Trip allows early chance to see birds Experts seek out rare woodpecker

Although I am excited about the return of spring with its vanguard of long-distance migrants, after seven Maine winters I find myself longing for something more.

Don’t get me wrong; I’ve come to appreciate the subtlety of spring in this state. But because it will still be a month or more before things really get going, I’ve decided to take the opportunity to meet the season as it advances up the coast. I’m going to Florida to enjoy sun, sand, and of course – birds.

The trip is my first to the Sunshine State, which is home to between 400 and 500 native bird species. Many areas of the state are also vital stopover points for migrating birds that have crossed the Gulf of Mexico, and I may have a good chance of spotting some. About 200 species remain there to breed, and I will see the beginning of nesting season – something that doesn’t start up here until May.

In addition, Florida was – once upon a time – part of the ethereal ivory-billed woodpecker’s range. Some of you may recall my column about the pileated woodpecker in February.

In it, I mentioned the similar ivory-billed woodpecker, and how it was believed to have gone extinct sometime in the mid-1900s. It was reported in Cuba in 1988, but sightings of the bird in the United States continued to be sketchy and unverifiable; nevertheless, they kept surfacing over the years. Periodic searches were conducted without success.

In recent years, a few reports from knowledgeable birders have again stirred the ornithological community to action. Two teams were organized and searched the Pearl River Wildlife Management Area in Louisiana, where the most credible reports originated.

The first team, sponsored by Zeiss Sports Optics, spent 30 days between January and February in the area and found tantalizing, but inconclusive, evidence of possible ivory-billed woodpecker occupation. The second team is from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and will remain in the area until mid-March. Both teams had recorded what might be an ivory-billed’s drumming, and had seen what might be evidence of the bird’s foraging habits and nesting cavities. No one can say for sure, since the bird itself was never actually seen.

The researchers have exercised such caution and skepticism because pileated woodpeckers are common in their search area, and they need to be absolutely certain of their findings before announcing that the ivory-billed woodpecker is back from the dead.

One of the last people to have prolonged contact with the ghostly species was Dr. James Tanner, an ornithologist who studied America’s largest woodpecker for 21 months in the late 1930s. Even he found the birds hard to locate and observe, so it gives me hope that they still exist in their old southern haunts.

This quote of Tanner’s in Bird Watcher’s Digest gave the bird a fitting tribute: “…not only were the ivory-billed woodpeckers very rare birds, they looked like rare birds. Their plumage, in bold pattern, glistened, their big bills shone white, and their piercing yellow eyes held the look of a king. I never tired of watching them.”

Hopefully, we and those who come after may yet have the opportunity to observe what the American Birding Association calls “this ghost of old river bottoms.”

Those who would like to know more about this bird can visit the American Birding Association’s Web site, at: http://americanbirding.org/news/newsstories.htm.

The Bird Watcher’s Digest issue mentioned above was the July/August 2000 issue. Their Web site is www.birdwatchersdigest.com.

Chris Corio’s column on birds is published each Saturday. Corio, a volunteer at Fields Pond Nature Center in Holden, can be reached at fieldspond@juno.com