Posted on 07/22/2023 3:25:11 PM PDT by Theoria
The struggle to prove the majestic bird still exists has obsessed believers and exasperated doubters for a century. Now photographer Bobby Harrison is racing to document the species once and for all before the government declares it extinct
The bird has many names, often divinely inspired: the Lord God Bird, the Lazarus Bird, the Ghost Bird, the Grail Bird. Bobby Harrison is a religious man, but he doesn’t like any of them. He prefers to call it what it is: an ivory-billed woodpecker. “Well,” he says with a shrug, “it is just a bird, after all.”
That might seem like an undersell for someone who on this steaming August day is preparing to shove off into the humid, murky shade of an Arkansas swamp on his two-thousandth-plus search for the ivorybill, whose last-agreed-upon sighting in the United States occurred in 1944. But Harrison’s undersell has the ring of the believer: To him, the ivorybill is, like any other bird, made of hollow bones, feathers, a bill. It doesn’t have celestial powers; it’s not a messenger from on high. Instead, it’s still out in the Southern wilds, doing bird things, flying around as it always has. Harrison will tell you all this because he’s seen one. Other people will tell you, very firmly, that he has not—and the clock is now ticking for him to persuade them otherwise.
(Excerpt) Read more at gardenandgun.com ...
I love it when people who were not present decide what another person has seen. And, why in the world, must he "persuade them otherwise?" He knows what he saw.
In February 1989, on a backwater of the Tennessee River, I saw one. The markings on the back are unmistakable. I do not care what "experts" say. They weren't there. I won't try to "persuade" anyone. Their beliefs won't change what I saw.
I've seen all of those birds you mentioned. The woodpeckers look nothing like crows and ravens.
That would suit her just fine. She’ll squawk with delight.
A plywood plant in that part of the world in WWII was probably making it for Higgins boats.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LCVP_(United_States)
Thanks for posting this. I enjoyed reading it. Yes, long but well-written.
Interesting. It says they made them in Nawlins so I guess it is possible. They whacked down miles and miles of trees.
I think the poster was commenting on the similarity of those two woodpeckers being close like crows and ravens. (I’m a huge fan of ravens.)
I withdraw my statement. I misunderstood.
The two woodpeckers are very similar. The white markings on the back of the ivory-billed are very distinctive and separate one from the other. Not all birds are sufficiently obliging to let the viewer see their backs (or in other birds, the distinctive breast, or eye-ring, etc.).
No problemo. I don’t have any cool woodpeckers here in NM, just ones that try to beat holes in my house. But I’ve got ravens easily 15 years old and a whole society built around them.
A chunk of the D-Day Museum in NOLA is dedicated to the Higgins boat.
My wife went there last week when she was in town. She says it is a first-class museum.
Thanks Theoria.
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