Cold Day in Arkansas

Brinkley, AR

It has been so long ago, I am no longer sure who took this picture. I know it was taken on February 16, 2007.

Leaving the motel, when David Luneau calls he is going up the Bayou and wants to know If I will join him. I slow down and agree to meet him at the famous Hwy 17 bridge. My Truck is a familiar sight there. Montana plates drew many comments while we were still in the secretive phase (2004) of the search for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker.

While waiting for his arrival, I visit a nearby area where multiple trees have been killed forming an ideal spot for IBWO feeding. But as is now normal, there is now clear sign. Flushed 2 American Woodcocks in transit. We freeze in the wind and cold temperatures. New feeding trough in a tree along Stab lake. Could be IBWO sign. After hours in the bayou, with no real sign, we return to the landing.

Later, I head to Chamber of Commerce to suggest a viewing tower on each side of the bayou. When I was stationed in the 85 foot crane for a month. The goal was to be up high enough to spot the bird flying to and from foraging areas. I would get to the crane a bit after first light, bringing coffee food and camera batteries and tape.

The crane platform rises on a hydraulic arm up into the air about 85 feet. While one is above most of the tree tops, the tallest cypress and tupelo rise to about 115 feet. We needed a taller crane or a tower that would put us at the tops of all the trees. To perfectly cover the bayou so nothing gets by us, ideally two towers would be constructed on either side of the mile wide bayou. If observers can see across to each other then, no Ivory bill would fly between them.

Finally, I return to Wattensaw Refuge to spend the evening sitting quietly by the best roost hole I have seen so far. The hole is at least a full year and possibly up to three years old. It is perfectly shaped and is VERY likely one created by an Ivory-bill. But what does it mean? There had been a sighting by a reliable biologist not far from this location about a month earlier.

In Argentina, studying the closely related Magellanic Woodpecker (Campephilus magellanicus) I filmed the nesting cavities and learned a lot by spending time following the birds on some day while sitting quietly near the nest on others. Campephilus woodpeckers use nest cavities which are oval in shaping. This turns out to be a significant factor. You can eliminate the vast majority of nest cavities of most woodpeckers.

I position myself in my camo layers about 150 feet away in cover and by the base of a tree. I find a way to get the camo on the camera and then hunker down waiting. The sky has layers of thin clouds reducing visibility but also a deep orange and then magenta sunset. A Pileated Woodpecker cacks deep in the forest behind, a loud crash of a tree collapsing and then silence.

Unfortunately, no bird comes to this wonderful looking cavity. The Bayou slowly grows darker and I pack up for the hike to the car in the gathering dusk.

Alaska Summer 2

This is an entry from my journal of a few years ago. For me, it brings back a distinct fondness for Alaska and the huge open tundra. I hope you will enjoy this entry, I'll post one about Adak tomorrow and then the Teshekpuk one later.

May 31- Anchorage- No birds- just errands and planning the logistics of how to survive on the North Slope. Training for being on Oil company leased land for 3 days. We spent 12 incredibly boring hours listening to a guy from Oklahoma or Arkansas tell the class- really stupid things that were somehow supposed to be related to actual education.....

Thank God that in a few days we'll be in Barrow the largest city on the North Slope, but away from the civilized world. Each road out of town simply ends.

Ok, go get the Alaska map. I'm going to give you a quick course in Alaska geography. Because you may be confused by the terms I have been using.

Find Anchorage on the southern coast- but inland along Cook Inlet. This is the biggest city in Alaska and the base from which we are operating. It is the southern terminus for the Alaska Highway. Since I have been to Alaska 5 times, the Long House Hotel has always been a good spot, located near the airport, nice large rooms and the prices are fine too. This is where I can receive e-mail but not send except from one account. Back to the Geography.

Straight north on the coast of the Arctic Ocean, you should see a little peninsula at the very northern most part of Alaska. That is Point Barrow and a few miles west and a tiny bit south is the community of Barrow. Because it is where it is, some rare birds from Asia show up there, but birders started going there, following early ornithologists, to find the nesting birds that show up at Barrow which are are difficult to find in other places. Some of those are Snowy Owl, Pomarine Jaeger, Spectacled Eider, Steller's Eider and Red Phalarope.

To the east, Deadhorse is on the Arctic Ocean, but a few miles inland from Prudhoe Bay. That is the famous and infamous Oil drilling area on the Arctic Ocean. This section of the tundra is located more easterly from Barrow. To the east of Prudhoe/Deadhorse is the enormous Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge is mostly hills ridges and mountains with a narrow strip of the very ecologically rich tundra along the coast.

