feeding sign

Camera Trap Photos | Cavities and Feeding Sign | evidence | Sightings and Auditory Encounters | Uncategorized | Updates
Evidence: Project Coyote 2009-2018
June 29, 2018
Summary Evidence collected by Project Coyote in two parts of Louisiana from 2009-2018 should, on its own, suffice to justify maintaining the Ivory-billed Woodpecker’s current listing as an extant, endangered species in the United States. Others may differ, but I think the totality of the evidence does even more, making a compelling case that the…
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Sightings and Auditory Encounters | Trip Reports
Trip Report: October 17-23, 2017
October 26, 2017
The first trip of the season was relatively uneventful, although we heard possible single and double knocks on Thursday morning and afternoon. Unusually heavy hunting activity and bad weather kept us out of the field on Saturday the 22nd and most of the Sunday the 23rd. Peggy Rardin Shrum joined me from Tuesday through Friday….
Read More Trip Report: October 17-23, 2017
Cavities and Feeding Sign | Ivory-bill History | Uncategorized | woodpecker anatomy
Bark: An Exegesis
February 25, 2017
Introduction: According to Tanner, scaling bark was the Ivory-billed Woodpecker’s primary foraging strategy during breeding season in Louisiana. Tanner wrote that the ivorybill is “capable of easily scaling away heavy bark that other woodpeckers could not loosen.” (Tanner 1942). All woodpeckers in genus Campephilus have specific anatomical characteristics that enable them to forage in this…
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Cavities and Feeding Sign | Habitat | Ivory-bill History | Uncategorized | woodpecker anatomy
Digging Deeper into Tanner, Part 2 of 3 – Foraging Substrates
March 19, 2016
Part 1 is here. The second observation from the Singer Tract I want to discuss took place in May 1932, when Audubon Society President, T. Gilbert Pearson and Audubon Sanctuary Director Ernest G. Holt were the first ornithologists to observe Ivory-billed Woodpeckers (a minimum of three separate individuals) on the Singer Tract. As discussed in…
Read More Digging Deeper into Tanner, Part 2 of 3 – Foraging Substrates
Cavities and Feeding Sign | Field Marks | Sightings and Auditory Encounters | Trip Reports | Updates
Trip Report, Part Two: March 31-April 5, 2015 – Sighting on 4/3/15
April 8, 2015
As mentioned in the Part One of this trip report, I was alone in the search area from March 31st to April 2nd. Frank Wiley joined me from April 3rd-5th. He had a very robust, brief sighting on the morning of the 3rd, and we had a possible auditory encounter on the 4th. Conditions changed…
Read More Trip Report, Part Two: March 31-April 5, 2015 – Sighting on 4/3/15
Cavities and Feeding Sign | Trip Reports
Trip Report, Part One: March 31-April 5, 2015
April 6, 2015
As always, my time in our search area was very productive – inspiring new insights and ideas and producing suggestive but inconclusive evidence that Ivory-billed Woodpeckers are present in this location and have been for years. The weather was considerably more cooperative this trip than on the two or three preceding ones, although temperatures edged…
Read More Trip Report, Part One: March 31-April 5, 2015
Cavities and Feeding Sign | Encounter rate | Sightings and Auditory Encounters | Trip Reports | Uncategorized | Updates
Trip Report Feb. 20-24, 2015: Still More Smoke
February 25, 2015
Note: this is a very image-heavy post, and most of them appear ‘below the fold’. Although we faced significant challenges during this trip, it was nonetheless a very productive one. I was joined by John Henry, the photographer who was with me when I recorded kent-like calls in March 2013. Work obligations kept Frank Wiley…
Read More Trip Report Feb. 20-24, 2015: Still More Smoke
Cavities and Feeding Sign | Habitat | Sightings and Auditory Encounters | Trip Reports | Uncategorized | Updates
Trip Report – December 26, 2014-January 3, 2015
January 3, 2015
Weather conditions were poor for a good part of this trip, but we did the best we could under the circumstances. I flew from New York to Louisiana on Christmas Day. During a layover in Dallas, I was uninterested in the food offerings in the terminal from which my puddle-jumper flight was slated to depart….
Read More Trip Report – December 26, 2014-January 3, 2015
Cavities and Feeding Sign | Updates
Is There a Way to Recognize Ivory-billed Woodpecker Excavation?
December 26, 2014
As most readers know, I have been very focused on feeding sign, and specifically on bark scaling, for several years and believe I have identified a diagnostic type of work that is beyond the physical capacity of any other woodpecker species. I have been far less focused on excavation because I was convinced that there was…
Read More Is There a Way to Recognize Ivory-billed Woodpecker Excavation?
Camera Trap Photos | Cavities and Feeding Sign | Updates
Rapid Evolution – I Think Not: More on Game Cams and Challenges
September 13, 2014
Cyberthrush’s blog has been an important resource for people with an interest in the IBWO for nearly a decade. I’ve agreed with him at times and have taken strong issue with him at others. His latest post falls into the latter category and strikes me as being somewhat irresponsible; it’s worthy of submission to The…
Read More Rapid Evolution – I Think Not: More on Game Cams and Challenges