Well said!  R Peters, Independence

>From: "[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: "[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: IBWO
>Date: Wed, 3 Aug 2005 12:07:41 GMT
>
>Greetings -- You all do keep this ivory-billed issue interesting, I must 
>say. I say instead of all the hand wringing of blaming the media, wondering 
>who had what motive, which person is eating crow and all the rest, let's 
>just rejoice that the bird still exists. What a great thing!
>That said, why not give my two cents, as well. If there is anyone you are 
>looking to "blame" for something, let us go to the real source -- the 
>ornithological world itself, we bird watchers and researchers. First and 
>foremost, our ornithological brethren in their zeal for collecting evidence 
>were still killing and stuffing these birds even knowing that they were 
>rare and disappearing in the early part of the last century. Throw in 
>habitat destruction and the birds seemed to be doomed. Then we have years 
>of scattered observations of these birds, including by noted ornithologists 
>as John Dennis -- all of them, photographic evidence, sightings -- all of 
>them dismissed by the ornithological world. Now a kayaker in Arkansas makes 
>an observation and finally there is a response by our esteemed colleagues 
>and Cornell takes steps to check it out. Through a massive effort it is 
>confirmed and this and other credible organizations announce it to the 
>world. And what is the first danged t!
>  hing the ornithological world (at least part of it) does? They say, no it 
>can't be so! Where is the irrefutable "physical" evidence -- prove it or it 
>doesn't exist -- the video, based on someone's careful analysis doesn't 
>show a ivory-billed and blah, blah, blah. Now come the tapes and what do 
>you know, everyone jumps back on board.
>Good Lord people, why in the world would Cornell, Fish and Wildlife -- 
>National and Arkansas, and other credible people and organizations come out 
>and tell a lie about a bird? Were they trying to create some kind of 
>ornithological conspiracy? Jack up sagging sales? Stir the pot? Looking for 
>a way for the media to be blamed? No, they were reporting a great 
>re-discovery and instead of embracing it, people like the previously named 
>scientists, as well as our own local, supposed "experts" (and you know who 
>you are), without ever going their themselves, without ever spending one 
>scintilla of a moment looking for the birds, take these organizations and 
>the people that were in the swamps searching to task and try, as others did 
>for more than 60 years, to discredit, doubt and dismiss the credibility of 
>the obvious. And then, when the calls are released by Cornell, some of 
>these same people decide to blame the media -- shoot, I am amazed that you 
>all didn't theorize that the calls we!
>  re computer generated by Cornell from the calls recorded in the thirties 
>-- oh wait, I didn't mean to give someone an idea to discount the 
>recordings - rats --  just the nature of we doubting Thomases, isn't it?
>The fact is we have a great opportunity to bring something back from the 
>brink. Will we be successful, who knows, but the chance to do it is a 
>fantastic thing. I for one have and will continue to rejoice at the 
>discovery and to hope for the day when perhaps I and/or my son will have 
>the opportunity to see the Lord God Bird. And as a member of the 
>ornithological world myself, I hope we will learn some lessons from this so 
>that the next re-discovery is embraced, not torn down. And, instead of 
>spending time blaming the media or others, lets take a look inside our own 
>community -- I swear sometimes we are our own worst enemy, and the rest of 
>the world must look at us like we are nuts -- and perhaps we are (but 
>mostly in a good way, I believe).
>Have a great birding day everyone. I also want to say so long to the 
>Missouri birding community as I leave for the birding mecca of south Texas 
>-- it has been fun "listening" to all your conversations on this forum, I 
>have made some great friends in the local birding community -- thank you 
>and take care.  Signing off.
>Craig Hensley
>Liberty, MO
>
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