If your map shows mountains you'll see a range of mountains running roughly east -west inland from the coast This is referred to as the Brooks Range. Everything 'sloping' north to the Arctic Ocean is called the North Slope. Much of this entire area has large deposits of oil underneath. Extracting it is very difficult... and the tundra is VERY sensitive as 9 months of the year it is frozen.

On one island, St. Lawrence, many years ago, Katie and I found tank tread marks in the tundra that had been made in World War II, but they seemed to have just been made -- like a week before. This was in 1974. So things only can grow very slowly and this limits the ability to recuperate from things like OIL SPILLS. Last Year BP spilled about 205, 000 gallons of Raw Crude oil on the tundra near Prudhoe. That area is now dead for many many years... perhaps a 1000, 10,000 or 100,000 -- who really knows.

From there, (Prudhoe/Deadhorse) in an almost a straight line back to Barrow, you can see the Colville Delta and then a big round lake very near the coast. That is Teshekpuk lake. if you can't see it on the maps then google it on line. That is where Nick and I will be doing the long camping thing. We will be in the SE quadrant.

Ok that is enough Geography, but I wanted you to understand the vastness of Alaska and how I am so very fortunate to see so much of it.

3rd June- Barrow- My second trip up here. Barrow lies at the edge of the coastal plain. The northernmost part of Mainland North America is the point- about 4 miles north-east of us. Point Barrow is the dividing "line" between the Chuchki and the Beaufort Sea.

Night is something that is really not occurring at this time of year. Daylight on the island is really limited much more by the heavy clouds. When we leave here we will be back in Anchorage and there we may have a bit of night. Usually I'm too tired to be up that late here. On the North Slope, we are supposed to fly to Deadhorse, then a tiny cabin in the Delta of the Colville River and finally Teshekpuk Lake closer to Barrow. Up there it is 24 hour daylight until August 6 or 7th. The Sun never sets. So your body changes to this crazy energy machine that finally says --- "Hey I'm tired... what time is it and you look at the watch and it is 12:40 AM - 2:00 Am or something Crazy like that... suddenly you are Exhausted. When you get back to camp you collapse until the blazingly bright sun wakes you up at like 9 or 10 Am and the sun is directly overhead.

June 7th- In an hour, we are about to leave Barrow for Deadhorse. We are expecting to have less open vistas and much more of the development landscape.... We then fly into a remote area of the Tundra. Oil has been found at several areas near the lake-Teshekpuk. Theories are being talked about very openly about the strategy devised by Big Oil and how the proposed move into the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was just a ploy to let them get into this area near Teshekpuk. The BAD NEWS is that the coastal plain is MUCH wider here and consequently much more productive for birds and wildlife. So the potential destructive effect of Oil development and the drilling, pipelines etc, etc, etc.. would be Much more of a problem.

In our training in Anchorage there was a MAP of the development of pads and pipelines on both sides of Prudhoe Bay. They have pretty much created a spider web of industry in an area which would take 10,000 years to heal from any spills. And of course, we watched the Chairman of BP talk about his company saving a tiny pitance of money by leaving out corrosion inhibitors in the pipeline. Result : 200, 000 gallon spill on the tundra... 10,000 years....

So we have a BIG job in front of us to capture enough beauty in 30 days to make a compelling documentary on this area so Americans will be informed about the coming rape Big Oil is conducting up here.

The Worlds we choose

A few days ago, we received another very generous pledge to this film.

What a wonderful crazy world. “We”. Who are We? A big world full of 7 Billion people.

What to do? What position should I take? Will they make it? All of us deal with 1000’s of decisions each day.

Today, “we” have 9 or 10 hours to do something.

There is no time to hesitate.

We are showing $12,870. Outside of our project we received two $5,000 pledges that are on the way through our partner American Bird Conservancy. I wished that those were able to come through the project as it would have inspired others earlier. But it is still so very much appreciated too.

Today, we can take action. I can’t go back to the Midwest Birding Symposium where hundreds of bird folks were gathered to pass out postcards. Everyone is now gone. Meanwhile---

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jordandowney/thankskilling-sequel-horror-comedy-feature-film?ref=live

I still have so many questions, some of which I will never get an answer for.

Why do we not fund things that are meant to be wholesome and wonderful? How can “we” fund Thankskilling Turkey? But superimpose for a moment that our Kickstarter campaign is at this moment over $50,000 short of the goal.

So our society chooses a false or a relief valve-reality instead of working to do something. It is work but it is also so very fulfilling to see things like prairies being restored.

What kind of world do you choose?

