"...the ornithologists still had serious doubts. Sutton finally put it directly: 'Mr. Spencer, you're sure the bird you're telling us about isn't the big pileated woodpecker?'

"Spencer exploded. 'Man alive! These birds I'm tellin' you all about is kints!' he shouted in their faces. 'Why, the pileated woodpecker's just a little bird about as big as that.' He held his fingers a few inches apart. 'A kint's as big as that!' he said, holding his arms wide... 'Why, man, I've known kints all my life. My pappy showed 'em to me when I was just a kid. I see 'em every fall when I go deer huntin' down aroun' my place on the Tinsaw. They're big birds, I tell you, big and black and white; and they fly through the woods like pintail ducks!'

"After Spencer's outburst, the members of the team were all believers -- not just because of his vehemence, but because his description was so accurate. Ivory-bills do not have the typical bounding flight of the pileated woodpecker. They generally fly away high and straight, with stiff flight feathers, looking very much like a pintail, and their call is a distinctive nasal kent, kent, kent -- very similar to the local name Spencer used, kint. Sutton and the others couldn't wait to get to the bayou and start searching.

"As it turned out, that was not an easy proposition..." --Gallagher, Tim. The Grail Bird: Hot on the Trail of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, pp. 10-11: "Of People and Peckerwoods."

Sunday, April 12, 2015

The "Big White Traffic Cone": Latest Update from Project Coyote

I've been out of town for several days, but wanted to call attention as soon as I could to the latest -- and very encouraging -- trip report (in two parts) by Mark to the Project Coyote site.  Well worth the read!

Weather permitting, tomorrow my brother Brian and I will kayak back into the Big Swamp area of the Pascagoula River basin for a further survey of the habitat.  It's been raining here a day or two, and no doubt the bugs will be nearly intolerable.  I will, in all honesty, be more at ease with a fellow experienced hiker along.  The remoteness and difficulty of the terrain can be daunting.




Posted by at

3 comments:

  1. Mark MichaelsApril 14, 2015 at 8:02 AM

    There's an error in Peterson's drawing related to a field mark that Frank recorded in his notes. Many of the renditions, including Audubon's, contain the same mistake.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Christopher CarlisleApril 14, 2015 at 7:46 PM

    Is it that the chevron on the rump that Frank mentions is missing from Peterson's drawing?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mark MichaelsApril 14, 2015 at 8:11 PM

    Yes. A lot of illustrations suggest that the dorsal stripe runs into the wing feathers, ending at the inner secondaries, but they actually converge on the lower back It's shown in the wallpaper although perhaps excessively. Sibley describes it but doesn't always show it in his drawings. Some of the photos of "Sonny Boy" show it well. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/a-close-encounter-with-the-rarest-bird-54437868/

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)