The above cartoon was produced by an anonymous cartoonist.

Day-to-day log of the 2008 search season:

10-1-07. I'll have something new in my bag of tricks when I head south again next week. I'm as excited about bino-cam as I was about paddle-cam last year. It's a shame that I didn't come up with this idea a long time ago. When I got the video in the Pearl in February 2006, I kept the camera running in my right hand while trying to spot the bird through the binos using my left hand. I alternated between looking through the camera and the binos. Since the image is very small in the viewfinder, it was impossible to see the bird through the camera. When I was looking through the binos, the bird must have been hiding behind the branch on which it was perched. So I never saw the bird other than detecting motion. By aiming the camera and binos simultaneously with bino-cam, I probably would have gotten an incredible look at a perched ivorybill and much better footage. When I got the video in the Choctawhatchee in January 2007, I set paddle-cam on my lap, aimed it in the direction of the birds, and kept watch with binos. I got a good look at the dorsal side of a right wing when one of the birds flew to a different perch. I would have gotten good footage if I had been using bino-cam. I plan to continue using paddle-cam while in the kayak this search season. The intended application of bino-cam is tree-top observing. I will use the high-def camera with a 2X extender lens and the focus set to infinity. With this set-up, I won't have to decide between reaching for the binos and reaching for the camera, and I should be able to get good footage out to at least a few hundred meters if the light is good. After taking the photo of bino-cam, I modified the mount (which is marketed as Bino-Brac by Astronomy-Shoppe) so that the camera sits lower on the binos and is more securely mounted. I will line up the camera so that it sees the same field that is seen through the binos at maximum magnification.

10-2-07. I spent the day with a video analyst who has a Ph.D. from Princeton and is an editor of a journal that publishes papers in video analysis. This expert shares my belief that analyzing purported ivorybill videos is a problem not in ornithology but rather in video analysis. Having a strong background in geometry and physics (which are essential concepts in video analysis), he immediately recognized the significance of the underwing pattern, wing bowing, flap style, and wing aspect ratio that appear in the Pearl video. He's very interested in this problem and will be applying video analysis techniques to the data.

10-3-07. Knowing how birders love to gossip and look for inconsistencies, I thought it would be a good idea to comment on an e-mail that I recently received from one of the birders that I met in Florida. He claimed that he and others at the Bruce Creek camp weren't fully aware of my sighting in the Choctawhatchee until reading about it on my web page and that my story seems to have changed. I asked the birder who arrived at the scene minutes after the sighting what he remembers from that morning. He recalled that I reported seeing a pair of birds swooping around in the canopy and that I saw white secondaries on one of them through binoculars (that is exactly what I saw and reported). Since the other searcher immediately relayed this information to everyone with his radio (everyone but me had a radio), I was surprised to learn that others hadn't heard about the sighting. Later that day, I turned in a written report to the graduate student who was in charge of the camp. The next day, I went into town and mentioned that I was pretty sure about the sighting on my website. I worded it conservatively since only one field mark was seen, but I had little doubt that those birds were ivorybills as soon as I saw them swooping around in the canopy (there is nothing else like it). Any lingering doubts about that sighting went away when I discovered the video footage that was obtained during the encounter.

10-4-07. My friends Mike and Greg at work finished up the machine work on bino-cam, which is now ready to be put to work in the field.

10-5-07. My car is having problems, and they have to order one of the parts. So my return to the Pearl will be delayed for a week or so. I'm eager to get back down there, but it's nice to have a little extra time to prepare for being away from home for a long stretch. I will try to do some testing with bino-cam and get in some tree climbing practice.

10-10-07. I've been very busy trying to get ready for the trip back to the Pearl, but I did find some time to get out and do some testing with bino-cam. The modified Bino-Brac provides a sufficiently rigid and straight attachment that the camera is recording the same image that I'm seeing through the binos. So far, I have only tested it with the zoom set so that the magnification is the same through the binos and the camera. I plan to do more testing at full zoom and with the 2X extender lens on the camera. I will post some results after finishing the testing.

10-15-07. The part for the car arrived, but the repair shop botched the job. Before heading south, I'm going to have to get this resolved and then drive the car locally for a few days in order to make sure it's ready for the trip. I did some additional testing with bino-cam. I put the camera on full zoom in order to check the alignment of the camera with the binoculars. The results were very promising, as illustrated by these images of perched Mourning Doves and a flying Blue Jay (the images are slightly blurry since the focus set at 50 m and the birds were more distant). The images were reduced in size from the original high-def video frames.

10-16-07. The car is finally ready for the road. I'm planning to get underway tomorrow morning.

10-18-07. My car, which one of the visitors to the Pearl aptly named the Ivory-bill Bomb, just died near Mobile, Alabama. I was fortunate to be approaching an exit when ominous metallic noises started coming from under the hood. Considering all the long trips that I've taken in old cars, it's amazing that something like this hasn't happened to me before. The repair shop agrees with my assessment that the engine is blown. In accordance with several of Murphy's Laws, this had to happen after I waited around to have repairs done, installed new tires, and got nearly a thousand miles into the trip. I'm going to try to get a deal done on a new car in the morning.

10-19-07. I'm at the dealer picking up an '08 Honda Civic. It's a nice little car, but I hate to let go of my trusty old '78 Fairmont.

10-20-07. Besides getting settled in, I need to find a roof rack for carrying the kayak on the Honda. The weather is gorgeous, and the birds are very active. The Great Horned Owls, Bubba and Virginia, were calling this morning near the house in Waveland.

10-21-07. I wasn't able to locate a roof rack this weekend. I'll check the on-line options on Monday. I don't want to load the kayak on a brand-new car without a proper roof rack. I'm definitely missing the Ivory-bill Bomb, which would go just about anywhere with a kayak or canoe on the roof.

10-22-07. It's been raining all day. I have located a roof rack but won't be able to pick it up until tomorrow.

10-23-07. I have obtained a roof rack, but another obstacle has arisen. I seem to be getting sick and have an appointment with the doctor tomorrow morning. I hate to miss another day, especially since the weather is finally clearing up, but it's essential to watch your health when doing field work.

10-26-07. I finally made it out in the Pearl today. It was great to be back in the kayak. The weather was very nice, and there was lots of woodpecker activity. I saw an immature Red-headed Woodpecker in the interior of the Pearl. I usually only see this species on the edges of the Pearl and don't recall any previous sightings in the interior. Since Katrina hit more than two years ago, a huge branch had been hanging precariously from the top of a tree. I always wondered how it stayed up there. I noticed this morning that it finally fell sometime since I was last out there in July.

10-27-07. I decided to stay in today since I still have a sore throat that seems to be similar to the one that put me in the ER in April 2006. While back home in Virginia, I had a lot of catching up to do and little time for exercise. I got out of shape and don't have much stamina. The thought of paddling for several hours and then climbing a cypress seems very daunting right now. I'm going to have to gradually work myself back into field condition. If I were on a professional ivorybill searching team, I would probably be put on waivers for showing up at camp out of shape.

10-28-07. I visited an area further north in the Pearl. There's a ridge up there that I was hoping would have trees providing good views out over the swamp. There are some pines on the ridge that look promising. Pines are pitchy and brittle according to the experts, but I might give one of them a try.

10-29-07. Due to a busy day in the office, I didn't make it out in the field today. After the hike yesterday and the kayak ride on Friday, I feel like I'm starting to get back into shape. The thought of a trek deep into the Pearl seemed intimidating a few days ago, but I should be ready for one this week.

10-30-07. On the way out of Stennis last night, I was sad to see a Southern Fox Squirrel dead on the road. It was at the spot where I used to see one several months ago and may have been the same one. This specimen was 25 inches from the tip of the nose to the tip of the tail. I spent three hours in the kayak this morning. There was a great deal of woodpecker activity. Familiar landmarks from Katrina are gradually disappearing. An M-shaped branch that appears on the bank in the through-the-gap video has broken off. I found a spruce pine in a good location that has what appear to be strong branches more than 80 feet up. This tree should provide a great view over the hot zone, but I'll have to consult with the experts since pines aren't as safe as cypresses.

10-31-07. It's going to be another busy day in the office, but I'll try to get out for a while late this afternoon. I just started reading "Discovery: Great Moments in the Lives of Outstanding Naturalists," a wonderful book by John K. Terres that includes an account of Don Eckleberry's visit to the Singer Tract.

11-1-07. I took the climbing gear out to the pines and sized them up (there are actually two of them right next to each other). There are good-sized branches fairly high up, but it's not clear if they're high enough to see over the surrounding forest. I took more height data and photos, which I'll evaluate tomorrow. I'll also post some photos tomorrow, but I'm too exhausted right now. After checking out the pines, I kayaked up beyond the area where I broke my arm and saw two huge gators. I looked for tall trees hoping that we had overlooked one in June. There's a cypress that looks promising, but I'll have to evaluate the data tomorrow.

11-2-07. After checking out the pines yesterday, I visited a cypress that we rigged in June. I've never climbed that tree, which is miles to the north of the other trees that we rigged. On the day it was rigged, I didn't have an inclinometer for measuring heights (a laser range finder is also required). I measured it yesterday and was surprised to find that it's rigged at over 80 feet. The view is partially blocked by tall hardwoods in one direction, but it provides a good view in other directions. Since this tree is much easier to reach than the others, I'll give it a try in the near future. I didn't climb it yesterday since it was getting late when I arrived.

11-3-07. Yesterday was another busy day in the office. I didn't make it out in the field, but I did stop to marvel at Comet Holmes on the way out of Stennis late last night. It's easy to see and quite an unusual comet.

11-4-07. After another long day in the office yesterday, I arrived back in Waveland about midnight and found the door wide open and gang graffiti painted on the front of the house. They smashed the front door window with a brick and rummaged through everything inside. I don't leave valuables in that house, but I was concerned about my copy of John K. Terres' book that I was in the middle of reading. There apparently aren't any scholarly types in that gang. The piles of books were knocked over, but none of them were taken. I thought about taking a road trip but changed my mind after coming up with some plans for making the house secure.

11-5-07. Order has been restored. I repaired the damage to the house and painted over the graffiti. I also started cutting the weeds back in the yard. The birds like a weedy yard, but it's not good for an isolated house to have that vacant look.

11-6-07. Early this morning, I passed by the tallows and found them loaded with fruit, which probably isn't ripe yet. I spent the morning in Tree 6. It was my first time in that tree, which is the only one that we have rigged in the hardwood zone. I got up to about 78 feet, but the view isn't as good as it is in Tree 5 since the trees are taller in the hardwood zone. The view is pretty good in this direction but not as good this direction. A Wood Duck came from this direction and flew by within twenty feet. I could hear the wind whistling through its feathers.

11-7-07. I've had pain in the heal/arch area of my right foot for more than a month. It really flared up yesterday, probably as a result of lugging climbing gear. I'm going to let it rest for a day or two and will try to see a doctor to have it checked out.

11-8-07. I decided to let my foot rest for another day. I inserted pads into my shoes a few days ago, and that seems to be helping. I have an appointment to see a podiatrist next week. In the meantime, I will spend some time in the kayak.

11-9-07. I took care of some work at the house in Waveland and didn't make it out in the field.

11-10-07. I spent the morning finishing up some work at the house.

11-11-07. I took a kayak ride through the area where I recently saw two huge gators. On the way up the channel, I inadvertently paddled right over one of them, which thrashed violently and gave the kayak a hard blow with its tail. The loud sound of the impact gave me the impression that gators must be very bony just beneath the hide. At about the same spot on the way back, a gator thrashed a few feet away and gave me a good splash. Those encounters really got the adrenalin flowing.

