Kints: The Ice Swamp: On Melkor's Road, 3 January 2018

"...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."

Wednesday, January 31, 2018

The Ice Swamp: On Melkor's Road, 3 January 2018

Brian and I chose one of the coldest days of the season to hike Big Swamp. Temperatures rose to only about 20 degrees (Fahrenheit) after midday. The swamp was dark and gloomy in the cold and both our cameras and eyes had difficulty focusing, to the point that we missed at least one important fork in the trail that resulted in our having to make a disconcerting backtrack. We also somehow missed the short path that leads to Melkor's Pond and the rather menacing baldcypress that guards it. I have never seen ice in the Pascagoula River Basin in our years of exploring it (since 2014). Water levels were significantly higher than on my last trip; we unfortunately got our feet wet more than once, and were obliged to make a risky crossing of German Slough towards the end of the hike.

The birds were mostly quiet. We neither saw nor heard anything suggestive of Ivorybills or their activity, though while along Melkor's Road we both heard the same strange, distant calling that had mystified me on my previous hike there. I suspect it was a squirrel, but the acoustics of that place may have been playing tricks on our ears.

White-tailed deer were very active. We had pleasant conversations with hunters on ATV's on two different occasions, and they seemed a bit amazed at the ground we had covered on foot (around 12 miles total, by Brian's measure).

We were making for Hog Pond, but it remained elusive as before, and we were obliged to turn back after hiking around eight hours.

Photo: Brian Carlisle.

Fresh woodpecker work on the forest floor.

Photo: Brian Carlisle.

I suspect Pileated Woodpecker. Photo: Brian Carlisle.

Photo: Brian Carlisle.

Photo: Brian Carlisle.

Photo: Brian Carlisle.

Photo: Brian Carlisle.

Photo: Brian Carlisle.

Photo: Brian Carlisle.

Photo: Brian Carlisle.

Photo: Brian Carlisle.

Photo: Brian Carlisle.

Photo: Brian Carlisle.

Photo: Brian Carlisle.

Photo: Brian Carlisle.

The steel ATV bridge over this slough was completely submerged. Photo: Brian Carlisle.

Photo: Brian Carlisle.

Photo: Brian Carlisle.

The gloom gave way to blue skies as we made our way north up Big Swamp Road.

Photo: Brian Carlisle.

Ever troublesome German Slough, along our return hike. Brian and I successfully crossed it via the same downed tree we have used in the past, though on this day it was partially submerged in icy water. Photo: Brian Carlisle

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Our Ivorybill Library

Gallagher, Tim. 'The Grail Bird: Hot on the Trail of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker.' A well-written and engrossing read by one of the few active Ivorybill searchers, documenting the "Rediscovery" in Arkansas in 2004 and the subsequent efforts to document the species there.
Hoose, Philip. 'The Race to Save the Lord God Bird.' Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004. Now a bit dated, but still a good general history of the species and its relationship with humans in both the United States and Cuba.
Jackson, Jerome A. 'In Search of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker.' Smithsonian Books, 2004. A true cornerstone of the literature by an expert on Ivorybills.
Snyder, Noel F.R., Brown, David E., and Clark, Kevin B. 'The Travails of Two Woodpeckers: Ivory-Bills & Imperials.' University of New Mexico Press, 2009. An important and somewhat controversial work that challenges some long-held assumptions regarding the decline of the Ivory-bill. The book also raises important questions about successful approaches to species conservation.
Steinberg, Michael K. 'Stalking the Ghost Bird: The Elusive Ivory-billed Woodpecker in Louisiana.' Louisiana State University Press, 2008.
Tanner, James T. 'The Ivory-billed Woodpecker." 2003 Dover Publications reprint of the 1942 monograph. Essential reading for the serious student of Ivorybill lore.