Friday, January 22, 2010

New claim of ivory-bill sighting

A press release from a man named Daniel Rainsong claims he has twice found and photographed a living ivory-billed woodpecker. He gives the location only in general terms as "the southern Sabine River basin." That puts it in western Louisiana or eastern Texas. He has not released the photographs but says he has offered the leading ivory-bill specialists at universities the chance to examine them.
COMMENT: Another false alarm born of overenthusiasm and pileated woodpecker sightings? Hopefully, Mr. Rainsong's photographs are good enough to answer that question. Is is scientific to say, "Fingers crossed?"

Thanks to: Dale Drinnon for circulating this item.

ADDED: The commenter on this post has a superb blog which keeps up on all ivorybill news. Follow it at: http://ivorybills.blogspot.com/

2 comments:

cyberthrush said...

Walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, smells like a skunk, almost certainly a hoax...

Matt Bille said...

I agree the part about not putting out the photos "to maintain his interest in the discovery" has an unsettling whiff of the commercial about it. And I'm as guilty as anyone of WANTING some reports to be true. We will see if he follows through and submits his material to the experts.