11-12-07. Due to an upcoming conference, I'll be tied up in the office today and possibly one or two other days this week. Yesterday I noticed that someone cut two fallen trees that were blocking the waterway that goes to Tree 6. This will make it easier to get there by kayak. I have ordered a gear sled that will make it easier to get to Tree 5. The shortest route to that tree involves an hour walk through the swamp. When carrying the climbing gear, the extra weight causes my feet to sink much deeper into the mud, which turns the walk into a death march. I plan to spend more time in the tall trees now that it will be easier to get to them.

11-13-07. I received the gear sled and am very excited about it. It's lightweight, durable, and just the right size for a loaded backpack and climbing gear. The low-profile design should make it stable when going over rough terrain. I'm eager to try it out on the route to Tree 5 but may not have a chance until Friday. I'm going to the doctor to have my foot checked tomorrow, and it's looking like wind and rain on Thursday. The recent gator encounters got me to thinking about the possibility of being attacked. While growing up in Florida, the kids in the neighborhood spent nearly every hot summer day cooling off in the Hillsborough River. We knew there were gators, but we never worried about them since we were told that they don't attack people. As a matter of fact, there have been quite a few fatal attacks over the years. Most of them occurred in the summer months and were by gators greater than eight feet in length. The two gators that I saw a few weeks ago are in that category. I first saw one of them in the spring, and it made me feel nervous about kayaking through that area. Kayaking shouldn't be a problem with cooler weather coming, but I'm a bit concerned about stumbling upon a gator while wading through sloughs. Based on the encounter in the kayak the other day, it seems that a gator could easily break your leg with a tail whip.

11-14-07. I've been thinking about the sightings in the Pearl last year and looking for clues about ivorybill behavior. I found a hot zone, and the birds remained there for at least five days despite the fact that I flushed them several times. The bird in the video remained in the area for more than ten minutes after being flushed. Before flying away, it watched me from a distant vantage point in a tree. That bird was obviously reluctant to leave the area. One of the favorable aspects of that area is that it's relatively difficult to access by land or water. I've never seen anyone in there on foot, and fallen trees keep the boats out. The area is just above the cypress-tupelo zone in hardwood habitat that is surrounded by waterways. A few weeks before discovering the hot zone, I had my first sighting in an area that is similar to the hot zone with the exception that it's not as isolated. I staked out the area for a few days and saw a few small motorboats, and this activity probably caused the birds to move about a kilometer away to the hot zone. The hot zone encounters suggest that ivorybills prefer isolated areas and may remain in them for extended periods. There are probably many such areas in the Pearl that I have never visited and will never visit. To make matters worse, ivorybills can easily be missed even when they are nearby. My first sighting in the hot zone was of a bird that flushed from close range on the bank. It was on or near the ground behind vegetation, and I was drifting downstream. If it had not been close to the bank or if I had made any noise, I probably would have missed it. Late that afternoon, I returned to that spot and staked it out. After sitting there quietly for more than an hour, three kents came from point in the woods straight back from the spot where the bird flushed. It probably spent the day in that area, but that was all that I heard. I was fortunate that the birds were for some reason attracted to the riverbanks in the hot zone. If they had been away from the water, it's doubtful that I would have ever found them.

11-15-07. Yesterday afternoon I visited the doctor, who diagnosed the pain in my foot as plantar fasciitis. Gee, I wonder if this could be related to wearing inappropriate footwear? For years, I have preferred cheap sneakers for wet areas since they're lightweight and it doesn't matter if they get covered with mud. After seeing the doctor, I obtained a pair of canvas swamp boots that are lightweight but offer more support. I'm supposed to stay off my feet for a while, but that's not an option right now. I won't make it out today because of high winds, but I plan to go out tomorrow.

11-16-07. Gretchen and I spent some time in Tree 4. It was my first time up that tree, which provides excellent views. The view from above the trees is very different now that most of the tupelo leaves have fallen. This is what it looked like from Tree 2 back in July. A pileated flew by just as I was entering the crown. A Great Blue Heron was perched in a cypress about 300 meters away. A Great Egret was looking for something to eat down below. I tried out the gear sled and swamp boots, which both worked great. It sure helps to have proper gear. My right foot was feeling fine this morning, but now it's throbbing. I might have to take a few days off to let it recover, and that would probably be a good idea independent of my foot with the deer season opening. After finishing the climb, we found that the water had gone down and the boat was partially grounded, but we managed to get it out. On the way back, we checked out some tall trees that have come into view now that the leaves are down. One of them is near where we had sightings last fall and has a huge cavity.

11-17-07. I'm going to stay off my feet as much as possible this weekend in order to rest my foot. It was great to get back up in one of the tall trees yesterday. On the way up, it's always exciting to see trees in the distance gradually coming into view. When you finally get above the surrounding canopy, it's like popping up over the clouds and into the blue sky while flying. One of the highlights of the climb was seeing Tree 5 towering over the canopy a little over 400 meters away. It was my closest view of that spectacular tree from another tree.

11-18-07. Working with Richard Martin and Dalcio Dacol, I've been analyzing the high-pitched calls that I recorded in the Pearl last year. Dalcio heard similar calls in the Congaree and Richard recorded similar calls (along with kent-like calls) while working for Geoff Hill and Dan Mennill as a volunteer in the Choctawhatchee. The high-pitched calls sound similar to the Blue Jay bell call, but the sonogram is quite different from published sonograms of bell calls. We have made comparisons with sonograms of kent calls and found interesting similarities. After twice hearing these calls coming from the direction of an ivorybill (in one case, the movements of the source of the calls tracked the movements of an ivorybill), I suspected that it was a vocalization of the ivorybill. More than a week after recording the calls, I saw a Blue Jay in the same area making calls that matched the sonogram of the high-pitched calls, but Blue Jays are capable of matching sonograms and are known to imitate ivorybills. According to John William Hardy, who analyzed the recordings that John Dennis obtained in Texas, comparisons of Blue Jay and hawk calls "suggest that it is possible for the jay to produce a call so much like that of the woodpecker as to be uncertainly distinguishable using any known device for analysis."

11-19-07. I'm getting ready for a conference next week and didn't have time to get out of the office. I saw something interesting here at Stennis while walking to lunch. What appeared to be flying ants were dispersing from the base of a pine tree. It was fascinating to watch wave after wave of them drift away on a light breeze. I've been studying the flaps of the birds in the videos that I obtained in the Pearl and the Choctawhatchee and noticed something interesting in the hop across the fork. The right wing appears to snap in a whip-like fashion at the end of the downstroke, which is consistent with rapid flaps and wings that are long, thin, and flexible. The easiest way to study this effect is to download the movie and scroll through using the arrow keys on a Macintosh.

11-20-07. We're continuing to analyze the high-pitched calls and will be presenting a talk on them next week at an acoustics conference. In the sonogram of the high-pitched calls, there are two frequency components, which turn on and off at the same time. It's interesting that frequencies also turn on and off simultaneously in sonograms of kent calls from the 1930s. Blue Jay bell calls are much more complicated, with different frequencies turning on and off at different times. I'm not an expert in bioacoustics, but these data suggest that the ivorybill is an unskilled vocalist that can only do the equivalent of strumming a guitar without touching the frets, while the Blue Jay is a skilled vocalist that can play all of the chords.

11-21-07. I've been getting psyched up for a trip out to Tree 5 with the gear sled. Today isn't going to work out because my sore foot flared up again and there are storms predicted. I tested several of the putative kents that are posted at Dan Mennill's web page. In each case, the sonogram contains horizontal "claw mark" features (different frequencies turn on and off at about the same time). The recordings from the Singer Tract and the high-pitched calls that I recorded in the Pearl have the same property. Since Blue Jays are capable of producing the same effect, it's not a reliable way of discerning ivorybill vocalizations, but it's interesting that every putative ivorybill vocalization that I have tested has this property. During an encounter with a pair of ivorybills in the Choctawhatchee, I recorded horn-like notes that don't have this property. They were probably made by one of the deer that passed through the area during the encounter. I asked Dan Mennill about the claw marks. He pointed out that some lines disappear from the sonogram slightly earlier than others and that this may be due to the fact that some frequencies propagate through the forest more efficiently than others.

11-22-07. I have an exciting new result. It's not a photo or anything that dramatic. I'm going to save it for the talk next week. There are all kinds of Thanksgiving meals. While leaving Stennis to go to a friend's house in Slidell for dinner, I saw a Turkey Vulture feasting on a dead skunk on the side of the road.

11-23-07. I have decided to go ahead and comment on the new result that I mentioned yesterday, but I will wait until after the talk next week to post sonograms and other details. The evidence suggests that the calls that I recorded on February 20, 2006, are a call that Tanner described as a high-pitched kent that is given when ivorybills are disturbed. After hearing high-pitched calls during encounters on February 18 and 20, I was convinced that they came from an ivorybill since (a) the positions of the source of the calls coincided with the positions of an ivorybill on both days and (b) the calls started at key moments during the encounters. On February 20, the ivorybill moved about 200 meters after it flushed, and the source of the calls moved with it. During both encounters, the calls began at moments when the ivorybills were disturbed. On February 18, I closely approached an ivorybill that was calling from behind a fallen tree. Kents then started coming from another ivorybill in the trees on the opposite bank. After the second bird apparently noticed me near the other bird, it started making harsh scolding calls that were unlike anything I had ever heard. The high-pitched calls then began coming from the same direction. On February 20, the high-pitched calls began immediately after the ivorybill flushed. I didn't hear the high-pitched calls during previous encounters, but I may not have been regarded as a serious threat before the encounter on February 18 (it would have been better to quietly paddle to the opposite bank rather than getting so close to the bird). It's hard to imagine that I would have missed a Blue Jay during those encounters, especially on February 20 when the encounter lasted for more than ten minutes and I was on full alert keeping watch in the direction of the source of the calls. Ten days after recording the high-pitched calls, I obtained a Blue Jay recording in the same general area that had a similar sonogram (two dominant frequencies in each recording). I assumed that nothing could be determined by analyzing such simple sonograms and didn't take a closer look at them. That was a mistake. I recently noticed that both frequencies turn on and off at the same times in the February 20 calls. I then looked at calls from the Singer Tract, the Big Thicket (John Dennis' recording), and the Choctawhatchee and found that different frequencies (even when there are more than two) turn on and off at the same times (some of the weaker calls don't exactly fit this pattern, but this might just be a signal-to-noise issue). After taking a closer look at the March 2 recording, I noticed that the frequencies don't match those in the February 20 recording, the frequencies don't turn on and off at the same times, and there's a good match with a published sonogram of a Blue Jay bell call.

11-24-07. Storms are predicted for the next three days, and I need to finish preparing two talks for Tuesday. So I probably won't make it out into the swamp again until the middle of the week. I've been doing a lot of thinking about the data since I will be discussing it next week, and a couple of things have occurred to me. When the bird is perched in the fork in the Pearl video, there is a point when a small branch is visible across the left side of the head. The fact that this branch has a light-colored appearance is consistent with the side of the head being black. Geoff Hill recently pointed out that, in the same part of the video, the crest of the bird doesn't have the same appearance (long and curled forward) as in an earlier frame. This is apparently due to the crest being fluffed up as the bird became alarmed while watching me from the fork.

11-25-07. Driving into Stennis this morning, I saw a spectacular tom turkey and the first flock of robins of the season. Despite the weather predictions, it seems like a great overcast fall day to be in the field, but I have to finish preparing for the conference. On the day that I got the Pearl video, I was more excited about recording the high-pitched calls than getting the video footage. After all, when was the last time that a vocalization of a North American bird was recorded for the first time? Based on the sequence of events during the encounters, it seemed that the ivorybill had to be making those calls, but the similarity to the Blue Jay calls that I recorded ten days later was a fly in the ointment until I took a closer look at the sonograms. An expert in bioacoustics has now looked at them and agrees with my assessments.