Lure of Shorebirds

How can it be September?

Where did May go? Summer is not summer without the arctic, but somehow June too has vanished. How did a simple feature from Photoshop appear in my life and not only that- it became a eraser of time. The Time Tool. T3

Many years ago Edward L. Chalif, beloved by nearly all who knew him, took advantage (in a GOOD WAY) of a young boy whose parents needed some time away from his curious mind. I was dropped off at Chilmark Community Center in August of 1960. My brother was too, but due to the vanishing tool of time, duly noted above, he disappears in this story.

There were other people in the car with us also, but they are now gone. Prothonotary Warbler did not vanish. But this short story is about two shorebirds. Too large to be called sandpipers by most people these birds left an indelible impression still fresh 51 years later.

In those days, no one knew Martha's Vineyard was exclusive. We just thought it was a long ferry ride to run on the deck of The Islander. the fact that we could throw food to gulls just made it Awesome. Oops, awesome, that word did not exist in 1960.

In those days, you could begin a hike on the great south beach, and just go. One or more of the large ponds might need to be crossed with care as the drainage to the ocean could be really full and roaring. In those days, one could jump on a one speed bike and cruise for birds from Chilmark to Edgartown and back. Most of those longer bike rides came in later summers with my friend Peter. That damn time tool is at it again. Some how the period from August of 1960 to September of 1970 wants to be remembered as one huge summer.

A bad pair of binoculars was fine, too heavy or too light anything helped. 7x40 or 7x32 seemed to be quite common models and of course we only had one REAL field guide- Peterson's. Apologies Richard and Don, but when you went to a book store and asked about birds....

My binoculars were handed down from my grandfather in Missouri. Remnants of WW I. Compared to most anything of this new fangled age, they were horrible. But the invasion of products from Japan was limited to transistor radios. What's that you say? ... damn T3 again.

From Edgartown you turned south to Katama along the way various small roads most all dirt would leave the main narrow pavement. Barely 2 real lanes went all the way south until the tall dunes were the final barrier to the Atlantic. We stopped to check the ocean and the bay side, but at 8 I had seen these things, scurrying along the waves picking and picking. They were nothing special.

Piling back into the car, we passed through a thin and small woodland before emerging on a field nearby. There my dull trance was broken in the softer, late afternoon.

In a field filled with golden light, were brown flocks of birds. They were shorebirds. Not sandpipers. They looked to be in the army- determined and hurrying to eat in these fields.

Those binoculars from World War I must have been set aside. Someone had to lend me a better pair - Bausch & Lomb or perhaps a good bit of German glass. I'll never know. Because I have been talking to people about that moment ever since, it is clear and powerful- golden and green. With one brown bird and one tan one, and Eddie's voice.

Tan. Upland Sandpipers are the epitome of elegance and grace. Perhaps dancers or gymnasts of the shorebird world.

Brown. Whimbrels are the farmers- tougher than they look , but when you shake their hand you know it. So maybe steelworker of the shorebirds. They exude strength.

So in my eyes on that day long ago, how did a tan bird and a brown bird so powerfully capture my attention?

Within one binocular fields view at least one Whimbrel strode alongside one Uppie. Perhaps as close as 3 feet apart but on what seemed for that moment a parallel track, subtle differences did show through. The leg color, the head shape and color, but mostly and shockingly was the shape of the two species bills.

One short and straight- one longer and decurved. Decurved. I didn't even know the word! One yellowish with a dark tip, the other primarily dark. The head streaks on the Whimbrel and the big gentle eye of the Uppie.

Here were two birds - two species- doing about the same thing in the same location but with two very different bills to gather food with. As a young birder, this was a very important moment in my life. I could not understand why those bills were so distinctly different. I looked and asked "why?" The question burned into my brain so that I remember that moment of deep questioning, stunned in a manner which is unanswerable.

No Time tool can erase these moments.

Shorebirds -Where?

I have fingers of a klutz at times. I think it is getting worse but maybe not. But I have been asked twice today to help with -where to go for Shorebirds.

Most folks think of an ocean area, and that is not wrong. But there are a few places so exceptional that they are not to be missed. My favorite places to watch and film shorebirds in the interior include: Cheyenne Bottoms and Quivera National Wildlife Refuge both in Kansas near Great Bend; Souris and DesLacs in North Dakota, Bowdoin NWR and Freezeout Lake in Montana.

