Friday, March 09, 2007

New IBWO Search Technique?

Over at Ivory-bills LiVE!!, cyberthrush notes that a new thread has been started at the IBWO Researchers Forum dealing with search methods. This is timely, as I believe that I have discovered a search methodology that has considerable potential for success. Specifically, in a book devoted to the "fun and rewards" of recreational vehicles, I discovered this gem among an extensive list of activities that can be pursued with your RV:
Birdwatchers can use every day of full-timing to add to their life list. Your RV can take you to habitats of rare, elusive, and uncommon species. Is the ivory-billed woodpecker really extinct, or do a few still exist in the swamps of South Carolina? Maybe you’ll be the one to find out. (Source: Complete guide to full-time RVing: life on the open road, by Bill and Jan Moeller)
That’s right, pull your RV right up to the edge of the Congaree Swamp, just as close as you can without getting stuck, park it, open the windows, erect an animated model of an Ivory-billed Woodpecker on the trunk of the nearest tree of suitable size with ample signs of bark scaling and (most important of all) one or more “intriguing” cavities, set up your portable CD player and high-definition speakers to amplify the kent calls and double-knocks of the Ivory-bill, put out a suet feeder and maybe a platform feeder baited with lots of nice fat grubs (hey, we know that Pileated Woodpeckers are attracted to feeders, so why not Ivory-bills?), and sit back in the comfort of your very own motor home (secure from the freezing cold of winter or the searing heat and humidity of summer, free from biting insects or the threat of cottonmouths, with no need to wade across flooded sloughs or clamber up muddy river banks) ‘till the King of the Woodpeckers comes double-knocking at your front door.

My wife has been begging me for years to buy an RV. After this revelation, it will be much more difficult for me to turn her down.

2 Comments:

Blogger Bill Pulliam said...

Worth a shot! Nobody else has come up with anything that works.

March 10, 2007 1:38 AM  
Blogger John L. Trapp said...

It also has the advantage that it would get all those IBWO researchers out of the woods (where some critics claim they are disturbing the Ivory-bills with all their tramping around) and into the confines of an RV (where they won't alarm wandering Ivory-bill)! Oh, I almost forgot, we also better cover that RV with camouflage netting . . .

March 12, 2007 10:49 PM  

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