11-26-07. After listening to many ivorybill calls and studying their sonograms, I get the impression of sound radiating from a vibrating solid object (such as a tin horn). Looking at the massive bills of the birds in the this photo, I can't help but wonder if the bill plays a role in ivorybill vocalizations.

11-27-07. I used to regularly attend conferences of the Acoustical Society of America but hadn't been to many of them in recent years. After hearing that the fall meeting was going to be in New Orleans this year, I decided to submit a paper on the high-pitched calls that I recorded in the Pearl. Although the conference itself wasn't very exciting, submitting the paper turned out to be more than worthwhile because I made important discoveries in the data while preparing the talk and met some contacts that work in bioacoustics. Now that the conference is behind me, I will try to get back out in the field despite the fact that my foot is still giving me problems.

11-28-07. Spending time on my feet at the conference caused my foot problem to flare up. I will take it easy today and try to get out in the kayak tomorrow. While preparing the talk on the calls that I recorded in the Pearl, I also spent some time thinking about the flight of the ivorybill. The literature mentions duck-like flaps in level flight and swoops from tall trees. I'm not aware of anything else that exists in the literature on this topic. Nor does there seem to be an explanation of the swooping behavior in the literature. When I first read about the swooping behavior, it seemed that writers were trying to give the impression that ivorybills do this because they are graceful. That isn't the reason at all. Since the ivorybill is a massive bird with long and thin wings, take-offs are much more difficult for it than for the pileated. There are only two choices: (a) swoop downward and use gravity to accelerate or (b) take off in level flight and use vigorous and rapid flaps to accelerate and maintain altitude. I have obtained three video clips that illustrate vigorous and rapid flaps during take-off, two in the Pearl and one in the Choctawhatchee, where I also obtained a video clip of an ivorybill swooping downward and then starting to level off after gaining sufficient speed to maintain altitude.

11-29-07. I have updated the discussion of the high-pitched calls here. I will post sonograms later. I went for a kayak ride with a friend who is visiting from Washington and showed him the hot zone. I used the old kayak, which is still useful despite being a bit leaky.

11-30-07. I'm getting caught up with things that I set aside while preparing for the conference. I didn't make it out today but will try to get out at least once over the weekend.

12-1-07. After studying the flaps of the birds in my Pearl and Choctawhatchee videos, Michael DiGiorgio created a series of images that have been combined to produce a movie that simulates the flaps of an ivorybill just after take-off. This movie is posted at my Pearl video web page, which I spent some time updating this weekend.

12-2-07. I had a possible sighting in Mississippi this morning. The bird flew into an open area and then rapidly dove down and turned back into the woods. There was white in the right places on long and thin wings. This was near the edge of the Stennis buffer zone in an area with a mixture of pines, hardwoods, and cypresses.

12-3-07. I have identified an area that has much in common with the old hot zone, including being secluded. I was planning to visit the area today but decided to wait for the gusting winds to die down. After working late last night, I walked out of the building in the dark and saw quite a sight after sitting down in the car and turning on the headlights. An impressive buck was lying right in front of the car. It never moved as I slowly backed out of the parking spot. Near the location where I had the possible sighting, there's a stand of dead trees, which is one of many that are within a short ivorybill flight of the Pearl. If the ivorybills are concentrating on this widely scattered food source, it will be almost impossible to have anything other than the occasional sporadic sighting.

12-4-07. It's a beautiful day, but I've decided to wait until Thursday before getting back out in the field. The podiatrist instructed me to stay off my feet as much as possible for three weeks. That period will be over tomorrow, when I am scheduled to see him again. After going outside at lunch time, I could no longer resist the urge to get back out in the kayak. I visited the promising area that I mentioned yesterday. This area has more woodpecker activity than the old hot zone, the habitat is similar, and it's even more secluded. I found this cypress, which might be just tall enough at 80 feet to provide a good view over the surrounding area. I was surprised to see a water moccasin sunning on a fallen tree this late in the fall.

12-5-07. The doctor checked out my foot checked today. The good news is that it seems to be getting better. The bad news is that I'm supposed to continue to limit my activities for another month. I can't afford to just sit around with my foot propped up, but I'll try to go a little easier than I did before the problem arose.

12-6-07. I have recently been exploring this secluded waterway, which reminds me a lot of the hot zone. Since it's just a short flight from the hot zone, it seems likely that the ivorybills have visited it over the years. Hopefully they will visit this area or the hot zone again soon. This morning, I found this nice little plant community at the end of a fallen tree that hangs out over the water. The high-pitched calls that I recorded in the Pearl last year are featured near the end of today's Nature Podcast.

12-7-07. I'll be tied up in the office most of the day but might get out late in the afternoon. I visited the tallow trees yesterday and found them loaded with fruit (popcorn as the locals call it), but there still aren't any birds feeding on them. Last year, many woodpeckers and other species were seen feeding in the tallows in late December and early January, and an ivorybill was seen in the area on December 20.

12-8-07. There's something that I love about a foggy morning in the swamp. I was eager to get an early start this morning after looking out and seeing the fog. It was interesting to watch a pileated foraging near the top of a living sweetgum. In a 1974 letter to J. W. Hardy (who analyzed John Dennis' 1968 recording from Texas), James Tanner asked, "What was the bird doing in the same habitat with a Pine Warbler?" I often see and hear Pine Warblers along the waterway in the Pearl where I had several sightings and obtained video. I have also seen ivorybills flush from the ground several times, which Dennis also reported but Tanner regarded as "very unusual for an ivorybill, very unusual." It's a shame that the conservation of the ivorybill was set back for decades based on the word of a graduate student, who only studied a few ivorybills at one site and under limited conditions. I recently learned that many of Tanner's claims were questioned in the report of an independent (of Tanner) study in the Singer Tract during the early 1940s, which for some reason has been ignored.

12-9-07. I visited the hot zone with a birder from Illinois. We noticed that someone has been making trails using a chainsaw. It's unfortunate to see such illegal activities in an area with a critically endangered species. It's interesting how many of the trees that came down during Katrina and landed in the water look like this one. Notice that long branches go deep into the water and prop the tree up above the water while most of the branches on the other side of the tree are small. This may be entirely due to the fact that branches tend to be longer on the open side of a tree that faces the water, but another possible factor is that a tree might tend to rotate while falling so that the side with the largest branches leads the way.

12-10-07. I decided to stay in today and let the visitors from Illinois be my eyes and ears in the field. They visited the area that I recently started watching closely, saw lots of woodpeckers, and agreed with my assessment that the habitat looks promising. A visitor from Georgia reminded me that he heard high-pitched calls in the Pearl earlier this year. You have to be careful about these calls since the Blue Jay bell call is similar, but he caught a glimpse of a large bird just before the calls started. If you hear something that sounds like bell calls and there's no sign of a Blue Jay, I would recommend firing up the video camera and switching over to full-alert status.

12-11-07. I'm going to be tied up in the office for the next day or two. I asked the birder who heard the high-pitched calls for more details. The date was January 31, 2007. The location was a short distance from the hot zone but on a different waterway. After hearing the calls for several minutes, a large bird that appeared to be a woodpecker flew from the direction of the calls and disappeared behind trees. There were no more calls after that, and the bird was not seen again. Another birder was visiting from Idaho during that period, and he heard kents on February 5, 2007, near the area where I had my first sighting on February 2, 2006. That location, the hot zone, and the location where the birder from Georgia heard the high-pitched calls form a nearly equilateral triangle with sides a little less than a kilometer. Not far from there is an area that I have dubbed the Bermuda Triangle, where I broke my arm, capsized the kayak, had a close encounter with a gator, and nearly stepped on a water moccasin.

12-12-07. I'm stuck in the office again today. In the near future, I'm planning to climb the tree in the center of this photo. While studying the photo and trying to get an idea if it might be a good observation platform, I noticed that the crown is shaped somewhat like the head of an ivorybill looking to the left.

12-13-07. It was raining this morning, and then I got tied up in the office this afternoon. So I won't make it out into the swamp today. Last night, I heard a few details about a sighting in the Pearl several years ago. The observer is a scientist and a hunter, and it's hard to ignore a report from someone with that combination of interests. I will get the details as soon as possible.

12-14-07. I'm still tied up in the office, but we have a trip out to the tall trees planned for this weekend if the weather permits. The top of the tallest tree in the swamp is not the place you want to be when a thunderstorm hits.

12-15-07. Gretchen and I rigged Tree 7, which is in the area that I recently started monitoring. After noticing several wasps, we decided to stop climbing a little lower than planned. The view is marginal from that height, but it should be pretty good at the top. It was very windy up there, and the tree was swaying despite being a very sturdy cypress.

12-16-07. After slogging through the swamp yesterday, my foot is now throbbing again. It looks like I'm going to be restricted to the kayak for a while. I'll have to let my foot recover for a few days before getting back out there. It had never occurred to me before, but the video of the bird flying to the left in the Pearl is apparently the first footage to be obtained of an ivorybill in level flight. I don't believe there is any such footage from the Singer Tract.

12-17-07. One of my friends has a poster-sized copy of a high-quality photo of the Pearl. There's no legend on the photo, but it's clearly not the visible spectrum. Different tree species show up in different colors, and cypresses really stand out from other species. Individual trees are resolved, and several of the cypresses that we have climbed show up in the photo. The mother of all cypress groves is lined up in a row that runs for a few miles through the most remote part of the Wildlife Management Area. I've seen part of this grove from Tree 5, but I hadn't realized the extent of it. It seems to be an ideal location for a roost, and Tree 5 provides an excellent lookout point for monitoring birds flying between that grove and the hardwoods. I forgot to mention something about the tree that we climbed a few days ago. On the way up, I noticed a large cavity that was under construction. The chisel marks appeared to be about twice as wide as typical pileated chisel marks. This is one of the trees that stands out in the photo. It's one of the few large cypresses in that area. I didn't measure the chisel marks since I wasn't expecting to find them and didn't carry anything up the tree for measuring (including reading glasses). It's nice to be able to inspect cavities from up close.

12-18-07. I'm going to be tied up in the office for a few days, but I will try to spend some time in the kayak. While studying the photo of the Pearl, I found the cypress that I saw an ivorybill swoop up into on October 21, 2006. It's the most prominent tree in that area. I would like to hike along the full length of the cypress grove and check for cavities, but my foot might suffer permanent damage if I try it now.

12-19-07. A local birder (who wishes to remain anonymous) reported seeing a female ivorybill in the pines a little over a mile to the north of where I had a possible sighting a few weeks ago. There are many stands of dead pines in that area. The sighting was in late June, which is consistent with Stoddard's observations of ivorybills in pine forests during the summer and fall. A friend saw a raccoon with a large can stuck on its head yesterday here at Stennis. The poor animal must have found a little food left in the bottom of the can. The can was stuck on fairly tight and completely covered the raccoon's head, but my friend was able to pull it off.

12-20-07. I visited the area of the June sighting. The habitat is poor in that area, but the bird was flying from a direction where there are lots of dead trees. One of these days, I need to take a flight over the pines in and around Stennis and look for large stands of dead trees. Searching in the pines doesn't seem promising, but a look from the air might provide some ideas. I got the idea for climbing cypresses while crossing the I-10 bridge at the Louisiana-Mississippi border. At first, I wished that I could stop on the bridge and watch from there, but then I saw several cypresses towering over the surrounding trees.

12-21-07. It was one of those foggy mornings that I love to spend in the Pearl, but I was tied up in the office again. This fall, I missed a lot of days in the field due to a bad foot and a heavy work load in the office. Winter begins tomorrow, and I will be picking up the pace over the next several weeks whether my foot cooperates or not.