East Coastal areas must involve Texas: Bolivar Peninsula, Anhuac NWR, Osa Bay, Maine: Popham Beach and Biddeford pool, Massachussetts: Plum Island, and South Beach; in New Jersey: Brigantine NWR, and several areas near Cape May or Stone Harbor, Jamaica Bay in New York, Bombay Hook and the Rehoboth Beach area in Delaware, Indian Inlet, Assateague and Chincoteague in Coastal Maryland/ Virginia, Pea Island NWR North Carolina, St. Marks NWR in the Panhandle of Florida for the east Coast.

On the West coast, Washington, Oregon and California have a large number of exceptional shorebird areas. My favorites are Dungeness spit, Gray's Harbor; Bandon, Oregon and in California: Point Reyes, Monterrey Bay area, and Salton Sea.

There are hundreds and possibly thousands of other areas where Shorebirds can congregate, but these are ones that stand out for one reason or another in my mind after 50 years of birding.

Films, television and birders...

My jaw is still open and although my mustache partially covers the opening, I hope mosquitoes are not planning to take advantage of this situation.

As the executive walked away after momentarily stunning me with his total ignorance, I was still unable to respond with witty nor pithy nor eloquent quips.

"Birders don't watch TV", he spat out, turned and walked away.

That was all it took to disable me. And this comment from a major network is still the prevalent attitude among television executives and their advertisers. Oh, I have also been told we are cheap.

What is next? We don't buy gasoline or cars, food is simply an afterthought and shoes are never found on our feet? How is it in 2011 birders and birding is such a morass of craziness and misconceptions?

I think we all see that the misconceptions regarding birders are astonishing and persist to this day. How to clear them up is of major importance to any development in birding circles as many of the things we do and hope to accomplish in terms of conservation, depend to one degree of another on corporate support.

I guess that in spite of the fact that I have purchased more than 7 cars during my 50 years of birding and driven all of them over 200,000 miles, raised 3 children and I think we had and have beds, cooking pots, computers, cell phones and magazines, oh yes- Televisions….The fact that I have a large library of books, paintings on the wall, photo libraries, video equipment, furniture, carpets and refrigerators seem to be facts lost on advertisers.

I have been told that I tend to see things differently.

But the point is not how I see things. The point is how we are seen collectively, we being birders.

Granted, Birders have been slow to adopt video or purchase DVD's. I'd love to see figures of birders purchasing Blu-ray and High Definition equipment, because the resolution of nature is so outstanding. I foresee this as a major growth area in birding circles and devices.

Back to television, I know many birders are frustrated with the lack of educational programming, let alone birds on cable and don't even talk to me about the Networks! The fact that the ending of CBS Sunday Morning always ends with a few moments in nature reveals the truth.

There are huge segments of the nation who love to see natural history -including birds.

The fact that CBS refuses to pay anyone for the footage is debilitating to development of any industry or segment in a society which values little more than money.

I think birders love baseball, football, basketball and I'd bet that even a few of you actually watch soap operas or even Oprah. Overall, I suspect any accurate survey would reflect that we are full time, normal participants in American Society….. Ok how about our spouses, children and significant others? Maybe, they are "normal".

Our passion runs a bit differently it is true. Warm furry- MegaFauna, is the rule broadcasters live by. We find this good stuff too. But come on, we'd like to have a few more specials on megapodes of Australia or the Spinetails in South America. Ok, We'd settle for Warblers, or even, ahem, Greater Prairie Chickens. Feathers Rule!

Did you Love Opposable Chums, want to see more of Hummingbirds and revel in Life of Birds? How about March of the Penguins or Winged Migration, weren't they each special and of course, bird-centered films?

Over 300 new wildlife films are produced each year, many are entered in film festivals like the International Wildlife Film Festival. Because distribution rights are not included with these entries many never are seen again, no matter how good they are, unless you live in Missoula, Montana. There over 10,000 people flock to the films each spring.

Among my small group of producers, music videos of birds are becoming more popular and several of us have won awards or recognition for this work.

The use of Birding "video" never took off when some of the earlier "pioneers" put out some good work (eg- Large Gulls of North America) in spite of the fact that video is more like being there than anything else.

And not one major television show is currently on any cable channel or network that is dedicated to birders in this country. From a professional perspective, the show with James Curry is not on the dial and is very low end production.

When "All Bird TV" was cancelled in 1999 featuring Ken Dial of University of Montana, it was NOT cancelled due to lack of interest? It was the the third highest rated show on Animal Planet at the time. Ken and the crews were becoming better and better at what we were doing. So- No. Unfortunately the series was cancelled due to financial squabbles among the producers and Discovery. Seems chopped motorcycles are the new rage.

