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Florida Sighting May Bring Birders Flocking - 2006/09/30 16:24
Local News Article
Florida sighting could bring birders flocking to the area
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September 28, 2006
Joyce Owen
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http://www.buythegulf.com/ivorybilledwoodpecker
No one knew what M.C. Davis’ big announcement might be last week when he began calling government officials and members of the media to invite them to dinner at the 3-Thirty-1 café on Sept. 25. Most guests anticipated the local philanthropist and land owner would announce an addition to his growing greenway near Freeport. However, they were surprised when Davis told the group of about 50 an Ivory-billed woodpecker had been sighted along the Choctawhatchee River on the Nokuse Plantation.
The Ivory-billed woodpecker, thought to be extinct until reports from Arkansas last spring indicated the very large woodpecker had been sighted there, has been officially listed as an endangered species.
“This is a really big story,” Todd Wilkinson said in a telephone interview on Wednesday. “It is not only big for Walton County, it is big news for the world.”
Wilkinson is a die-hard birder who understood the significance of the announcement but said not everyone at the meeting realized what it could mean.
After reported sightings of the Ivory-billed woodpecker in Brinkley, Ark., Dr. Geoffery Hill, an Auburn University ornithologist, and a team of graduate students began a search of the Choctawhatchee River floodplain in hopes of finding evidence of the woodpecker here.
The team’s evidence that the Ivory-billed woodpecker exists here in Florida was 30 times greater than what was offered in the Arkansas sighting, Davis said.
At the meeting Monday night, attendees heard recordings of the distinctive “double knock” and “kent” calls that were collected over a 14-month period. There are more than 200 recordings. There were also 14 sightings of three individual birds, but no photographs.
Mark Bailey, of Conservation Southeast, has known about the Ivory-billed woodpecker all of his life and after reviewing the evidence gathered by the researchers said, “I really do believe there are Ivory-billed woodpeckers on the Choctawhatchee.”
Bailey offered a glimpse into the decline of the habitat that the woodpecker favored – old-growth bottomland hardwood forests in the southeastern United States. “Through the years, the numbers dwindled as areas were logged out, he said.
By the 1930s, everybody thought it was extinct until someone brought in a dead bird, he said.
On Sept. 13, Bailey went to Hill’s office where he saw the evidence.
“I came walking out of there as sure as I can be without seeing one,” he said.
To provide conclusive proof that the Ivory-bill exists visual evidence – either photos or video – must be obtained. Teams will begin a second search in November to seek out the Ivory-bill and document the sightings.
What can Walton County expect?
Even though there is no conclusive evidence the woodpecker might be living on the Plantation, the announcement is expected to bring birders to this area in the hopes that they might see the elusive bird.
Last year’s announcement brought hundreds of birders to Brinkley, said Sandra Kimmer, of the Brinkley Chamber of Commerce.
From a chamber perspective, Kimmer said, “I loved the attention it brought to our wonderful beautiful swamp where the bird might have been. Everybody loves a comeback story, and it was a comeback story.”
It was a comeback not only for the Ivory-bill, but also for the little town of Brinkley the closest town to the preserve where the woodpecker was sighted. Before the sightings, its major claim to fame was as the Duck Hunting Capital of the World, Kimmer said.
The town, with 3,600 residents, is about halfway between Memphis, Tenn. and Little Rock, Ark. and saw a 30 percent increase in visitors.
The Chamber even hosted a birding festival in the spring. They were disappointed when only about 300 people attended, until they learned the usual attendance for such events was about 50.
Although things slowed down when there were no new sightings this year, Kimmer said the economy improved. The motels and restaurants did a lot better, and people found out about the other things the area offered. She anticipated the visitors that came to search for the woodpecker would return to Brinkley for vacations.
With the announcement of the sightings on the Nokuse Plantation, Kimmer said the area should be prepared.
“Birders will descend on the area,” she said.
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