12-22-07. I have temporarily removed the Pearl video data from my website while preparing this material for submission to a scientific journal. I have not yet decided where to submit, but there are several options. This is one of the things that has kept me busy for the past several weeks. I believe there is a good chance of obtaining additional data, but nothing can be taken for granted. So it is important to publish the data that I already have while continuing to try to obtain better data. Once I get a paper submitted, I will have more time for searching.

12-23-07. I visited the tallow trees yesterday afternoon. They're loaded with food, but I still haven't seen any birds in them. They must be late this year. Unless a big truck is passing, I always look out over the Pearl from the I-10 bridge, which provides a spectacular view that only lasts for a few seconds at highway speeds. Now that I know the location of the big grove of cypresses, I looked out in that direction and spotted some huge trees. A few of them appear to be taller than Tree 5. I'm really excited about the cypress grove. Last year, I heard a series of loud pounding sounds coming from that grove. It was the only time that I have heard anything that I would attribute to an Ivory-billed Woodpecker working on a cavity or foraging. I haven't done much searching for cavities in the Pearl, but now I have a good place to look. Most of the large cavities in the Choctawhatchee were found in cypresses.

12-24-07. I visited the pine forest near the northeast corner of Stennis. People rarely visit that area, which often has lots of birds. There were lots of sparrows and robins, but the only woodpecker was a pileated. I went for a walk on even terrain, and my foot held up fairly well.

12-25-07. I was planning to spend some time in the kayak this morning, but it was raining.

12-26-07. I took a long kayak ride this morning and visited the hot zone and the Bermuda Triangle (the area where I've had several mishaps). I heard loud pounding noises in the woods, but it seemed to be someone using a hammer. Right after that, I heard something with loud wingbeats fly across behind me (like in the cartoon at the top of the page). I doubt that it was an ivorybill, but I'll get the footage off the camera later on and see if it picked up the sound of the wingbeats. I have obtained a new toy. This precision compass will allow me to pin down the locations of tall trees and also to measure distances in situations when there is no line of sight (e.g., the distance between where the ivorybill flushed and the fork deep in the woods where it appears in the video). I checked the video footage and was surprised that the sound of the wingbeats wasn't picked up by the high-def camera, which has pretty good audio. This may have been due to the fact that the sound came from behind and the microphone is on the front of the camera. It's also possible that I was in the middle of a paddle stroke.

12-27-07. On the way back to Waveland last night, I observed an interesting effect in the sky. A thick layer of clouds was moving in from the east with a sharp front that gave the impression of a retractable dome covering a baseball stadium. The cloud layer was so thick that it completely blocked the light of the Moon, which had just disappeared behind by the front. The interesting effect was that the clear sky ahead of the front appeared blue. I don't believe I had ever seen blueness in the night sky before. In this case, the blueness (caused by scattered moonlight) was easy to see with the direct light of the Moon being completely blocked. This is somewhat analogous to the solar corona being visible during an eclipse. The blueness of the sky was obvious beside the contrasting deep black of the clouds. If the weather permits, I plan to visit the hot zone later this afternoon to take some measurements using the new compass.

12-28-07. I didn't make it out yesterday afternoon. Since storms are predicted for the next few days, I will probably stay in the office and get some work done. I have some ideas for checking out the cypress grove and hope to try them out in the next few weeks. The timing will depend on when I can get help from visitors and a boat ride to a convenient access point.

12-29-07. I visited the hot zone to take some measurements. I love the new Suunto KB-14 compass. It gives precise readings, which I double checked for consistency. I used the compass and the laser rangefinder to determine that the distance between the snag from which the bird flushed and the fork in which it appeared near the end of the video is 218 m. I also determined that the fork is about 77 m deep in the woods and that the bird initially flew about 60 m to the position where it appeared through a gap in the vegetation. The distance between the position where I obtained the video and the fork is 128 m. I previously estimated some of these distances by GPS, which didn't provide the accuracy that I expected (perhaps due to tree cover).

12-30-07. A thunderstorm that started last night continued until well after sunrise this morning. The duration was unusual, especially for this time of year. I'm considering a kayak trip to the tall trees tomorrow, but I might change plans since currents can be formidable along that route after a winter storm.

12-31-07. Something came up in the office that I had to take care of this morning. So I changed my plans to make the trip out to the tall trees and visited the pines south of Stennis. There wasn't the slightest ripple on this pond, which is near the spot where a biologist saw an ivorybill in 2002. The photo may seem confusing unless studied carefully.

1-1-08. It was too windy for kayaking or tree climbing. I'll take the day off and watch a little football with a friend in Slidell. I'll check the tallows on the way over there. It seems that the fruit should be ripe by now. I passed by the tallows. A few passerines were feeding in them but there are still no woodpeckers.

1-2-08. I visited the tallows twice today, but there still wasn't any activity. I decided not to go out in the kayak since it was cold and windy. It's supposed to be even colder tomorrow, but it'll be fine if the wind dies down.

1-3-08. It was still windy this morning, and the temperature got down to the low 20s. Since any kind of kayak incident could be serious in such weather, I decided to stay off the water again. I did some exploring in pine forest at Stennis that borders on the swamp near one of the trees that we have rigged. That area seems promising since it's closed to the public, isolated from human activities, and not too far from the hot zone.

1-4-08. I visited the Honey Island Swamp to check out an area where a local birder heard something similar to the sequence of taps in the Singer Tract recording. What made this report really intriguing is that a pileated flew in during the tapping and gave territorial calls. Pileateds here in the Pearl are a lot smarter than many humans in that they know that ivorybills exist, and they can get feisty when ivorybills encroach on their territories. On February 16, 2006, I heard three kents that were immediately followed by stern territorial calls from a pileated. I saw a Red-headed Woodpecker, which is rarely seen in the interior of the Pearl. The weather is finally warming up after the bitter cold spell. I had an interesting experience at a store in Waveland last night. I returned an item and had to show identification to a guy named Jack. He looked at my Virginia driver's license and said, "Hey, you're the bird man. I've been to your website." I was kind of taken aback because I didn't realize that anyone in Waveland besides my next-door neighbors was aware of my work in the Pearl. Jack was friendly but seemed to be a bit of a skeptic. In case you're reading this, Jack, I'm going to expect you to buy me a beer after I'm proved right.

1-5-08. I spent the morning in the kayak. It was warm enough to go without a jacket. I thought about going up one of the trees, but it was too windy.

1-6-08. I did some exploring near the Mississippi coast this morning and noticed birds (including woodpeckers) feeding on the tallows there. Since the foot problem flared up again, I decided to spend the rest of the day getting caught up on things in the office.

1-7-08. I only had time for a short visit to the area south of Stennis today. I took a photo that explains the photo that I posted on December 31. The explanation is posted here.

1-8-8. I might not get a chance to go out in the kayak today, but I have some interesting comments to pass along from a naturalist who saw an ivorybill in South Carolina many years ago. A timberman in that state told him an interesting tidbit about his observations of this species. After an ivorybill flushes, it will "sometimes reappear at some distance by steeply swooping up a tree parallel to the trunk." That is exactly what can be seen in the video that I obtained in Florida. About eight seconds after the bird flew to the right from behind a tree, a bird (perhaps the same one) swooped up very steeply and parallel to the trunk of a tree off to the right.

1-9-8. I took a nice kayak ride into the hot zone this morning. There was lots of bird activity, including an unusual number of swallows. A few months ago, I was given a copy of Richard Pough's report from the Singer Tract. I was asked not to circulate this important and rare source of first-hand information. Although copies have started circulating, I will continue to honor the request but will mention something interesting in the report that provides insight into the difficulty of finding ivorybills. During 46 days of intensive field work, Pough observed a lone ivorybill (perhaps the same bird that Eckleberry observed later in 1944) that spent most of its time in an area on the order of a quarter of a square mile. In river basins such as the Pearl and the Choctawhatchee, there are hundreds of parcels of that size where ivorybills could easily remain undetected for long periods.

1-10-08. With severe storms predicted, I decided to stay in the office today. Nice weather is predicted for tomorrow, and we're planning a trip out to the tall trees. Now that the leaves are down, the tree nearest the large grove of cypresses should provide a good view of those trees. I'm looking forward to using the precision compass to start taking data on the locations of the taller trees in the grove. Combined with the image that shows the crowns of individual trees, it should be possible to pin down locations without range information (the laser rangefinder doesn't work at such distances).

1-11-08. The tree climb has been postponed until tomorrow. This afternoon, I visited the tallows near where there was a sighting a little over a year ago, but there's still no feeding activity in those trees. Later on, I found a pileated feasting in a tallow at Stennis.

1-12-08. Gretchen and Tasha joined me for a gorgeous morning in the swamp. We climbed Tree 2, which is back in this bayou. Lots of birds flew by this morning, including vultures, a kestrel, a flock of blackbirds, a heron, and cormorants. We heard lots of woodpeckers and a Barred Owl from the top of the tree. An Osprey can be seen in the foreground of this photo of Tree 5. I used the precision compass from up in a tree for the first time and got the bearings of several trees and landmarks. We discovered a convenient practical use for the compass; after I determined the bearing of Tree 5, it was easy for Gretchen and Tasha to use the compass to make sure they were looking at the right tree. Now that the leaves have fallen from trees in the foreground, many trees in the large grove of cypresses can be seen from Tree 2, and some of them appear to be over 90 feet tall. The compass was useful for pinning down some tall pines near the hot zone. During previous climbs, I thought I had the right trees. Now I know for sure. I got the bearing of what I thought might be Tree 3, and it checks out. This panorama shows part of the big grove several hundred meters in the distance. Some of the trees appear to be much taller than the 73 foot vantage point in Tree 2 where the photo was taken.

1-13-08. After spending several hours in Tree 2, I'm a bit achy and fatigued. It's a good day for resting the body and getting some work done in the office.

1-14-08. I spent the afternoon out in the kayak and got back just as it was getting dark. It was nice to experience dusk out in the swamp for a change. I heard a loud single rap near the hot zone just after sunset. The Barred Owls have become very vocal and were calling throughout the afternoon.

1-15-08. There's an interesting article in the December 23 edition of the Times-Picayune on the recovery of habitat since Katrina. The article mentions an estimate by scientists at Tulane University that approximately 320 million large trees were killed or severely damaged along the Gulf Coast. With such a broad and massive swath of dead trees, it's no wonder that sightings (other than a brief flurry in the hot zone) have been sporadic and widely spaced. I've been thinking about Geoff Hill's video of a bird flying low along the bank (the one in which the reflection of the bird off the water shows lots of white). Later in the morning that I got the Pearl video, I saw a large bird flying low a short distance back in the woods from the bank. I thought it was an ivorybill but didn't get a good enough look. Two days before that, I sat in the kayak while an ivorybill called from just behind a fallen tree. It seemed unusual that the bird was able to get out of that position without being seen. Perhaps it flew low along the ground like the bird in Geoff Hill's video. I spent another afternoon out in the kayak. The past few days have been absolutely bayoutiful. A Bald Eagle was soaring high over the Pearl. It was entertaining to watch several waves of Black Vultures returning to their roost.

1-16-08. My bad foot needs a rest, and it's a rainy day. So I'll be staying in the office.

1-17-08. I took a long kayak ride this morning and went all the way past the Bermuda Triangle (there were no unfortunate incidents in that area this time). I found some fresh foraging sign that looks very interesting. There was quite a bit of it, and it looks like it was done all at once. This isn't far from where a birder recently heard double knocks.

1-18-08. Going over the I-10 bridge as a passenger, I used the precision compass to get the bearings of one of the largest trees and a thick clump of trees in the big grove of cypresses. I went by the tallows again, but there was still no feeding activity. I also spent some time in the Honey Island Swamp.

