Monday, March 13, 2006

Depressing News on the Pecker Front

Twitchers in a flap over elusive pecker | The Register:
"'Very rare' bird actually extinct all along?
By Chris Williams
Published Monday 13th March 2006 14:59 GMT

It was with great fanfare last summer that the US Fish and Wildlife service trumpeted the rediscovery of an apparently 'extinct' species: the ivory-billed woodpecker. Until a Cornell team reported the sighting in a Arkansas swamp, the iconic bird had not been spotted for more than 60 years.

The revelation was the hottest news to hit the bird watching community in years, and the administration moved quickly to appoint a dedicated 'recovery team'. They threw $10m at the tenuous grip on existence the species happily seemed to retain.

But now, almost a year on with no further sightings, others are casting aspersions on the original Science identification."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Well, I confess, as a bird watcher, I was pretty excited about that one myself. Sigh, too bad it didn't work out. I remember seeing the pictures.

We have a hawk (not exciting to most maybe, but exciting to us) that hangs around in our yard. He's kinda dumb, (landing where he shouldn't when he was a baby) but he's learning.