Two entirtely different things that have been on my mind lately:

[a nameless entity]

1)The Ivory Billed Woodpecker has been "officially" declared extinct recently. This was rather surprising to me, as my father's old bird identifying book that was reprinted in the 1950's (and copy-righted in 1901) considered the species most likely extinct, but with vague hopes that some might survive in the deep swamps of the US south. And this was said about the species 120 years ago, in 1901!
I'd sure like to believe that some are still around in the US deep south, or in Cuba, but there have been no confirmed sightings anywhere since 1944.
May we all be pleasantly surprised some day!

2)The Webb Deep Space Telescope originally scheduled for launch on December 18th, is now confirmed to be a "GO" for launch at 7:20 A.M. Friday December 24th.

Dear Santa: Please let the launch go safely, and may the telescope deploy properly and work flawlessly. That's all I want for Christmas!

[Hermskii]

I thought I saw a thing on TV this last year where somebody said they saw the woodpecker in a swamp area a year earlier. I saw footage of the people go back to the same area looking for it but did not see one this time around. Were they hunted to extinction or were they just unable to survive in the ever changing world.

I too want this big new telescope to launch successfully and provide awesome images of stuff in space.

Merry Christmas all.

[a nameless entity]

Their numbers were drastically reduced in the 1800's due to the cutting down of their forest habitats. They are/were a very large bird, and required a large territory to have enough to eat. They may have been hard on their habitat too, as they were a powerful bird known to strip the bark off of trees in order to get at the bugs underneath.

In 1988 I was in Pt Charlotte Florida. The neighbourhood where my parents had rented a house for the winter had many completely undeveloped lots scattered throughout. One day I was able to get very close to a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers feeding on a fallen dead tree. They were very large birds. The Ivory Billed Woodpecker was even larger still, so I understand why they would need a huge territory, and why they are probably all gone now.


The telescope has launched and deployed perfectly. I can't wait to see the first images it sends back! Other good news: the amount of fuel left over is much more than was expected, so they now project a possible 20 year life span for the telescope as opposed to the original estimate of 10 years.

[a nameless entity]

RE: The Ivory Billed Woodpecker:
I've still got vague hopes that this bird still exists. Here are two interesting links:

https://www.ecowatch.com/ivory-billed-w ... ction.html

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as ... -1.6560105

This second one has drone footage of a possible sighting. Watch it full screen and look to see the bright white markings on the birds back, a sure identifier.
The image of the bird is quite small, and so it's quite possible that it is not an ivory billed woodpecker. But I have hopes that it is.

[a nameless entity]

I heard on the radio today that there was new footage of a reported Ivory Billed Woodpecker sighting. I checked it out, and there is some very poor quality phone video of a large woodpecker on a telephone pole shot in Ohio. Ohio used to be part of this birds range. But the video is so dark, it's impossible to tell if this was an actual Ivory Billed Woodpecker, or just the slightly smaller Pileated Woodpecker.

The Pileated Woodpecker has a slate coloured bill, and does not have the bright white plumage of the Ivory Billed Woodpecker lower down on its back.
Too bad the video is so dark. WDTN channel 2 news in the Miami Valley of Ohio has since reported that this sighting is most likely NOT one of an Ivory Billed Woodpecker, but just another Pileated Woodpecker sighting, a common bird in their area.

Too bad!

[a nameless entity]

Here is an interesting story about a related species of an even larger woodpecker called "The Imperial Woodpecker". This larger relative of the Ivory Billed Woodpecker lived in Mexico. It too is now believed to be extinct, or nearly extinct maybe, but certainly on its way to extinction. And for all the same reasons as its cousin in the USA, and worse. Logging destroyed most of its habitat. Modern searches for the bird in 2010 along areas too hard to be logged ran into significant and dangerous problems. Very powerful drug cartels are using these areas, and are currently at war with the Mexican army. The cartels are burning what is left of the habitat. The species is doomed, if still around, it appears. (I just skimmed the article at this point, I'll read it in full later.)

In 1956 a man shot about 85 seconds total in colour, of a female imperial woodpecker in 16mm from his seat on a donkey. The footage is split into 3 parts, but in one shot you can clearly see her foraging on a dead pine, and you can also see the white feathers on her lower back.

Read it, watch it, and weep here:

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/retu ... oodpecker/

Oh, and here are some interesting factoids about the Ivory Billed Woodpecker. I followed the link here I think? to get to some articles about the Imperial Woodpecker.

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Ivo ... r/overview#

[a nameless entity]

Here's an interesting story about another animal long believed to be extinct, that may not be after all. I saw this on the CBS 60 Minutes show last night. (14 April 2024)

https://www.cbs.com/shows/video/t3AKTpx ... F5pDP7RKF/

It's the so called "Tasmanian Tiger", thought to be extinct since 1936. There's modern footage of similarly shaped creatures dashing about the landscape, although no distinct images that prove beyond doubt that the Tasmanian Tiger still lives. What I saw was very intriguing, for sure. I think they're still out there in the forests. Certainly, I hope so.

[a nameless entity]

I saw a nature program about Patagonia last week. I forget the name of the woodpeckers that are native to that area, but they were large, and similarly coloured to the Ivory billed and Imperial woodpeckers. Like the Ivory billed species, the female has an all black head, and the male has a bright red head. And they both have white feathers on their lower backs. So they are definitely related to the American and Mexican (and probably extinct) species. Like their northern counterparts, they require a large and intact habitat to survive, and so of course they are now a threatened species. Damn.

[Hermskii]

Saw something on the news today talking about how woodpeckers are attracted to the Ring Doorbell Cameras and peck on them a bunch. This often drives people and dogs crazy hearing the doorbell all of the time and finding nobody there. Luckily, they get caught on the video so people do figure it out eventually.

[a nameless entity]

I've had woodpeckers hammer on my roof many times. Perhaps I should be glad I don't have a doorbell.

Is this the story you were referring to? https://www.cnn.com/videos/entertainmen ... id-bdk.cnn

The off topic bear anecdotes sound scary. That lady who gets the bear to close the door after himself sounds both unflappable and clever though.

[a nameless entity]

I found an archive of Ivory Woodpecker calls and drumming sounds. The 1935 by recording by Arthur Allen is excellent, despite some background click & pop and hiss. (probably a direct to disk recording)

The Texas recording by John Dennis of 1968 only has a few faint calls at the beginning, but it's both exciting and heartbreaking to realize that some of these birds were still around so relatively recently.

https://search.macaulaylibrary.org/cata ... _rank_desc

[a nameless entity]

I found an archive of Ivory Billed Woodpecker calls and drumming sounds. The 1935 recording by Arthur Allen is excellent, despite some background click & pop and hiss. (probably a direct to disk recording)

The Texas recording by John Dennis of 1968 only has a few faint calls at the beginning, but it's both exciting and heartbreaking to realize that some of these birds were still around so relatively recently.

https://search.macaulaylibrary.org/cata ... _rank_desc

There are two examples of B&W footage of these birds. One is 31 seconds long, and the other is 15 seconds long, and are worth a look:

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Ivo ... ery/487450