1-19-08. It was another rainy day that I spent working in the office.

1-20-08. I visited the hot zone and was planning to also visit the Bermuda Triangle, but the water was a bit low. It was a nice day despite being a bit cold and windy.

1-21-08. I spent the day in the office in order to get caught up with things before paying a brief visit to the Choctawhatchee. Now that the leaves are down, I want to return to the area where I got the video last year and take some measurements.

1-22-08. Since the water was high, I paddled out to the Bermuda Triangle this morning. I'm planning to drive to the Choctawhatchee this evening and might not be able to post updates for a day or two.

1-23-08. I spent the morning paddling to the site where I obtained video clips a little over a year ago in the Choctawhatchee. I wanted to inspect the tree from which the bird flew in the video, take measurements, and get photos. I tried to do this in April, but the tree was hidden by leaves. Although high water prevented me from getting the job done on the second attempt, I heard a nice double knock on the way out there. I took along two photos and the coordinates of the site, but it turned out that this information wasn't sufficient. The water was so high that the entire forest was flooded. It was tricky getting back there with the current flowing through the forest as shown in this paddle-cam image. I used the GPS to navigate to the site, but the key landmarks in the photo were submerged. Having studied the video extensively, I recognized a few landmarks higher in the scene, but they weren't sufficient to find the tree (which I fear may have fallen by now). I tried moving around in the kayak and looking to the east in hopes of spotting the tree, but this was difficult in the strong current. On the way back, I was surprised to cross paths with Brian Rolek way out there. He said the water was as high as he's ever seen it. Shortly after talking to Brian, I came face to face with a Water Moccasin that was coiled around a tree branch (very much like the medical symbol). Back at the landing, I had a nice chat with Rob Tymstra and two other ibwologists. I would advise any birders venturing into the Choctawhatchee to be very careful during high water. This river is always dangerous due to the strong currents. When the water is this high, it's easy to get lost out there. Despite having spent some time in the area, I was anxious about finding my way back. I'll give it another try when the water goes back down. This was my first time on the highway with the kayak on the Honda, which has two convenient places to hook lines under the front bumper. It rode very nicely up there.

1-24-08. Water, water, water. Yesterday, it was flooded in the Choctawhatchee. Today, there's a steady rain in the Pearl. It was disappointing to fail to get the job done yesterday, but the tree that I wanted to find appeared to be more than 100 meters from the observation position, and it was only visible from a certain position between the trees in the foreground (the tree only shows up at certain times in the video as the kayak drifts around). Making sure you have the right tree is like peeking through a keyhole. Everything needs to be lined up just right. When I tried in April, the leaves were in the way. With the water flowing rapidly and key landmarks submerged during the latest attempt, I wasn't able to maneuver the kayak into the position of the keyhole. I'll give it another try soon. It's always interesting to visit the Choctawhatchee, and it's only about 250 miles from the Pearl. There's a huge cypress right next to the observation position. Since the sighting was shortly after dawn, that tree is a good candidate for a roost site. According to a NOAA web site that posts water levels for the Choctawhatchee, the water was right about at the level corresponding to "extensive lowland flooding" during my visit.

1-25-08. The air was a bit icy today, and I began to feel it after sitting at a stakeout near the Bermuda Triangle and getting caught in a light rain. I've obtained a wonderful article by Bayard Christy that was published in Audubon magazine in 1943. The article contains a rare first-hand account from the Singer Tract. It's the only historic account that I have found that mentions anything about the flaps of an ivorybill at takeoff, and the account is right in line with the videos that I obtained in the Pearl and the Choctawhatchee. He also describes repeated swooping very much like what I observed in the Choctawhatchee.

1-26-08. It rained this morning, and I'm going to spend the afternoon getting caught up in the office.

1-27-08. This morning, I made the rounds at Stennis, which I hadn't done for a while, and discovered an overgrown trail that leads to the vicinity of Tree 7. I visited the overgrown canal where I heard kents eight years ago at about this time of year. This photo was taken while standing on the bank of the canal and looking toward the location just beyond the opposite bank from which the kents were coming. This photo shows something interesting at the spot from which the kents were coming. The small tunnels were made by bees or wasps. This photo of the same spot was taken in April 2006. I have observed the tunnels many times over the past few years and have seen the insects working on them. The tunnels get exposed when the hill erodes. If these tunnels contain larva during the winter, it's possible that they were exposed during an erosion event, and that is what attracted an ivorybill. My first thoughts of climbing something to get a view out over the Pearl involved this tower. The walkway is 137 feet above the ground. While visiting the tower, I took a GPS reading that is consistent with a bearing measurement that I took from 5.3 km away in Tree 2.

1-28-08. A few weeks ago, I mentioned Richard Pough's account from the Singer Tract. Now that copies have begun to circulate, I have decided to post the excerpts that follow. This account provides hope that the ivorybill will have a good chance of recovering if habitat is protected, and it's consistent with this cartoon and the accounts of many observers over the decades and in recent years. The only inconsistency is Tanner's dogma, which is wrong.

"The area has in the past been frequently referred to as entirely or largely covered by virgin forest. This is not true, especially in the case of the forest types occurring on the higher lands."

"Maps of the area as of 1846 showed much of the Tensas River Bank in plantations and many cleared fields back from the river on some of the interior ridges. This development continued until the Civil War, by which time Madison Parish was producing 110,000 bales of cotton a year. As the Parish has never produced over 30,000 bales since the Civil War, one gets some idea of how much land is now occupied by second growth forest of approximately 80 years age."

"It is often difficult for the untrained eye to distinguish a virgin from a second growth forest in this part of the country, where trees grow with such amazing speed. To cite an example, the growth rings of one 40" diameter water oak which had grown in the open revealed it to be only 30 years old."

"I must confess that the ivory-bill problem puzzles me exceedingly, and I do not feel that Tanner's report begins to explain the reasons for the drastic decline in this species. Despite the fact that he started his studies in the area before any extensive cutting had taken place, and had an unusually competent local woodsman to help him, he found only one nesting pair and their young, and so far as I know, actually saw and studied only one other bird (a lone male in the Mack's Bayou area)."

"I suspect that the ivory-bill has never been a sedentary species. It seems to me entirely possible that no forest, virgin or otherwise, normally has a large enough, concentrated enough and continuous enough food supply for them to be permanent breeding residents. It is, I believe, a mistaken impression that in an all age class virgin forest, trees die at a more or less uniform rate. Certainly, this is not true here in the Tensas River bottomlands. Periodically fire and, even more important but less frequently, drought initiate a wide-spread dying off of the mature and over-ripe trees. These die and fall in a relatively short period, which is often followed by a rather long period, during which those trees healthy enough to survive continue to grow, with little mortality."

1-29-08. I'm planning a visit to the cypress grove tomorrow with two other searchers. We will look for cavities and unusually tall trees and will get plenty of photos and video. Our goal is to survey the grove in one or two visits in order to minimize disturbances in case there's an active cavity. I have recently been re-reading articles that I originally read before starting the search and have been finding some interesting tidbits. I noticed that John Dennis made some interesting comments about the crests of the ivorybills that he observed in Cuba that are consistent with the appearance of the crest of the bird in the Pearl video.

1-30-08. Two other searchers joined me in a visit to the big cypress grove. We found several trees that are comparable to Tree 5 as well as several large cavities, including a fresh one. I computed the heights of several of the cypresses. Seven of them are taller that Tree 5, and one of them exceeds 100 feet. All of them have "bomber" branches near the top that would make them excellent for climbing. There are even taller trees that can be seen from the I-10 bridge, but we didn't find them this time. I had a bad fall and caught myself with the arm that I broke last year. It was a severe jolt to the arm, but it held up. I dropped my watch in ankle-deep water, but we weren't able to find it in the mud. I can barely walk on my bad foot, which was throbbing toward the end of the hike. I'll be restricted to kayak duty for a while.

1-31-08. I have prepared vertical panoramas of trees that are 102 and 96 feet tall. These trees appear to be very healthy, and they're mixed in with other tall trees. This cavity is approximately four inches in diameter (the diameters of the red circles are four and five inches). The vertical diameter appears to be less than four inches in part due to the viewing angle. It's interesting how this branch fell on a fallen tree and broke in half.

2-1-08. A violent storm last night was followed by a gorgeous day in the Pearl. Some of the resident birds have started singing. I visited the hot zone and saw lots of woodpeckers, including this sapsucker.

2-2-08. I took the day off to get caught up on chores, such as changing the oil in the Honda. I also did some housecleaning on my computer and produced two video clips. Last year in the Pearl, I obtained this clip of a pileated. Last year in the Choctawhatchee, I obtained this clip of a large woodpecker swooping down and toward the camera (the clip plays at half speed). As the bird lands, the underwings appear to have black trailing edges that are thinner than would be expected for a pileated. Are these features an artifact? Is the thin appearance an artifact? Is the bird a pileated with unusually thin black trailing edges? I don't know the answers to these questions, but there are interesting flashes of white from the dorsal surfaces of the wings as the bird swoops downward. Two pileateds were in the area that morning, but they were initially in the opposite direction of the ivorybills.

2-3-08. I visited the hot zone and discovered who's been using a chainsaw up there. A hog hunter has opened up a long stretch of a waterway that used to be isolated from boat traffic by fallen trees. The motive for this senseless (and illegal) act was to get to an area that can easily be reached on foot from the other direction. This isn't the only threat to the Pearl ivorybills. A few days ago, I heard machine gun fire coming from the live-fire range for the first time. When I photographed a nice looking cavity a few days ago, I measured the distance with the laser rangefinder (as usual) but also measured the inclination angle (since we were interested in the height). From my vantage point, the cavity was 34.5 degrees above the horizontal, which reduces its apparent vertical size by about 18 percent. Using the range information to scale the image and using the angle information to stretch it in the vertical direction, I obtained this comparison, in which the red circles are four and five inches in diameter. This is the most impressive cavity I have seen. It looks like it was recently made with woodworking tools in a live cypress that isn't hollow.

2-4-08. I'm scheduled to present a talk on my work in the Pearl in Sarasota at the end of the month. I have a lot of material to get organized and decided to get started on it. So I didn't make it out in the field today.

2-5-08. Since the water was high, I decided to take a kayak ride out to the Bermuda Triangle. Strong gusts of wind started up just after I arrived in that area, and I turned back in order to beat the storms that are predicted for this afternoon. There was a good deal of pileated activity this morning. I saw or heard eight of them on the way out. I sat near the bank and listened for a while shortly before turning back, and a Barred Owl flushed from nearby. It moved a short distance away and didn't seem to mind my presence. I kept hearing a high-pitched call that resembled the alarm call of a chipmunk. I don't know what was making it, but it might have been reacting to the owl.

2-6-08. It was a spring-like day. Leaves and flowers are already starting to come out, and the birdsong has really picked up. I visited the hot zone and had a nice drift back with the current.

2-7-08. This afternoon, I finished preparing a talk that I'll be giving in Sarasota at the end of the month. For the talk, I took photos of some of the gadgets and gear that I've been using in the Pearl. The gadgets include the GPS, laser rangefinder, clinometer, and precision compass. A GPS is essential for marking locations, navigating to specific points, and avoiding getting lost. The rangefinder has many uses, including measuring the heights of trees and distances to objects. The clinometer (which was donated by the finder of the world's tallest tree) is used to measure the elevation angle of an object above the horizon. This device is essential for measuring tree heights. The precision compass makes it possible to measure the bearing of an object to a fraction of a degree. This device is useful for estimating the coordinates of objects (such as trees) and can also be used along with the rangefinder for measuring distances by trigonometry when there isn't an unobstructed line of sight between two objects. The climbing gear (which was donated by an anonymous biologist) includes a harness that is worn around the waist, ascenders that only slide in one direction along the climbing rope, leg straps attached to one of the ascenders (the legs do most of the work when climbing), a grillon (the long red line) for safely tying yourself in at the top of the climb, a gri-gri (the small device in the lower right) for safely descending, climbing rope and rope bag, and a foldable cube that is very useful when reeling in or out lines and ropes.

