IVORY-BILL SEARCH: ARKANSAS SOJOURN (part 1):
A time of PB&J, Slim Jims, Hostess Ding-Dongs, and unopened, big cans of
Dinty Moore beef stew (unopened because Marty Daniels masterminded a feast
for us every night; de gustibus non est disputandum). Cotton Plant,
Arkansas, February 19 - March 4, 2006. Bayou de View & Cache River
National Wildlife Refuge areas.
The CONFIDENTIALITY agreement we all signed prohibits us from revealing any
positive (or negative) information on whether or not we saw or heard the
IBWO. Cornell will make an appropriate announcement after the present
search effort ends this April.
I have just heard from the Cornell Ivory-bill Project Communications &
Marketing staff who have requested that I not include 3 paragraphs of my
original report and to not include small sections of 2 other paragraphs. I
hope that I have otherwise adhered below to what they would like.
2,648.8 miles, going, once there, and on the return.
It is my privilege to be a volunteer for the Cornell University Laboratory
of Ornithology Ivory-billed Woodpecker Search Team for 2 weeks.
I must say, having been absorbed by (but not obsessed by - the way some
are) IBWO for a year+, I am increasingly struck, almost on a daily basis,
with the byzantine subplots, suspicions, prejudices, estrangements even,
that imbue its rediscovery. There are some real characters involved. It
is a very human story and all of that is natural, easy to understand,
predictable even. Overriding any of this is the presence, hard work,
knowledge, intelligence, camaraderie, empathy, and good will of the many
good people involved.
"The best camouflage is motionlessness." Col. Richard H. Meinertzhagen,
author of "Birds of Arabia", "Nicoll's Birds of Egypt", "Kenya diary",
"Pirates and predators", "Diary of a black sheep", etc., and one of my
heroes though at times he was a scalawag.
DRAMATIS PERSONAE: Thumbnail sketches. For the most part the length of
these is commensurate with how long I have known them. I have known, in
part, myself for 65 years.
Beth Wright: Beth is the Volunteer Coordinator for the Cache R.-Bayou de
View crew. She is an excellent instructor, articulate, with boundless
energy, of good cheer, and always there for counsel via the cell phone
while we are in the field, and is often in the field herself. She has had
an amazing variety of experience in the out-of-doors. This woman could run
a corporation, and run it good. Problems come up, she confronts them,
solves them. Bam!
Bob Ake: Retired chemistry professor, Old Dominion University. Veteran
world traveler, pioneered Outer Banks pelagic birding in the late
1960s-early 1970s. Treasurer, Coastal Virginia Wildlife Observatory (Bob,
Bob Anderson [who was at Cotton Plant 2 cohorts ago] and I were CVWO's 1st
3 life members). Does surveys at Fisherman Island and Back Bay N.W.R.s.
Big (BIG) St. Louis Cardinal fan, does combined baseball (spring
training)/birding trips to Florida. As with me, loves classical music.
Bonnie Gall: Mother of twins, grandmother, member of the Oklahoma rarities
committee, has a Ph.D. in chemistry. One morning this somewhat petite
lady, at 0530 hours, announced: "We should leave in 15 minutes; we've been
getting out there too late." Funny, she didn't SEEM like a drill sergeant.
Carl Perry. Present in spirit. Was to be part of this cohort but demands
of his corporation and ailing parents prevented it. Engineer for Armstrong
Tile near Lancaster, PA. Co-founder of the Cape Hatteras Christmas Bird
Count. Companion of over 20 years on Delaware Big Days (May Runs), of
which he was a main organizer. Has already been, on his own, to Bayou de
View, White River, and Pearl River. Co-author/investigator along with Paul
Sykes and Steve Holzman of studies of big woodpecker gouge marks and
scaling.
Gordon Chaplin: A friend since early on in our high school Freelance
writer, author of "Joyride" (Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1982), "The Fever
Coast log" (Simon & Schuster, 1992), and "Dark wind" (Atlantic Monthly
Press, 1999) plus, most recently, "A return to the reefs" ("Smithsonian",
February 2006, pp. 40-48). Has worked for the Baltimore "Sun", the
"Washington Post" and "Newsweek". Over the years we have gotten into all
sorts of trouble together, been in various scrapes and mishaps.
