The Call of the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker Celebration
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on February 21st, 2006
The ivory-billed woodpecker is still as elusive as Bigfoot, but interest in Arkansas’ most-sought resident continues to grow.
The Call of the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker Celebration is planned Feb. 23-25 in Brinkley in eastern Arkansas. It focuses on the rare bird, thought to have been extinct, that was sighted in the area in 2004. Reports of the bird’s re-emergence have stirred interest in the swampy, economically depressed Mississippi Delta area of Arkansas.
Festival activities include everything from Bird Watching 101 for people new to the hobby to nationally known speakers, tours, book signings and the sale of bird-oriented products.
Check out the festival website for registration information, schedule of activities and more.
We see Pileated Woodpeckers here on the Left Coast, and a striking looking animal it is, with it’s big wings and bright plumage… but it doesn’t have an ivory bill!
I work in rural areas of Arkansas. In the month of May this year I was driving down a dirt road off Arkansas Highway 5 north of El Paso Arkansas and saw a very large black, white and red tipped headed woodpecker tapping on a tree just off the road. Last year I was working in the Brinkley area and never saw the beast. I assumed the whole hubbub was just tourist trap crap. But what I saw here in a more central area of Arkansas could be nothing but the Ivory Billed Woodpecker. It was noticeably larger and colored different from all the other woodpeckers I’ve seen here. I guess it really does still exist.