2-8-08. It was another bayoutiful morning in the Pearl. I saw my first otter of the season. The water levels and currents are both decreasing. If the same is happening in the Choctawhatchee, I will soon be going over there for another visit.

2-9-08. I paddled out to Ye Olde Hot Zone and spent a few hours hanging out and enjoying a gorgeous day. It was interesting to watch a pair of Red-bellied Woodpeckers make repeated trips to an American Holly tree for berries. The Barred Owls have been very active lately. This morning, I noticed that activity has suddenly picked up in the Yaupon Holly trees.

2-10-08. One of the visitors went out with me to climb two cypresses in the big grove. After getting about 60 feet up the first tree, I noticed a spectacular tree a few hundred meters to the west. That tree is about 110 feet, and I climbed up to 94 feet. It was my highest climb by far and the tallest cypress that I have found in the Pearl. It might end up being my last climb. The device that I use for descending is called a gri-gri. It securely attaches you to the rope, and there's a lever to pull to gradually (supposedly) belay yourself down. When I first started climbing, the gri-gri seemed to work very smoothly, but then it started having problems with the rope getting jammed. I ordered a new gri-gri and tried it out today, but it was even worse. The rope got jammed when I was still way up there. Then it suddenly gave way, and I went into an alarming free fall for about three feet. When this happened, I instinctively grabbed the rope with my right hand and suffered nasty rope burns. I had several of these hair-raising events on the way down. I'll try to figure out what's causing this problem, but I'm not sure about doing any more serious climbing after this experience. While up in the tree, I took this photo looking down, this photo of some of the big trees nearby, and this photo that shows many of the cypresses in the big grove as well as the rocket towers about six miles in the distance at Stennis.

2-11-08. Having too many aches and pains to go out today, I limited myself to putting together panoramas from Tree 0 (the 110 foot cypress) looking toward Stennis and in the opposite direction. Since the camera was held at 94 feet, the trees that break the plane of the horizon are over 90 feet. Some of the trees nearby are over 100 feet. This photo shows the view looking straight down from 94 feet.

2-12-08. I'm continuing to nurse the rope burns and rest my foot, which always hurts after marches through the swamp (but it wasn't as noticeable this time due to the other aches and pains). I have determined that the descent problem is due to the rope. I have two other ropes, but it might be possible to have the bad one cleaned. The problem started after the rope fell in the mud. Although I soaked it in water, it's possible that dirt was trapped inside the sheathing. It's hard to keep gear clean out in the swamp.

2-13-08. I broke my arm a year ago today. I'm very thankful that it healed straight and strong and that the wrist is fully functional and flexible. I'm sure this is largely due to the fact that a plate was installed to line everything up. I was eager to go out in the kayak today, but the winds were too strong. During the tree climb on Sunday, I saw an interesting thrush-sized bird foraging nearly 100 feet up in the crown of a nearby cypress. The facial pattern (naked eye view) and streaks on the sides of the breast (seen well through binoculars) were consistent with a female Black-headed Grosbeak. It flew to another tree before I could get a good look at the head, and I experienced one of the disadvantages of birding from a tree when I wasn't able to move horizontally and follow it. I have run the climbing rope through the washer twice using ordinary laundry detergent. I'm going to do some practice climbing to make sure everything is working properly. I'll break out one of the other ropes if necessary. The climbing experts and I have invested too much into this effort to give up on it now, and I believe it has an excellent chance of success. I only wish that I could get a few other climbers up there at the same time in widely spaced trees.

2-14-08. I went for a nice kayak ride this morning, but my right arm was snapping and popping while paddling (similar to when scar tissue was breaking away in my left arm last year). This might have something to do with grabbing the rope during the free fall the other day. I saw a kestrel and a creeper, which I don't see very often in the Pearl. While belaying down the rope, my fellow tree climbers, Gretchen and Tasha, and I always hum the Mission Impossible tune like this. After the belaying incident the other day, I was inspired to compose a new version.

2-15-08. It was nice to spend two days in the field with the university searchers, who have completed their work in the Pearl. Both days were very productive, and they were my first explorations in the big grove of cypresses. We found some very interesting cavities, a surprising number of cypresses over 90 feet, and one incredible cypress that is about 110 feet. One of the searchers saw a White-tailed Kite a little to the north of where I saw one last year on January 6. I'm not aware of any other sightings of that species in the Pearl during the past few years. Although there's no way of knowing the number of days that species has been present during the past two years, this is a good example of how a rare species can go undetected for long periods in a large river basin. I was hoping to make it out in the kayak but got tied up in the office all day. One group of visitors has departed, but another group has arrived, and we have lots of plans for the next several days.

2-16-08. There were five of us in the field today. Late in the afternoon, three of us had an interesting sighting near a large cavity that I found in a sweetgum last year. I picked up the bird first and got my binoculars on it. It was black with lots of white on the wings. I noticed a large white patch on the trailing edge of the dorsal surface of the right wing. The other observers didn't see field marks, but we all noticed a rapid gliding flight. I noticed the bird rock from side to side as it maneuvered to land. One of the observers fired off a high-resolution photo but missed the bird. The other observer saw the bird swoop down when it took off.

2-17-08. We returned to the area of the sighting and got caught in a severe thunderstorm. After dodging lightning bolts and hail stones on the way back, we reached the shelter of the cars just as it stopped.

2-18-08. Four of us split up into two teams and covered about 25 miles today by water and foot. We're tired and going to head to Waveland for BBQ.

2-19-08. In the same general area as the possible sighting, we heard a series of kent-like calls, and Richard Martin recorded 17 of them (my camera was inoperable due to moisture condensation at the time). The calls don't have a strong metallic quality, but the source was far enough away (perhaps a few hundred feet) for the higher frequencies to be attenuated by vegetation. The sonograms of these calls have similarities to the sonograms of known and putative kents. We returned to the "warm zone" this afternoon, and I heard two distant kent-like calls.

2-20-08. I returned to the warm zone and heard three more calls from the same area. I didn't stay long because I've gotten sick and was making too much noise by coughing. This has been such a busy week that I hadn't gotten around to taking GPS readings until this morning. It was interesting to find that the locations of the sighting and the calls are only 240 meters apart, and they're along the same waterway. This wasn't obvious before consulting the map because we approached these areas from different directions. It's difficult getting around out there because of blackberry patches that are thick enough to secure the perimeter of a P.O.W. camp.

2-21-08. I've got a cold and it's a rainy day. I'll stake out the warm zone later if there's a break in the weather. I was going through some high-definition video that I took while driving over the I-10 bridge last year and noticed this image that shows a cypress (on the horizon and about three quarters of the way across the image) that appears to be about 120 feet tall. I've made two trips out to that area but have not yet managed to find that tree. The rain let up late in the afternoon, and I visited the area of the recent sighting. I stayed until dusk and noticed bats for the first time this season.

2-22-08. I visited the site where the calls were recorded but didn't have any luck. It was muggy and the skeeters were out in force. When we heard the calls the other day, my camera wasn't functioning due to moisture condensation. Here are some of the calls that Richard Martin recorded. I've asked several people with extensive field experience to listen to these calls, and responses ranged from "no-brainer Blue Jay" to "definite ivorybill." I suspect they're ivorybill calls (the last one sounds the most interesting) but can't rule out Blue Jay. Richard thinks they're Blue Jay calls, and I had to prod him to start recording when my camera wasn't working. My opinion on the calls is based on many years of intently observing Blue Jays, experiences in the hot zone two years ago, and sonograms. I've always been fascinated by jays and always listen to what they have to say. I've heard a wide variety of their calls and have even witnessed their rarely heard song on two occasions. The calls that I heard a few days ago don't sound like anything I've ever heard from a jay (although they do have a bit of a jay quality). The calls have some resemblance to kents that I heard in the hot zone in association with sightings (since I didn't record kents in the hot zone, this comparison is based strictly on memory). These sonograms are of the calls that Richard recorded (top) and the jay call of a Blue Jay (bottom). The horizontal marks in the top sonogram are similar to features that appear in sonograms of all known and putative kents. The features in the bottom sonogram are not horizontal (i.e., there is variation in pitch). I have constructed sonograms of other Blue Jay calls that are more similar to the ones in the top sonogram but still have significant changes in pitch. In a 1975 paper, Hardy included a sonogram of a Blue Jay call that has horizontal marks, but I don't have access to the raw data.

2-23-08. The visitors kept me on the go this week, and I got sick after getting caught in a downpour. With a long drive to Sarasota coming up next week, I decided to take it easy today. Although the two calls that I heard late on February 19 were weak, one of them shows up fairly well in a sonogram and has a similar signature to the calls that were recorded that morning. I heard three similar calls in the same area the next morning, but there hasn't been anything since then. I wanted to clarify some details of the sighting on February 16. The bird glided in at high speed on fixed wings. I got binoculars on it and noticed that it tilted from side to side as if adjusting for a landing. I noticed a large white patch on the trailing edge of the top of the wing just before losing it in the trees. The bird came in from an angle such that it probably didn't see us at first, and the lighting was excellent. It might have been a spectacular sighting if I had been a little faster with the binoculars. I'm encouraged by the locations of the sighting and the calls relative to each other and to the old hot zone. We have a tree rigged not too far from this area.

2-24-08. This morning, I recorded the two calls in the top sonogram in this image. It was clear that these were Blue Jay calls, and in fact I saw the Blue Jay that was making them. The lower sonogram corresponds to the calls that Richard Martin recorded on February 19, which have a Blue Jay quality as well as kent-like characteristics. The calls that were recorded today lack variations in pitch (like kents), but the frequencies turn on and off at different times (unlike kents and the kent-like calls that were recorded on February 19). Since the frequencies match in the two sonograms, it's now clear that the February 19 calls must have been made by a Blue Jay.

2-25-08. I'm making final preparations for the trip to Florida this morning but hope to make it out this afternoon. During a recent visit, Richard Martin obtained this photo of a pileated flying near the forked tree in the Pearl video (Richard believes the pileated was just on this side of the tree). It would be very interesting to get a photo of a pileated perched in that tree. I went for a walk in the Pearl this afternoon and came upon a cottonmouth on the trail. I'm leaving for Florida tomorrow and should be back to the Pearl in less than a week.

2-26-08. I spent the day driving to Tampa. It's always interesting to cross the Choctawhatchee, Chipola, Apalachicola, and Suwanee. It's depressing to see all the development that has occurred in Florida since I moved here in 1965. A friend is going to take me in his boat to an area where his father saw an ivorybill in the 1950s. I'm also planning to visit the Hillsborough River, where we always went to escape the heat of summer many years ago. I'm eager to see "The High Cypress," which had a nice fork 50 feet up for jumping into the river. I sure hope it's still standing.