Harry Armistead: Birder since 1949. Book collector & Philadelphia
librarian. Regional editor of "American birds" (1979-1993), bander
(1966-1991), Book Review Editor of "Birding" (1973-1986), compiler Cape
Charles, VA, Christmas count since 1968, the Dorchester County, MD, spring
bird counts (there are 2 each May) since 1966. Except as noted above, I
have mostly stayed out of trouble. My son, George, leads birding tours for
Field Guides, Inc. He used to be known as Harry Armistead's son. Now I am
known as George Armistead's father.
Joe Eades: A safety and compliance officer for Monsanto in St. Louis. Joe
is one of Missouri's top birders. Three years in a row he has seen over
300 species in that state. Joe has a troublesome leg and showed courage
walking through the swamps, dragging canoes, carrying equipment. Cheerful,
enthusiastic team member.
Marty (Martha) Daniels: Expert horsewoman, experienced raptor bander, and
manager of a large farm, Mulberry Plantation, near Camden, SC. Marty is a
descendant of the celebrated Civil War diarist, Mary Chestnut, who lived at
Mulberry. A veteran of years of Outward Bound adventures. An accomplished
cook, at the end of our sojourn Beth awarded and honored her with a
custom-made apron with original, signed art, emblazoned with, if memory
serves, "For Marty, Chef, Chez d'IBWO," a VERY nice touch. The rest of us
mere mortals were given attractive IBWO pins by Beth. Marty has had hip
replacement and rotator cuff problems, showed her usual gumption in this
IBWO project, dragging canoes and gallivanting about.
Terry Doyle: Wildlife Biologist, U. S. Fish & Wildlife Service at Ten
Thousand Island N.W.R., Naples, FL. Terry was the most proficient of us
with the project's technology and possibly the best outdoorsman of the
group, navigating in the dark, and trekking through the woods. An
accomplished birder who has also traveled extensively as well as been
posted to refuges in Alaska. In Florida Terry has done extensive work
studying manatees, including capturing them and fitting them with
transmitting devices.
LOW WATER. Water levels are low. Most of the stands are either above
exposed ground or in shallow water. The current is still significant,
helps when going downstream, gives you a little something to work against
when going up.
BIRDS SEEN/HEARD BY SOME OR ALL OF US ALMOST EVERY DAY IN THE BAYOU DE VIEW
WOODLANDS: Great Blue Heron, Wood Duck, Barred Owl, kingfisher, Pileated,
Downy, Red-bellied & Hairy woodpeckers, flicker, sapsucker, chickadee,
titmouse, White-breasted Nuthatch, creeper, Winter & Carolina wrens,
Golden-crowned Kinglet, Swamp Sparrow & cardinal. Everyday flyovers there:
white-fronted, snow & Ross's geese plus hundreds or thousands of Common
Grackles & Red-winged Blackbirds. Along adjacent roadlands Loggerhead
Shrike, Red-tailed Hawk, Eastern Meadowlark & Eastern Bluebird are common.
I saw a few Ross's Geese every day.
PROLONGED FIELD WORK, 10-12 hours or so each day, lead to great views of
wildlife going about its business, in its innocence, unconcerned about my
or others' presence. As I age I become more sentimental about birds and
animals and affected by their charm and behavior. How splendid to see an
otter hunting. The turtles lined and piled up sunning on the logs. A Fox
Squirrel going about its fussy regimen next to its tree cavity home at Blue
Hole, grooming, then scratching, its hind leg a blur, then basking in the
sun for an hour. Agile bats hunting low over the waters in the gloaming.
A female sapsucker attending its sap wells at the base of a maple only 15
feet from the entrance to NW Dodson. Wood Ducks paired up, consorting on
their courtship flights. At the SW Dodson Lake stand a Brown Creeper
landing 6 feet away and working its way up a Tupelo trunk.
"Ye blessed creatures, I have heard the call
Ye to each other make; I see
The heavens laugh with you in your jubilee;
My heart is at your festival,
My head hath its coronal,
The fullness of your bliss, I feel" ...
- Wordsworth.
IN THRALL TO BATTERIES AND CHARGES, straps, cords and carabiners.