At Birdman Productions, we continue to accumulate footage of many species while we work on conservation shows, and plug along with a series being requested by PBS. So far we have not one corporate sponsor -this in spite of awards for the pilot show for cinematography, editing and inclusion as an official selection in 3 Film Festivals.

I remain a total optimist, because wherever we have gone, or shown our films, birders respond. Our audience surveys reflect the care we put into our productions. We know that at some point, birders will begin to get it. It being the power behind the images evening terms of superior use for identification. After all, if a "picture says a thousand words", then how rich is the information contained in a moving picture at 1080p with 7.1 surround sound?

Our films on conservation have also struck chords in birding audiences and we strive to provide important information along with beautiful images and clean sound.

Films are also a part of our heritage as birders. How many out there can still recall going to Audubon Screen Tours. Long ago I recall meeting Roger Tory Peterson, Olin S. Pettingell and Karl Maslowski. I was young and impressionable but never understood until years later how big the impression really had been.

Television and video are the new stages of evolutionary growth in birding. Soon enough, some form of these will replace the field guide as we know it. I'll be ready to help this leap occur.

Timothy R. Barksdale

Birdman Productions,

Choteau, MT & Prairie Village, KS

First Thanksgiving

Hi Fellow Eaters!

Well, I mean eaters in the Good sense. :)

Balance is a good thing to cultivate -especially looking at the next few weeks ahead. The National months of winter fattening- from Thanksgiving to New Years, we Americans really do enjoy our meals. But it hasn't always been this way.

For the prairie chicken film, I am struck by the images of our ancestors. There are so many tall and lean people. I mean LEAN. I'm heading to museums soon gathering historical photos for the film so you are likely to see some of them here- coming up.

When many of our ancestors first touched the soils of North America, they had most often completed a voyage of many days. If you read the book Mayflower, the conditions were confined and rather horrid, especially compared to the last trans-Atlantic flight I took. Well maybe not... But, at least my last flight from Italy lasted only 10 hours. No one got sea sick.

For 17th or 18th century boat travelers, food was often old, spoiled or bug infested. So imagine having taken this crossing on a small, crowded boat with - no modern plumbing- and you have been there for about a month. Not so pleasant is it?

Suddenly, and Thankfully, you are on dry land in a world filled with game but you are from a culture which has realistically, already left the hunter-gather model generations before. You and your shipmates are now learning skills you have never used - and your lives depend upon it.

Native Americans greet you and treat you well. Perhaps pitying the fools (as Mr T says.) But somewhere nearing the end of a long summer, when the rocky soils of New England did bear fruit for at least those who were in tune with the land, and the rhythms of the seasons, a meal of gratitude was planned. Probably by the Native Americans. Those Puritans were pretty austere, traditional folks and I kinda doubt they just decided to have a feast.

But the Native Americans had spent around eight hundred generations cultivating and harvesting the the land. They knew quohogs and heath hen, multitudes of fish including Atlantic Salmon, deer, elk moose, grouse and turkey. Simultaneously, we know that a variety of squash, corn, beans, nuts quinoa, sunflower and many other adapted herbs and even medicinal plants abounded naturally or were specifically cultivated. I suspect that for the culture our ancestors found, there was a pretty good life going on, but we really came loaded with baggage. In the psychological sense...

As I gather data for the film, I read about the alleged contracts between indentured servants and the "employers". The Smithsonian Institution states "the servants actually sought in their labor contracts to limit their having to eat heath hen to only two days a week instead of daily." I am eager to film a copy of one of these.

But what this does tell us about is a factor of abundance. The last Heath Hen walked into the scrub oak barrens near West Tisbury in March of 1932 and never was seen again. What had we done to eliminate a species once so incredibly abundant?

From the perspective of a lifetime, it is easy to see change. How simple it is to look back to the early history of our country- now only - reaching 400 years since that landing and the feast we still celebrate.

For the purposes of this blog- just be certain that the subspecies of the Greater Prairie Chicken known as the Heath Hen was a certain part of the first Thanksgiving and for our ancestors for decades after- until we wiped them out.

So this year- 2010, let's give thanks that we have not wiped out the entire population of many of our native species. Let's give thanks that even a few of our ancestors had foresight and wisdom enough to begin to preserve natural wonders. Then the animals that lived there. Be Thankful that so many of us are now waking up.

As we slice and serve our processed factory farm Turkey- Let's be Thankful that today there are millions of us who are genuinely concerned about the environment- which gives us life and sustains millions of birds, and all the life they too depend upon. We are going to find a way to achieve a better balance and respect for the earth -our Mother. Resolve to make 2011 a great year for Conservation.