2-27-08. It has become clear that my efforts to help save the ivorybill during the past two and a half years have been a waste of time. I have had more success than I ever dreamed possible, but it's impossible to get my contributions published or their existence even acknowledged due to the corruption of ornithologists. My latest attempt to publish these results is this manuscript, which was submitted to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. I had hoped that this prestigious journal would make sure that my work received a fair day in court, but there was no intellectually honest discussion of the technical aspects of the paper in the reviews, and the supporting material (which was posted on my website) was never viewed by the reviewers. I don't like to hang out the dirty laundry, but the public deserves to see what is happening behind the scenes in this important problem in science and conservation. I hope that Cornell will eventually be held accountable for the way they have behaved during the past few years. They have refused to acknowledge the contributions of other scientists and have acted only in their own corporate interests. They don't like the fact that I found ivorybills in the Pearl, where they failed during a highly publicized search in 2002. They don't like the fact that I obtained data that is much better and much more interesting than the data they have obtained. Why should Cornell have so much influence on what gets published? After all, what have they really contributed? They didn't find ivorybills. They were led to them by Sparling. They didn't obtain video evidence, which was obtained by Luneau. Their only real "contribution" was a botched and scientifically amateurish analysis of the Luneau video. Considering the meagerness of Cornell's contributions, it's not surprising that they're too insecure about themselves to give credit to others. Cornell has made a mess of this conservation problem for decades, beginning when one of theirs started the controversy by pretending to be an expert on a species of which he only saw a few individuals at one site. Of course, that is much better than the prevailing "expert," who has never even seen the species.

2-28-08. I submitted the PNAS manuscript in late December. Since the evidence consists mainly of video clips, the submission involved significant supporting material. This information was posted at my personal website, and the reviewers were directed there to consider it. As the weeks passed and there were no page views of this material, it became clear that the associate editor made poor choices for reviewers. I considered withdrawing the paper rather than continuing to waste time with the submission, but I was advised by colleagues to wait for the reviewers to compromise their integrity in writing. The first reviewer claims that nothing short of a pretty picture should be published. It is unfortunate that the associate editor fell for such nonsense. Data is the driving force in every field of science. I have obtained the strongest data in many decades, and there is no question that this data (as well as any other significant data that is obtained) should be published. As one of the youngest scientists to be named a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America, the recipient of major awards in that field, and one of the most productive members of that community during the past few decades, it is very offensive that this reviewer claimed that I am not aware of harmonics, which is an elementary concept in acoustics. As a matter of fact, I mentioned "the two harmonics at 2.35 and 4.70 kHz" on Page 4 of the manuscript. The claim that the bill is too small is ridiculous, and the reviewer would have known this if he had studied the supporting material, which contains a demonstration that the bill is a good fit with the bill of an ivorybill specimen. The other comments (e.g., the claim that the bird has a whitish neck) are pure nonsense as can easily be seen by studying the video clips. The other review is so inane that it is hardly worth discussing. The claim that scientific research should be vetted through a government bureaucracy (the USFWS) is laughable. The biggest threat to the survival of the ivorybill is the lack of competence, integrity, and leadership in the field of ornithology. It is unfortunate that leading scientific journals, such as Science and PNAS, have blindly trusted members of that community rather than taking a careful look at the evidence.

2-29-08. I had a wonderful visit at the Tree Foundation in Sarasota, where I met Margaret "Canopy Meg" Lowman and her students and gave a talk on my work in the Pearl to an enthusiastic audience. Meg has done pioneering research in tree canopies around the world and has really been an inspiration for my work in the Pearl. When my little ventures into the swamp start feeling arduous and dangerous, all I have to do is think about some of the things that Meg has done, and that puts things in perspective. I would highly recommend her books, "Life in the Treetops" and "It's a Jungle Up There". Before the talk, Meg's students gave a tree climbing demonstration in a spectacular kapok tree, and Bryson Voirin explained why I've been having problems when descending using a Grigri Descender. It turns out that this device sometimes has problems for users over 180 pounds, and I'm about 225 pounds. One solution is to switch to a Stop Descender. Meg and her students are interested in visiting the Pearl and spending some time in the trees watching for ivorybills flying over the canopy. Having such a sighting is by far my most important remaining goal. A few days ago, I went to check on "The High Cypress," which we used to jump out of many years ago. The water is higher and the scene has changed, but I'm pretty sure that I found the right tree. Part of the top has broken off, but I recognize the curvature, the stub of a broken branch, and the large fork, which was 48 feet above the water when I measured it in 1974. We would also jump from a branch to the right that was 52 feet up but is now gone. It was a thrill to hear the air rushing by when jumping from that height. I waded through this swamp to get to the edge of the Hillsborough River near our old house.

3-1-08. Mark Cowart took me for a ride up the Hillsborough River in his motorboat. We were planning to go up to a relatively remote area to search for good habitat. Since the boat seemed to be having a fuel problem, we only made it up to the vicinity of "The High Cypress," but it was nice to go right over to this beloved tree and actually touch it. I took this photo from just beneath, this photo that shows the bend out over the water that made it a great diving platform, and the series of photos in this composite. In 1974, Mark and I free climbed this tree before installing steps. I was pleased to see that the steps have long since rotted away and didn't seem to do any permanent damage to the tree. We also used to jump from this cypress, which had a large branch about halfway up that stuck out over the water. I didn't hear any parulas during my visit to the river a few days ago, but they have now arrived, and the timing is the same as it has been in the Pearl the past two years. The Hillsborough has more of a tropical flavor than the Pearl, but the area that we visited today is surrounded by development. In small patches of good habitat, we saw this Limpkin, a good-sized gator, and many Osprey. During the summer, we usually went swimming in this area, where we would jump out of two towering oaks that fell into the river years ago.

3-2-08. I'm driving back to the Pearl today but wanted to post some comments about the way major scientific journals have handled (it would be more accurate to use the word "mishandled") information related to the ivorybill. I would like to think that a prestigious scientific journal could be counted on to get at the truth when they receive a contribution on such an important topic for which so much is at stake and for which so little data have been obtained. I thought that PNAS was such a journal, and they promised to give the submission "full consideration." A lot of wasted time and effort could have been avoided if I had known in advance that "full consideration" meant they would send the paper to biased reviewers and not bother to do any fact checking between the reviews and the content of the paper or allow me the opportunity to rebut the reviews. It's sad to see how the submission was handled, but this wasn't an isolated incident. Science magazine did an equally poor job by ignoring data from Louisiana and Florida that support the claims from Arkansas while at the same time publishing a paper that criticized the claims from Arkansas.

3-3-08. I was worn out after the trip to Florida and didn't make it out in the Pearl, but a visitor (who also spent some time here last year) was my eyes and ears in the field today. He reports unusually high water levels and the arrival of yellow-throated and parula warblers right on time with the past two years. On the drive back from Florida, I saw a Swallow-tailed Kite soaring above I-75, and they should be arriving in the Pearl soon if they're not here already.

3-4-08. I will be tied up in the office today. I'm thinking about making a quick run to the Choctawhatchee tomorrow. I've been wanting to take some measurements related to the video that I obtained last year, but the leaves were in the way when I returned last April and extremely high water was a problem when I returned in January. The water is down for now and the leaves are starting to come out. So it's now or never.

3-5-08. I received a Petzl STOP and found that it lets the rope out very smoothly during descents. Since the rope burns are nearly healed, I'm now ready to get back up in the tall cypresses. But first I'm going to make another attempt to take some measurements in the Choctawhatchee where I obtained the video last year. I'll be driving there today and should be back to the Pearl late tomorrow.

3-6-08. I heard a nice double rap early this morning in the Choctawhatchee. It was the second time I've heard a definite double rap, but there's a possibility that the two double raps that I heard in the Pearl on February 5, 2006, were made by a visitor from Cornell. I stopped to keep watch for ten minutes, and there was no sign of anyone else in the area. I had the paddle-cam running, but the double rap was lost in the noise of paddling, which radiates along the paddles directly to the camera. I need to get an external microphone and mount it away from the paddles. I returned to the location where I saw two ivorybills and obtained video on January 19, 2007. In part of the video, one of the birds flew from behind this battered old tree, which is about 120 meters from where I was sitting in the kayak that morning. A little over 20 seconds before the bird flew, it hopped behind the tree in a way that was suggestive of a squirrel. Besides the fact that a squirrel and a large bird wouldn't coexist in the same spot behind that tree for more than 20 seconds, the top of a long-dead tree in a flooded forest is no place for a squirrel. It was a beautiful morning, with early signs of spring. When I got back to the boat ramp, a noticeable amount of new leaves seemed to have popped open during the five hours that I spent in the kayak. I noticed a few cypresses that appear to be favorable observation platforms, but I probably won't have time to return to the Choctawhatchee and give them a try.

3-7-08. I turned 50 today. It was a nice change from last year, when I woke up in the hospital on my birthday.

3-8-08. I gave the new descent device a full test this afternoon. It lets the line out very smoothly. For the next several days, I'll be doing some searching in a different area and may not have Internet access until I get back.

3-9-08. Bill Pulliam recently posted comments about the video that I obtained in Florida last year. He states categorically that the bird is a pileated based on the flight. I would like to see him back up that claim by providing an example of a pileated taking off in level flight with deep flaps and about ten flaps per second. Bill bases his reasoning on the Luneau video--as if the bird in that video illustrates everything there is to know about the flight of an ivorybill (or even that it's obvious that the bird in that video is an ivorybill). As a matter of fact, the flaps of the birds in the Luneau video and in the videos that I obtained in Louisiana and Florida are very similar, and here is a comparison between two of them (in both cases, the wings are raised high at takeoff and the wing shapes are very similar). Bill says he stopped reading my updates a long time ago. I've never paid any attention to his blog because I'm not interested in uninformed opinions from the sidelines. My own opinions of the Florida video are based on several direct observations of the deep and rapid flaps of an ivorybill at takeoff, the accounts of other observers who have reported deep and rapid flaps at takeoff (Bayard Christy in 1943 and Brian Rolek in 2006), intensively studying the flights of pileateds (both directly and in videos that I have obtained) during two and a half years of fieldwork, studying known and putative ivorybill footage, and developing an understanding of the physiological differences that cause the differences in flight style between pileateds and ivorybills as illustrated in these idealized sketches. The pileated (top sketch) is a relatively light bird and has relatively short and broad wings. This design is suitable for a woodpecker that remains within a relatively small territory. The ivorybill (bottom sketch) is relatively massive and has relatively long and narrow wings. The high body mass and large bill give this species an advantage over other woodpeckers when it comes to foraging under tight bark. The long and narrow wings are suitable for long and rapid flights between sites where this food source is available. Thinking of the ivorybill as depicted in the sketch, it's easy to understand why this species requires deep and rapid flaps during takeoffs and short flights (it can also take off by swooping downward and using gravity to accelerate as illustrated in one of the video clips that I obtained in Florida).

3-10-08. I had to postpone the plans that I mentioned a few days ago due to flooding and strong currents, which made it impossible to get into the area with a kayak loaded with gear. I just learned that someone was doing double rap simulations near where I heard one during a visit to the Choctawhatchee last week. Both the time and the location are consistent with my observation (although the location is a bit further than I would expect a double rap to carry). It certainly was a good simulation. Bill Pulliam is now claiming that I used to consult with him. When I obtained the Pearl video, I didn't have access to software for processing video and audio. Bill and a few others offered to help by generating sonograms, adjusting the brightness of images, and compressing movies. I've always been open with my findings and was happy to involve them in the initial processing of the data. Bill also claims that I've completely undermined my credibility with most of the people involved in the ivorybill discussion. Who are these people? It can't be the ornithologist who recently asked me to meet with his people so they could pick my brain. It can't be the ornithologist who recently acknowledged that the data from the Pearl is at least as strong as the data from Arkansas and Florida. It can't be the biologist who visited the Pearl to help with the search and donated equipment to the cause. It can't be the biologist who invited me to present my findings last month. The Pearl video is the strongest evidence that has been obtained in many decades, and I have vigorously defended it. If someone doesn't respect me for that, I really don't care.

3-11-08. It was raining early in the day, and then I got tied up in the office. Better weather is predicted for the next several days, and hopefully the water levels will finally start going down. I was discussing probabilities with a friend and thought it would be worth mentioning the details here. Let's say (purely hypothetically) that there is a 1 in 100 chance that an experienced birder would mistake a pileated for an ivorybill. If five experienced birders report sightings of ivorybills, that doesn't mean that the probability that they were all mistaken is...