INSTRUMENTATION provided by Cornell for each of us:
1. Cell phone, Nokia Cingular with 20 some numbers programmed in.
2. GPS, Rino 120 Garmin. Provides coordinates accurate to within 5
meters. Not good with elevation, which we didn't need anyway. My
elevation at one point ranged from 100 to 25 or so meters and I didn't even
move. Sometimes necessary to change GPS batteries 2X a day while in the
field. Getting hold of the very small D-ring to open up the GPS would have
been very difficult without my Swiss Army knife pliers.
3. Video digital camcorder, Canon NTSC Optura 50, mini DV, with its
accompanying shotgun mike (with its own battery & on/off switch).
4. Big, car-type batteries in the stands/blinds which can be used with a
sort of jump start rig to charge, or keep the charge, of the video cameras.
Periodically these big, heavy batteries need to be taken back to the house
so they can, in turn, be charged themselves. Fun to go up a ladder with
them.
5. Various other gear: a compass, Ziploc bags, a notebook, laminated maps
(aerial photographs, that designate launch sites, stands/blinds, and
suspect woodpecker cavities), waterproof Cabela bags, data sheets et al.
6. Tripods.
1 through 4 require batteries or charging at regular intervals plus we all
have binoculars and headlamps. Some have in addition their own cell phones
and camcorders. In my case I also have hearing aids and change the
batteries for THOSE every day.
DAILY OBSERVATIONS:
Feb. 18, Sat. Gordon & I leave Philadelphia at 5 A.M. It will be 1,127.8
miles to Cotton Plant, Arkansas, but 97.3% of that is on interstates. Pick
up Bob at Dr. John Spahr's house in Staunton, VA, 316 miles down range.
Put 2 of my big bags on the roof rack of the car attached by shock cords;
there is now JUST enough room for everyone else's gear, and everyone else.
719.7 miles today, much of it through the grand, ancient, rounded hills of
western Virginia and eastern Tennessee. I have seen the Alps, the
Cascades, the Sierras, Mt. Rainier, and the Grand Tetons, I've been up
Pikes Peak, Mt. Evans, and the Jungfrau, but these old mountains today, low
elevation though they may be, have a majesty as imposing as any. Lodge at
Days Inn, Crossville, Tennessee.
Feb. 19, Sun. 408.1 miles today. From the Memphis bridge to Cotton Plant
there is nasty snow and ice packed down hard on the pavement. We crawl
along I-40, passing occasional 18-wheel trucks and other vehicles that have
skidded off the road. The worst ice is on small roads leading to our home,
the Robinson House. For some reason my car's 4-wheel drive does not
engage.
Feb. 20, Mon. Detailed instruction & orientation. Some likened it to army
basic training, fifth grade, or summer camp. This is going to be a very
tightly-controlled, highly-structured, and technologically-challenging
project, something the advance literature did not adequately prepare me
for. Some of this, let me tell you, Sweat Pea, I have trouble with, being
a world class Luddite. My thanks to the others in my cohort, as well as
(and especially) to Beth for helping me follow the bread crumbs and to
Sarah Warner as well. In the afternoon we finally go afield to Apple Lake
and the Dagmar Wildlife Management Area, do some walking and GPS work.
Snow on the ground, ice in the swamp. Cold.
Feb. 21, Tue. Get out in the field late because - due to last-minute
changes in the search team composition, we do not all have Cache R. N.W.R.
use permits. South Stab Lake platform with Gordon. Drift/paddle down from
Rt. 17 through the Hot Zone. Spend 11:15-4:45 on the South platform, which
is covered with ice and snow. Gordon clears most of it off, like an NHL
goalie getting the area in front of the goal squared away. Some of us
today have to break through ice to get to the other platforms. Good looks
at a River Otter and a Mink. Also 1 Gray Squirrel & 1 Beaver. My only
5-goose day with 20 Canadas, 1 Cackling, 160 white-fronteds, 5 Ross's & c.
2,000 Snows/Blues. I had 5 sightings of Ross's Geese, Bob had 8. In the
Robinson House yard there's a male Brewer's Blackbird & 2 Barred Owls are
calling in the distance.
Best to all.-Harry Armistead, 523 E. Durham St., Philadelphia, PA
19119-1225. 215-248-4120. Secondary address: 25124 W. Ferry Neck Rd.,
Royal Oak, MD 21662. 410-745-2764. |