Billed has not been sighted anywhere since
> 1960.  I think the pileated has, however.  Called the park
> superintendent yesterday to inquire: he says he saw them yearly as
> recently as last year, but that storm damage has downed some of their
> trees and he hasn't had opportunity to look this year.
>
> I think these reports may be in error, because I saw the so-called
> extinct Florida Panther regularly c1984 and it was officially
> discovered "not extinct" a year or so later after some friends and I
> reported some easily verifiable sighting locations and times to
> the Game & Fish Department (FL equiv of DNR).
>
> I doubt the Ivory-Billed would be this far North, but is the pileated
> woodpecker seen around here?
>
> Chuck
>   Dakota County - AV
>