0.01 x 0.01 x 0.01 x 0.01 x 0.01 = 0.0000000001

Although multiple reports are significant, the statistical analysis of such reports is not so simple. In fact, mistaken reports would be expected to occur regularly if the error rate really were 1 in 100. The situation is very different when the bird is in the fork in the Pearl video. In that case, it's appropriate to estimate the probability that the bird is a pileated in terms of a product of probabilities. I believe the probability of the bird being a pileated is small for each of the following factors:

* 7.5 flaps per second in an unharried short flight and in an unharried takeoff into level flight (much greater than the 2 to 4 flaps per second observed by Cornell in an extensive study)
* vigorous flaps in an unharried short flight and in an unharried takeoff into level flight (such flaps are inconsistent with pileated but consistent with ivorybill physiology, reports by Christy in 1943 and Rolek in 2006, and my own observations)
* crest size and shape
* bill size (good match with a bill from an ivorybill specimen)
* leaned-back posture
* neck length
* rounded head shape (when the crest isn't raised)
* extreme wariness at a distance (repeatedly hiding behind branches and raising the crest)
* unusual movements

Although it would be difficult to assign specific values to these probabilities, it seems clear that each of them is small and that their product would be astronomically small. It's possible that flap rate and flap style aren't completely independent, but there doesn't seem to be any reason to expect dependencies between the other factors (e.g., a pileated wouldn't be expected to be extremely wary just because it has an unusually large bill).

3-12-08. I visited Ye Olde Hot Zone this morning. It had been a while since my last trip up there. It was nice to see that Swallow-tailed Kites and other migrants have returned. The water is still high and the currents are still strong. Paddling downstream through fallen trees is really treacherous under these conditions. Although I've been through that area many times, it's hard to know where debris lurks just beneath the surface when the water level changes. Richard Martin sent me another photo of a pileated flying near the fork tree in the Pearl video. Since he was sitting in the spot where I obtained the video, I was able to scale the images and obtain these comparisons. Although the ivorybill (20 inches) isn't that much longer than the pileated (17 inches), the ivorybill is a much more massive bird, and the pileated looks puny by comparison in these images. This comparison shows some of the details of how the images were scaled.

3-13-08. I met with a scientist with a Ph.D. in physics from Harvard who wanted to see my data. This guy has over 30 years experience as a researcher, and you can always count on getting an honest opinion from him. He easily understood everything about the Pearl and Choctawhatchee videos. He immediately spotted the bird and understood what is happening in the "through the gap" sequence. After I explained the physiological differences between the pileated and the ivorybill (but before I showed him the video clips), he deduced that the ivorybill probably struggles during takeoffs but that it might also take off by swooping down from a high perch. After seeing the Luneau video and reading the comment, "...those of us who find the original Arkansas evidence to be convincing...," in one of the reviews of a paper that I submitted to PNAS, he pointed out the absurdity of the reviewer being convinced by a video in which no individual frame shows what is unquestionably a bird but not being convinced by a video that clearly shows a large woodpecker with a massive bill, large crest, leaned-back posture, rapid wingbeats, etc. I showed him Cornell's analysis of the Luneau video, and he immediately noticed the glaring errors that any competent scientist would notice. He said, "This analysis is crap. These people have never heard of inertia, and they don't even know basic geometry. These people are idiots." He pointed out something that I had already concluded; in a series of frames separated by 1/60 of a second, the white object moves about 3 inches, then stops, then moves about 3 inches in the opposite direction. The velocity of the initial motion is about 180 inches per second or 15 feet per second. The acceleration is about 900 feet per second squared, which is nearly 30 g (humans typically lose consciousness at around 5 g). Although Cornell's analysis of the Luneau video was sloppy, it wasn't nearly as bad as James Tanner's evaluation of John Dennis' reports. Cornell people have a long history of sloppy work, and this is the primary reason for the ivorybill controversy.

3-14-08. I made the rounds on the Mississippi side this morning. The most interesting sighting was a pair of pileateds that appeared to be in the type of long distance flight that would be expected of ivorybills. I saw them coming from far off to the right and tracked them until they nearly vanished to the left, but they eventually veered around back toward their starting point. It wasn't the first time that I've seen such a flight by a pileated in pine forest, where it is conceivable that they would need relatively large territories. I have updated the analysis of the Pearl video, including adding some artwork by Michael DiGiorgio.

3-15-08. Since Science magazine recently hired a new Editor in Chief, I decided to submit a slightly modified version of the manuscript that was rejected by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. I think the public should know how this submission was handled. I included the following comments in the cover letter that accompanied the submission:

The topic of this paper has been muddled for many decades. The origins of the controversial nature of the problem can be traced to James Tanner’s incredibly sloppy evaluation of Ivory-billed Woodpecker reports by John Dennis in the 1960s. Science has contributed to this mess in recent years by publishing a paper by Fitzpatrick et al. that contains glaring errors; failing to take into account an obvious conflict of interest and blindly accepting Cornell’s assessment of a data set from the Pearl River that is the best that has been obtained in more than 60 years (the conflict of interest being that Cornell tried unsuccessfully to find Ivory-billed Woodpeckers during a highly publicized search in the Pearl River in 2002); publishing comments by David Sibley, who has no scientific credentials but does have a serious conflict of interest (a publicly stated opposition to the funding of efforts to save the Ivory-billed Woodpecker from extinction); and ignoring findings by scientists in Louisiana and Florida that support the findings from Arkansas.

I have tried to get my data published for more than two years, but someone has decreed that publishable evidence of this species “must contain absolutely unequivocal, sharply defined photographic or video images” (the quote is by an anonymous reviewer of a submission that was rejected by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences). Since when is a pretty picture a prerequisite to doing science? It would appear that this new rule has not been brought to the attention of scientists searching for extrasolar planets (e.g., see Science 305, p. 1382, 3 September 2004), who have discovered many planets without obtaining any images. Since when are the findings of independent scientists that support a controversial paper less relevant than the armchair opinions (which were recently described as “contorted and dubious” by J. Christopher Haney, a chief scientist at Defenders of Wildlife) of a biased party?

Since 2002, Cornell, LSU, Auburn, federal and state wildlife agencies, and many other organizations and individuals have made major efforts to obtain evidence of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. During that period, many thousands of man-hours of fieldwork have produced only a few low-quality videos. My video from the Pearl River is the only one that shows a bird that is unquestionably a woodpecker. There is no individual frame in the video that was published in the paper by Fitzpatrick et al. that even shows what is unquestionably a bird. Based on the limited output of six years of intensive efforts, it should be clear that obtaining data on this extremely rare and wary species is a formidable task and that it could be many years before better evidence is obtained. It would be irresponsible to continue sitting around waiting for a pretty picture rather than treating this problem like any other problem in science. After publishing the original evidence from Arkansas and negative commentaries on that evidence, how can Science justify not publishing new evidence that is much stronger?

Here's the response that I received from Science: "Our advisors have made a strong recommendation that Science not accept additional papers on the ivory-billed woodpecker unless these offer unequivocal evidence for its existence. The bar for such evidence was raised substantially by the analyses that disputed the interpretations by Fitzpatrick et al. of data from their searches in Arkansas." Here's a translation that clarifies their position: "We made the mistake of publishing a paper by Fitzpatrick et al. that contains serious errors. After being so badly burned, we have decided not to publish anything else on this topic." It's sad to see how the two most prestigious scientific journals in America have handled this problem. The appropriate course of action when errors are published is to publish comments (as Science has done) and/or errata (but Cornell hasn't owned up to the errors). It's not right to pull the plug on a scientific problem just because someone made a mistake. I'm surprised to see how readily the editorial boards of these journals have bought into the insane idea that science is supposed to be done by pretty pictures. They're even using the skeptics' talking points, such as "the bar has been raised" and "unequivocal evidence is required." It's not right for Science to publish a paper, publish an attack on that paper, and then ignore new findings that support the original paper. That's not how science is supposed to be done.

3-16-08. Since I have to return to our Washington office in a few weeks, I'm spending this weekend catching up on things that need to be completed before leaving our Stennis office. I heard a nice double rap in the Choctawhatchee on March 6 and reported it to Geoff Hill. In the same area in January, Geoff heard two double raps and two birders had a sighting. Although Geoff didn't think anyone would have been simulating double raps in that area, Brian Rolek later informed me that his assistant had been simulating double raps at the top of each hour that morning (he thought the location of the simulations might have been within earshot of my position, but he would have to check on it). I didn't see anyone else in the area, but the time of the double rap was nearly on the hour at 7:01 a.m. After checking the records, Brian has determined that I was more than a mile from the simulations. Since the double rap seemed to come from a nearby source, the timing was apparently just a coincidence. Hopefully, the birds are still spending time in that area and the Auburn folks will soon get a photo.

3-17-08. I'm still stuck in the office and might not get out in the field for another day or two. Robert Caputo wrote to suggest that the double rap that I heard in the Choctawhatchee might have been a response to a simulated double rap. I had considered that possibility, but the distance seemed to be too great. Robert's note got me to thinking about it again. Perhaps this would be possible if (a) the ivorybill has keen hearing that allows it to detect distant double raps, (b) an ivorybill was in a position high in the treetops that was favorable for hearing a distant double rap, and (c) the source of the double rap that I heard was further away than it seemed (this would allow the ivorybill to be closer to the simulated double rap).

3-18-08. It was a gorgeous morning in the Honey Island Swamp. Prothonotary Warblers and Yellow-throated Vireos have arrived since my last trip over there. The leaves are really starting to come out, and we're getting into the time of year that I suspect is the most favorable for watching for ivorybills flying over the canopy. I have plans to do some treetop observing this weekend. One of the pleasant aspects of searching for ivorybills is that I've had enough time for reading to go through two shelves of books. I'm presently reading Herman Melville's "Typee," which is based on a true story of two men that were held by the natives of a Polynesian island. They were initially taken into a hut and surrounded by the villagers, who stared at them curiously while they were interrogated. During a trip to the northern Peruvian Amazon several years ago, I ventured into a remote area along a river and encountered natives that appeared to be descended from Polynesians (and have a similar history of head hunting). They took me to their village, where I had an experience that was so similar to the account in "Typee" that it sent shivers up my spine. Like the characters in "Typee," I thought the natives were going to kill me, but they released me later that day, and two of them helped me find birds (including my first Paradise Tanager).

3-19-08. It was raining early this morning, and I've been tied up in the office since then. I'll try to get out tomorrow, but I still have a lot of work to finish before returning to Virginia. I was re-reading one of the accounts by Agey and Heinzmann and noticed the following:

"Then on Dec. 17, 1967, the best sight record since the first observation came when an Ivory-bill approached across a wide arm of water, coming in directly overhead at about 40 feet, and spreading its wings to land in a tree overhead. At the last moment, it apparently spotted us, and flew on deep into the woods."

There are similarities between this sighting and the probable sighting that three of us had here in the Pearl on February 16. The bird glided in on fixed wings at about 40 feet and didn't seem to notice us at first. We lost sight of the bird when it landed, but one of the observers saw it swoop down and into the woods. Agey and Heinzmann saw an ivorybill near a roost tree (where they later found an ivorybill feather), but the bird was never again seen near that tree. This suggests that anyone who finds a roost tree had better not blow the opportunity because they might not get a second chance. Agey and Heinzmann also mentioned records of nest trees that were quickly abandoned, which suggests that nesting attempts are doomed to failure in areas where intensive searches are being conducted.

3-20-08. It's a gorgeous morning, but I can't get away from the office. I should have work-related tasks wra