In the post below this one, I told you to give me a topic to blog about, and this is the one Rich came up with. Back in April I made a post in this forum with a link to this news article. The article states that the Ivory-billed woodpecker, feared extinct after disappearing 60 years ago, was spotted in a remote and swampy part of my homestate, Arkansas.
Sadly, now another team of scientists are claiming that it was simply a case of mistaken identity. They believe the bird sighted was actually a non-endangered relative of the ivory-billed woodpecker: a pileated woodpecker. The original scientists who discovered the bird in question and video-taped it are still sticking by their story though.
What I find really interesting about this, is that if it is indeed the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker, the Interior and Agriculture departments would set aside $10 million this year for a conservation plan, and that doesn’t include the private funding that was planned. Also, landowners in the area could become eligible for over $13 million in rental payments (over the next 15 years) to maintain the trees that these woodpeckers use.
Hmmmmm. If I thought I could get 10 million to conserve a bit of land (120 miles long and 20 miles wide) if I spotted the Ivory-Billed woodpecker…. well, I might suddenly start seeing it everywhere.
READ MORE HERE
I hope they verify it’s real
Would certainly be a bit of good news! 
LOL That sure would be a compelling reason to take up bird watching as a hobby. I thought that our redheaded woodpeckers were extinct- not from the entire area just from our yard because my dog Kali sort of scared (ate) all the birds and squirrels off, but lo and behold, I saw it for the first time in a few years on my ash tree a few days ago!
It’s just very sad when any animal becomes extinct, so I hope it proves to be real too, but LOL @ (ate).
Nice site!
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