HI:
FYI

--
Ian Paulsen
Bainbridge Island, WA, USA
A.K.A.: "Birdbooker"
"Rallidae all the way!"

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 2 May 2005 09:49:55 -0500
From: Chris Merkord <chris at MERKORD.COM>
To: TEXBIRDS at LISTSERV.UH.EDU
Subject: [TEXBIRDS] Post from Tim Barksdale on IBWO

---> Texbird help file http://www.texbirds.org <---

Texbirds,

Tim Barksdale, one of those lucky enough to observe the Ivory-billed
Woodpecker in Arkansas, posted this message to the Missouri birding list,
and I think you'll find his comments on the feeding ecology and dispersal
capability of that species quite interesting.

Chris Merkord
Columbia, MO
chris at merkord.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Timothy Barksdale [mailto:roadkinthd at earthlink.net]
Sent: Saturday, April 30, 2005 9:57 PM
To: Jean Leonatti
Subject: Re: BXR

Hi Missouri and Montana Birding Folks,

This will be the short version of what will be a longer piece to be
published in the Bluebird.

I was hired in early April 2004 to be the lead digital cinematographer in
the effort to produce a definitive documentation of the Ivory-billed
Woodpecker sighted in Arkansas.

Yes- I saw the bird briefly-however, very unsatisfactorily -- so much so -
that I insisted my sighting not be included as one of those in the Science
Article. However, I had 3 other acoustic encounters that were electrifying.
More on all that later.

Ivory-billed Woodpeckers still exist.

Let things in Brinkley settle down a bit. Then plan on visiting either Cache
River NWR or White River NWR. We had indications but never confirmation of
more than one bird in this vast area of over 300,000 acres. Unfortunately,
only sections of this area are undisturbed and there are no virgin tracts.
Few key areas still remain to be searched. But we have only used transects
in 8% of this huge area.

There are many new pieces of TNC land that have been bought and will be
planted to trees, and allowed to be restored to natural habitat. In 100
years we will have 1000's of acres of amazing Ivorybill habitat. This is not
about whether you and I ever get to see this bird. This is about whether we
can do things to encourage a species to survive. Our Grandchildren will
hopefully appreciate what we are doing now.

The following discussion is the result of hundreds of hours of conversations
with other team members, including Martjan Lammertink, considered by many to
be the leading expert on the worlds declining large woodpeckers. Jim Tanner
died a few years ago and believe me all of of wished he or George Sutton had
still been around to help us understand what was going on.

Although many things in Tanner's study apply there are many differences that
have occurred for the birds to have adapted and survived the bottle neck.

As to Bill Edelman's comments about Big Oak being too small- according to
TANNER standards- yes. And this is why the birds have been missed for so
long. We keep looking for habitat that is gone.There is no Singer Tract.
These blocks of large undisturbed bottomland forests have been totally
raped. However, any blocks of undisturbed virgin forest represent islands of
unique favorable habitat. Marginal habitat may surround these special
islands and act as subsistance level survival only feeding areas. However,
Bill may not be aware of how close Latourneau Woods (870 acre virgin forest
immediately north of Hickman, Kentucky), Donaldson Point CA and Reelfoot NWR
are to Big Oak. In terms of Ivory-billed Woodpecker in any century this is
not a significant distance. Put together, these 4 areas alone- involving 4
states- could easily represent a feeding area for a single bird. Given the
fact that no areas of virgin forest is found in Cache River nor White River
NWR we most be vigilant to use scientific analysis to explore and inventory
EVERY area of potential use to Ivory-billed Woodpecker.

In addition, skeptical ornithologists belittled men who reported encounters
with ivorybills. John Dennis's career was ruined and he very likely had
birds in the Big Thicket of eastern Texas in 1968. His recordings were
recently re-examined in light of the Arkansas bird and watch for future
papers on acoustic information of ivorybills.

Many biologists may be critically over estimating the importance of large
cerymbicid beetle larvae in the ivory-bills diet. The ONLY 3 stomachs ever
examined held 60% vegetable material including pecans, poison ivy berries,
wild grape, etc. This is probably the critical point to realize that IBWO's
had to find something else when the Singer was cut.

The birds at Singer left the areas alive. Ivorybills are very capable strong
fliers. Several key points to consider which drive home this point. Ivory
bills are not much larger than Pileateds but-- They have about 3 inches
longer wingspan and are about 3 larger from head to tip of tail as well. The
wings appear much longer and the tail as well. Perhaps the most important
point to consider is that Ivory-bills weigh nearly twice as much as
Pileateds do. This is not as critical in food requirements- but is very
relevant in terms of powered flight and speed.

Consider two other species very similar in size and how it effects feeding
behavior and other parameters. American Kestrel and Merlin are actually
really great comparative species. Merlin is much heavier, significantly more
powerful flyer and feeds in a different manner. So Ivorybills and Pileateds
are like Merlins are to Kestrels. Some one may want to refine my comments
but this is roughly it.

