Ivory-billed Woodpecker Celebration 2

Pete Dunne spoke Thursday afternoon to a packed room. After describing his first visit to Arkansas many years prior, the WildBird Advisory Board member related the story of the Small-headed Flycatcher and connected it to the 2004 rediscovery of the IBWO. The well-told tale elicited chuckles and guffaws from the crowd, particularly when Dunne shared the last comments from the odd blue-eyed boy in Greenwich, N.J.

The hour went by quickly, as it did when Steve Ingraham presented “When I Get Around to It,” full of images of sparrows, sandpipers and waders. Within the darkened room, audience members could test their I.D. skills while enjoying some of Ingraham’s digiscoped images and absorbing his humorous message that every bird is a life bird to be absorbed and appreciated.

Ingraham also described his “more vivid than life” ivory-bill dream set in an Arkansas swamp. If you see him at a festival soon, ask Ingraham for details about the female IBWO. It’s a good tale.