North Coast Diaries

More on Ivory-billed Woodpecker

The New York Times published a follow-up on the announcement of impending criticism of the proofs for the re-discovery of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker in Arkansas. According to the Times both sides are putting on a public face that this is just normal scientific peer review. It is not clear whether the decorum will continue after the papers are published.

The critique will appear in the open access online science journal PLoS Biology. PLoS has an embargo policy which is why most of the principals are not talking (much).

I think we can expect the criticisms to center on the 4 seconds of video, which were alledgedly enhanced to bring out details of the images on them. It should be noted that no one is suggesting that any of this is an effort of pull a hoax, rather unbridled zeal and wishful thinking may be involved. Some of the more recent doubters are heavy hitters like David Sibley and Kenn Kaufman. One can postulate that at least some of their doubts come from inside information most of us would not have access to.

My concerns from the very beginning have always had less to do with Ivory-billed Woodpeckers and more to do with conservation dollars. When Gail Norton promised money to woodpecker protection, it wasn't new money. It was money pulled from other endangered species projects. The Bush administration continues to chip away at environmental protections, mostly through a process of blatant disregard for scientific data and deliberated disinformation campaigns.

The rediscovery of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker could actually end up causing more extinctions....

Lesser Sandplovers

Two Lesser Sand-plovers (Charadrius mongolus, aka Mongolian Plover) have turned up on the west coast this summer. The first was at Clam Beach, Humboldt Co. CA on July 9-12. I was unable to find out how many California Records there are, though Paulson (1993) put the number at 4 at that time.

The second was a bird seen on the Necanicum Estuary, Seaside, Clatsop Co., OR from July 16 to July 19 (extensive searching on July 20 failed to turn the bird up). This is the fourth Oregon Record , the last was from July, 1986. Given that the earlier Humboldt individual was seen more than 300 miles south of the later Clatsop individual, it's probably safe to assume they are different individuals. The Clatsop bird has a distinctive chip a the tip of the upper mandible that should give the photo analysts something to do.

The "Mongolian" Plover, is the east Asian subspecies of Lesser Sand-plover and is a very striking bird. It has the posture of a Mountain Plover (Charadrius montanus) and a bright, orangy-rufus head which made the Necanicum stand out from the 400+ Semipalmated Plovers (Charadrius semipalmatus) with which it kept close company. We watched the Clatsop bird pull numerous long dark polychaetes from the mud.

Ivory-billed buzz kill

According to an article published in the New York Times, there are a few academics who are skeptical about the evidence put forth documenting the existence of IVORY-BILLED WOODPECKERS in Arkansas.

Apparently, Richard O. Prum ornithologists at Yale, Mark B. Robbins of the University of Kansas, and Jerome A. Jackson, a zoologist at Florida Gulf Coast University and the author of the book, "In Search of the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker," will be be publishing an analysis of the evidence that calls most of the conclusions into question. The article will be in a peer reviewed journal and the principals in the original discovery paper will give a detailed rebuttal. For some reason, the journal of publication is being kept secret.

The times article quotes Mr. Jackson as follows: "the data presented thus far do no more than suggest the possibility of the presence of an ivory-billed woodpecker. I am most certainly not saying that ivory-billed woodpeckers are not out there. I truly hope that the birds do exist in Arkansas or elsewhere and have been championing this idea for a long time."

It's not clear whether we should make anything out of the fact that the skeptics are from Yale, Kansas, and Florida...

Beginner's luck

When I think back to my early days as a beginning birdwatcher, I can remember how the folks I was birding with thought I was incredibly lucky. I hit the 300 species mark in Oregon much faster than was typical for the times (no internet, intermittent phones trees, no car of my own). Of course the older I got the less it seemed to be about luck and the more it seemed like persistence. I see the numbers and kinds of birds that I see not so much because I'm lucky, than because I spend a lot of time in the field. What makes me lucky is that I have the time to spend in the field and a family that understands.

But I can't dismiss the notion of beginner's luck out of hand. There seems to be something about being new to an activity that gives a newbie special powers. There are several up-and-coming young birders who have made some impressive and well documented finds recently.

And I have to say, I've been feeling pretty lucky again myself, not so much as a birder but rather as a butterfly and dragonfly watcher, two avocations I've seriously taken up only recently. I can tell it must look like luck, because the old pros I communicate with use a lot of wows with exclamation points in response to many of my reports. They express polite doubt, exactly the same way I do with unusual bird reports. And they routinely want to double-check my details and photographs. Honest skepticism and peer review are essential to good science, but they also send a pretty clear signal that some of what I'm seeing is surprising them.

So, what is it about the newcomer that produces this rare luck? I think it breaks down to enthusiasm, naiveté and location.

There is a difference in the degree of enthusiasm a newcomer brings to the field. More things are likely to be new, so the newcomer is probably watching things more closely. Newcomers are also not burdened by experience. They do not have as many preconceived notions about what should or should not be seen in a particular place or at a particular time. They're more open to possibilities. And newcomers are far more likely to look in novel places, places near where they live that an out-of-towner would not necessarily think to go. They know their territory.

Of course, the other side of enthusiasm, naiveté and location is that it's easy to get carried away. For every properly documented, lucky find there is the over-exuberant mistake. My years of birding experience have helped me keep my newbie tendencies toward overzealousness in check (at least to some degree) in identifying butterflies and dragonflies. And my understanding of the need to properly document the unusual has kept me out of most of the binds I've seen newcomers fall into with those who have more experience. Experience counts for something and the newbie needs to be as open to the possibilty of error as he is to the possibilty of discovery.

I fully expect my luck to run out as I gain experience in watching butterflies and dragonflies, but I have to to say I'm enjoying the rush of satisfaction over finding interesting things and having others say "WOW!!!"

June Lowdown

Weather through June was mixed, but mostly rainy with below normal temperatures.

June is never a particularly surprising month for unusual bird species. WESTERN BLUEBIRDS were found at several locations including the top of Saddle Mt. Shorebirds began their southbound migration by about the third week, SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER and LONG-BILLED CURLEW being the notable. GREAT EGRETS continued to be seen at Svensen Island suggesting a nearby breeding colony. Also on Svensen, a pair of BLUE-WINGED TEAL, but no sign of youngsters.

Butterfly news is perhaps a bit brighter. The GREAT ARCTICS are flying on Saddle Mt. MOSS'S ELFINS were well documented from late-May through 30 June. SONORAN SKIPPER was photo-documented at Klaskanine Fish Hatchery (second county record). A COMMON ROADSIDE SKIPPER was seen at Nicolai Mt. This continues to be a heavy flight year for PAINTED LADIES. Other Vanessa species are also doing well, especially WEST COAST LADIES and RED ADMIRABLES.

Equally intriguing was the report of a strange moth using YELLOW SAND-VERBENA at Gearhart. The description seems to match a rare species, so far only recorded on Vancouver Island and in the northern Puget Sound. Copablepharon fuscum is a nocturnal species and is best observed by night-lighting a site. We will try in the next week or so, if we get the weather, to survey sites to find it. Perhaps the July lowdown...