Throw out all the old ideas of home ranges of Tanner. Those were from a
habitat which no longer exists, there are no more blocks this large. The
only exception is the You can take what and expand it at least 5 times to
begin to understand what current Ivorybills must do. But the good news is
that at least some have made it through this bottleneck. If one looks at the
very good reports from Texas, Florida, South Carolina, Mississippi and yes
Louisiana and apply the difficulty we have had in documenting this bird then
one can see that it is very possible that several Ivorybills are out there.
Certainly, if Ivorybills live at least 15 years then in the past 15 years
there was a pair that bred and produced the male which has been positively
documented in Arkansas.

Dispersal is a difficult story. Young birds of most species disperse from
the parental home range. Colonial species have other sets of behavior.
Ivorybills fed in family groups often and Tanner was never able to document
any aggression between neighboring pairs. Our bird in Arkansas, fledged from
somewhere within the past 15 years. So there were 3 Ivorybills at the time
of fledging. Could the source pair have been in the Pearl River. Yes. Could
the source pair have been in a remote remnant forest swamp in northern
Florida- Yes.

When searching for larvae of beetles, Ivorybills chip away the bark, often
in very large pieces.. They tend to feed on freshly dying or newly dead
trees which beetles have recently invaded. We were very lucky to have
perhaps the only cerambycid/tenebrionid beetle expert in the world who was
not interested in KILLING them living right in Little Rock!!! So I was
excited to read Michael Warriner's papers early on and apply this knowledge
to my search images.

Tanner visited the White River in the 1940's and dismissed it as a place for
Ivorybills. He and others were not impressed by the Tupelo/cypress areas as
good habitat. Yet somehow as the hardwoods in adjacent tracts were
harvested, these ignored areas were left behind with 1600 year old monster
trees! We found several cavities that clearly were made by Ivorybills
although these showed no signs of recent use. Cypress are known as insect
resistant species but much of some searchers excitement was focused on this
species. We had some evidence that ivorybills were feeding on scolitidae
beetle larvae in upper branches of these trees.

What is needed is a massive effort of perhaps multiple years to find and
document Ivory-billed Woodpeckers in the south. There is an enormous amount
of habitat which could support birds. In the Pearl, I was told many times by
our team members who were involved in both crews, that the Tupelo/Cypress
breaks were ignored. The other factor is that everyone felt it would be easy
to hear and see the birds. We now know that these survivors have become very
wary of humans.

After a day long intensive hike through Big Oak Tree St. Pk and a follow up
conversation with Martjan Lammertink- I can state that peeling of Sweet Gum
bark done was done in a manner consistent with the characteristic methods
used by what we feel is certainly ivory-billed Woodpecker has been
photographically documented in Big Oak Tree St. Pk. There were two other
trees that were recently dead which showed characteristic peeling of bark
about 50 feet up. The number of peeled trees was not large throughout the
park but this is not found in Pileated only areas.

We have found that Pileated diggings are inconsistent with this type of
peeling. Ivory-bills often open up the trees and Pileated take advantage of
secondary beetle larvae that borers deeper into the dead trees. Tanner noted
that Ivorybills can also bore deeply into the dead wood areas of trees.

But - I doubt that if a bird is trap-lining a large feeding territory in
Missouri, Kentucky, and Tennessee that it is the same bird that is using the
areas in Arkansas.

Carol and I are working on a special offering of a Fair Trade/Shade
Grown/Organic Coffee we are finalizing the brew tomorrow and the label is
next. This coffee will feature a robust taste and we will donate $5.00 to
the Arkansas Chapter of The Nature Conservancy for each pound sold. For
those of you who don't know Carol started CAZBAR Coffee Traders LLC about a
year ago and is doing really wonderful things for Non-profits.

Unfortunately, scientific skepticism (witness the collected bird of Mason
Spencer) and a lack of passion (the destruction of the Singer tract) doomed
the Ivory-billed Woodpecker to be sent down a narrow dark corridor toward
oblivion. I will not be one who will sit back and not put my best efforts to
helping this bird recover.

I urge all of you to become involved in helping search Missouri to
thoroughly determine what is going on. It could take months of dedicated
search to uncover a bird that could be visiting Big Oak once a month for a
day at a time. Other areas, to mention just a few, like the Chipola river
forest , The neches river in Texas or the Congaree National Park (11,000
acres of Virgin bottomland forest) beckon. They deserve our best efforts to
follow up good reports.

I am 100% convinced that David Kullivan had a pair of Ivory-billed
Woodpeckers in the Pearl River in 2000. There were 100's of people involved
in that search and it turned up nothing. We didn't understand why--- until
this one became successful.

Very best to you all,

Tim

Timothy R. Barksdale
Birdman Productions L.L.C.
P.O. Box 1124
65 Mountain View Dr.
Choteau, MT 59422
406-466-2161

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