Words of Wisdom

When I was a young boy in the 1960s-70s, hunting with my father (born 1937) and great-grandfather (born 1897), I often called their attention to deer tracks in the soft ground. I can still hear their response: "That's fine, boy, but you can't eat tracks." I sometimes reflect on those words when I either see or am told of "interesting" feeding sign or really big cavities. An ivorybill indeed might have been the source, and we certainly need to follow up on all possible evidence, but as we've said before here, feeding sign and cavities are Pileated Woodpecker until proven otherwise. Three "good" sound (audio) reports have come from within a 1.5 km radius in our study area: kent-like calls heard on March 6 by Ken Able and an apparent response to Eric Soehren's March 9 simulated double knocking (both detailed here), as well as Mike Martin's heretofore unpublicized Nov. 28 (2006) report of two sets of "dead-on" double knocks. Although these are more intriguing than any feeding sign or large cavity, they too fall short of proof of course. We all know that until someone produces a clear photo or video indisputably showing a living Ivory-billed Woodpecker, all the putative double knocks, kents, feeding sign, mega cavities, and unverified sightings are just fodder for controversy, and there won't be much elaborating on them here.