MDOsprey Readers -  See the note below (written by one of our Talbot County
Bird Club members) for a very refreshing idea on how to respond to the
wonderful news that at least one Lord God Bird still lives! This idea does
not involve a trip to Arkansas, and also won't place any of us at the mercy
of the poisonous snakes and clouds of biting insects that are surely rampant
down there right now.  It will let the bird do, without interruption,
whatever it is that it has been doing since the last authenticated sighting
of six decades or more ago.
                                        Les R.
Les Roslund

Talbot County
Easton, MD
 
-----Original Message-----
From: McLoudPeak [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: Wednesday, May 11, 2005 1:00 PM
To: Leslie Roslund
Subject: Ivory-Billed Woodpecker

Dear Les & Fellow Birders,

            Two or three days after the rediscovery of the Ivory-Billed
Woodpecker was announced, I received an e-mail from a fellow birder
describing his excitement about the news and the plans he was already making
to try to get out to Arkansas to see the bird.  I was appalled.  Here was an
animal that has managed to sustain itself for sixty-some-odd years by
remaining completely out-of-sight of man; yet as soon as it is rediscovered,
people who supposedly love birds are apparently already making plans to beat
a thousand destructive paths to its last swampy redoubt.  I e-mailed my
acquaintance back that I hoped they would put a tremendous wall up around
the place, refuse admittance to anyone without a legitimate reason for being
there (i.e. involved in approved efforts to preserve the species).  

            Of course I don't really hope this (such a wall might well prove
as destructive to the Ivory-Bills as it assuredly would be to that of the
area's terrestrial animals), but I do think those of us who love birds and
get some of our greatest pleasure from observing birds should take the lead
in preserving this very special example of the American avifauna.  With this
in mind, I propose a new category of bird-watching, something I call "Zen
Birding".  

            The point of Zen Birding would be to appreciate the beauty of a
bird-its Zen-by not seeing it.  By sacrificing any attempt to actually see
the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker, one would be contributing to the chances of its
survival.  Buttons proclaiming, "I Did Not See The Ivory-Billed Woodpecker!"
could be printed up and awarded to those who made such a commitment.  (Or
maybe one picturing an Ivory-Billed that simply reads, "Its Zen Is #468 On
My Life-List".)  To those birders willing to donate the cost of a trip to
Arkansas to the Nature Conservancy's Ivory-Billed Woodpecker
restoration/preservation plan, the charity could offer special gold buttons
stating "I Did Not Intrude Upon The Habitat Of The Ivory-Billed
Woodpecker!", or, better yet, "I Did Not Intrude Upon The Zen Of The
Ivory-Billed Woodpecker!".  

If such a campaign were run properly, it wouldn't be long before birders'
natural tendency toward one-ups-manship would result in an ethic of avoiding
Arkansas' Big Woods altogether; birders might actually reach a point where
they looked down upon those of their brethren that claimed to have seen an
Ivory-Billed, pitying them for holding such an unenlightened attitude.  And
who knows, maybe the Lord God Bird would not only survive but even,
eventually, thrive.

             Just a thought.

Peace,
Bill Peak