Ghost birds - Jim Tanner and the quest for the ivory-billed woodpecker, 1935-1941

Auteur S.L. Bales
ISBN 9781572337176

In 1935 naturalist James T. Tanner was a twenty-one-year-old graduate student when he saw his first ivory-billed woodpecker, one of America's rarest birds, in a remote swamp in northern Louisiana. At the time, he was part of an ambitious expedition traveling across the country to record and photograph as many avian species as possible. Two years later, Tanner hit the road again, this time by himself and in search of only one species - that ever-elusive ivory-bill. Drawing on Tanner's personal journals 'Ghost birds' recounts the scientist's dogged quest for the ivory-bill as he chased down leads in eight southern states. Investigating the ivory-bill was particularly urgent because it was a fast-vanishing species, the victim of indiscriminate specimen hunting and widespread logging that was destroying its habitat. As sightings became rarer and rarer in the decades following Tanner's remarkable research, the bird was feared to have become extinct. The book contains a few b/w photographs of the expedition (no photos of the bird itself).

Meer over deze vogel is te vinden op:
http://www.birdinginarkansas.com/birding/ivory-billed-woodpecker.aspx

Slow-motion filmpje van deze uitgestorven gewaande vogel die in 2004 nog een keer gezien is.

http://clomedia.ornith.cornell.edu/IBW/IBW_4x.mov

Tja.

And the quest goes on:


http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/ivory-bill-woodpecker011.html


Er is nu een artikel gepubliceerd over de waarnmeningen uit 2004.

Wat een apart verhaal over het inklappen van de vleugels?

Een illustratie ter illustratie:

Heb net een nieuw boek besteld

The parrots of Luquillo
Natural history and conservation of the Puerto Rican parrot
by Noel Snyder

En verder wacht ik tot een nieuw boek over Kakapo's weer beschikbaar komt .

Nog 40 in het wild?

De laatste stand is iets positiever tussen de 50 en 70 vogels in het wild verspreid over 2 populaties. En dan nog eens meer dan 200 dieren in een in-situ kweekprogramma.

Kakapo: Rescued from the Brink of Extinction door Alison Ballance

'The kakapo is a bird that reminds me of the British motorbike industry. It had things its own way for so long that it simply became eccentric.' Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The kakapo is one of New Zealand's most charismatic yet mysterious birds. It is also one of the world's most threatened species and a New Zealand conservation success story. An ancient, flightless, nocturnal, herbivorous giant parrot, the kakapo was once numerous throughout the country but is now extinct in its natural range. At its low point, the population was reduced to as few as 40 known individuals, but thanks to the hard work and innovation of the Kakapo Recovery Programme, New Zealand's flagship threatened-species conservation programme, the kakapo population now exceeds 120. Despite this exciting turnaround, there has not been a significant book on the kakapo since 1989. The story of this remarkable bird embraces science, conservation, ingenuity and personal dedication. Through an informative and entertaining mix of hard facts, history, and accounts of the daily and seasonal routines of kakapo and their minders, Alison Ballance brings together these threads to describe the natural history of the bird and tell the inspiring story of the Kakapo Recovery Programme. Illustrated throughout and with an appendix giving details of all known kakapo, this book will appeal to anyone with an interest in the natural world of New Zealand.

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Kakapo-Alison-Ballance/9781877517273?b=-3&t=-20#Fulldescription-20

Uitstekend boek over het Kakapo Management programma. Veel prachtige foto's en goed geschreven. Daarnaast wordt er duidelijk uitgelegd welke problemen het programma heeft gehad en waarom bepaalde keuzes gemaakt zijn. Een aanrader voor iedereen die meer wil weten over deze prachtige soort, maar ook voor mensen die iets verder kijken en wat ideeen willen opdoen over hoe vogels te houden.

Het inklappen van de vleugels wordt ook gedaan door de groene specht.

nog een zeldzaam spechtje:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45064203/ns/technology_and_science-science/#.TsayiT2VpkY

Mooi dat dit soort filmpjes boven water komt en wordt gedigitaliseerd!