While working on the illustration that became the cover for my book Ghost Birds, I produced several sketches of a male ivory-bill. There's really no need for me to keep all of them, so if you'd like to buy one please contact me.
These are not color copies but real pen and ink drawings. I did a series of rough drafts in order to capture just the right Campephilus principalis expression. Intense and statuesque. Character studies, if you will. Not an easy thing to do since I have never seen a live one.
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6 comments:
Oh, this is such a temptation! I want to get your book Natural Histories as well as Ghost Birds. I also would like to present my sister with a copy of Ghost Birds and maybe the notecards or a print. (one year I gave her a totebag with a picture of an ivory bill and the quote beneath it "The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated" :-))But now you are offering these wonderful original works of art as well! How much are you charging for them? I can't buy anything till after Christmas, but you will be hearing from me! Thanks for your wonderful blog and for all of the beautiful information and photos that you always share.
Marie
Dear Stephen,
I got very excited this morning as I was sitting out in my personal 10 acre wilderness at my Florida home...I was enjoying the morning with my cat, on the southside of my house..from the northside came a call that sounded like a hawk with a hormone problem..we have lots of hawks, so I am very familiar with that call..and it was loud..I turned to look, as did my cat, and we saw a verrry large woodpecker coming across the pond and into a pine tree. When the calling stopped the drum was a couple of taps here and there. Very soon this large woodpecker took off again and flew what had to be at least a mile away..very large wingspan..very strong..with lots of white in it. Of course I got excited and came inside to research what I had seen..I just knew it was an ivory bill...after looking at the Cornell ornithology website and listening to the calls of the two birds (Pileated and Ivory Bill)..based on the call it was probably a Pileated..and also, if I am recalling correctly, I think the bottom of the wingspan was black, not white..but the drum was more like an Ivory Bill. .. So I am guessing what I saw was a Pileated.....but wait..I have to tell you this..I have been meaning to, but have not, until reminded today with my sighting.. I have to tell you that I have seen a much larger woodpecker here in Florida....absolutely Oh MY GOD huge!...I saw it in 1999, at a home I had just built in Winter Haven, Florida. It was a remote forested area, we were the first to build a home there..I was sitting on my back porch and suddenly was aware of the biggest bird I had ever seen in my life with a huge red crest on his head..he was on a very large live oak tree, and I observed him moving on the tree..right side up, and also upside down...it was the strangest thing to see...but he was absolutely mammoth in size, and there were two younger birds with him, smaller of course. Now to be very honest with you I don't believe that bird was a Pileated..I firmly believe that that bird was an Ivory Billed Woodpecker. The call was softer, shyer, and the drumming sound was the two taps here, two taps there...I know what I saw..and it was so much larger than this bird I saw today, which was a very large bird itself! At that home in Winter Haven I also saw a Florida panther..another rare sighting. I believe that these rare animals, the panther and the Ivory Bill, were living in those extensive woods, perhaps with others like them, but moved on after all the construction started. There is a nice human neighborhood there now, but when we were the only house there I think it was still quiet enough and forested enough for those animals. We now live in Sarasota/Bradenton area..about 40 miles from the gulf coast..in a country area..I have seen all kinds of wildlife out here..any many different kinds of woodpeckers..but never before one like I saw this morning...I would love to see again that very, very huge Oh My God sized woodpecker that I saw in 1999 at the other house in Winter Haven. I am a firm believer that the Ivory Bill does still exist..at least did..in 1999. I believe that they have consistently moved into swamplands (which is what these areas I have lived in here once were) and so are moving deeper into that kind of landscape here in Florida to escape the encroaching of human developments... Anyway, I thought since I saw this this morning it was a good time to write you about this sighting and also the extraordinary one in 1999. I hope you have a good day, perhaps this news will bring a smile. All the best...Morning Star
Hello Anonymous.
I get these sort of emails often, often enough to fill me with hope.
During Tanner's study he decided that ivorybills had to migrate from one area to the next, it was the only thing that explained some of what he was finding in the swamps and hearing from the swampers in the 1930s.
During his research (1935-1941), Jim spent a lot of time around the vicinity of Winter Haven. I detail his adventures in my book.
When Tanner became a professor years later at UT, he always kept a hand-lettered sign in his office that stated something like, "When what you see in nature doesn't agree with what you read in books, trust what you see."
I sincerely hope you SEE the large woodpecker again.
Thank you..I hope to see it again, too...I had no idea that Tanner had spent anytime in the Winter Haven area, so that makes me even more excited about what I saw!...I will have to get your book to brush up on what all went on during his travels and research...perhaps it will help me to know more quickly what I am seeing, should I be so blessed again. ..Ms. Anonymous Morning Star
Morning Star.
Tanner spent a lot of time in Florida. It's the only state that's entirely inside the ivorybills known historic range. From the panhandle to Big Cypress and the river bottoms and swamps throughout.
Arthur Allen planned the 1935 trip and headed to Florida first largely because he had personally found a pair in 1924 along Taylor Creek east of Winter Haven.
By the 1930s, the clock was ticking, the forests were being cut at an alarming rate.
Thank you so much, Stephen. I have learned a great deal from you in this dialogue..and will definitely be getting your book. I am so intrigued now with this ghost bird, and that I lived right there where so much of that history happened!..I am still close by, and in Winter Haven several times a week actually, so I will learn what I can and observe what I can, and perhaps..perhaps.. :) Again.. thank you.
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