Bigfoot

I tried to snap a few pictures of our baby chick the other day, but because the mother hen had become so protective I only managed Bigfoot quality:




I thought about posting it and making a joke about Bigfoot, but decided to wait and try for a good photo when I had a spare minute.

But last night when I went to close up the chicken coop, the mama was on the roost instead of on the floor with her baby. Two of the hens were missing as well.

Have I mentioned the coyotes? This time last year they took several of our poultry, but those were the pre-Jasmine days. I thought she was keeping them at bay. Even back then we never lost three in one day.

I guess I am not going to make a very good homesteader woman if I keep crying over missing chickens.

As I was having my coffee this morning and wondering if I might be too sad to even write about this, my husband called and said to turn on the radio. "NPR has a story about the Ivory-billed woodpecker! They've seen one!"

"Oh yeah," I thought, "another Bigfoot story." Over the past few years NPR's Radio Expeditions has aired several stories about the hunt for Ivory bills.

In my heart I figured that hunting for Bigfoot might actually be more productive.

Ivory-billed woodpeckers are the reason that I know what the word extirpated means: used to be here, now it isn't. Gone because the trees are gone. Yeah there are still trees, but not their kind of tree. Not the big trees in the big swamps, because they weren't making anybody any money.

But the Nature Conservancy believes in wild places and buys them up. Can't talk landowners into conserving? Pool money and buy them out. Brilliant. Everybody wins. The discovery of the Ivory Bill was kept secret for over a year, to give time to protect the bird's habitat.

They may have managed to save Bigfoot after all.

Bird nerds, fall to your knees and weep. Published today in the journal Science: In central Arkansas, they found one.

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! I'm headed over to donate online to the Nature Conservancy right now.

Please consider doing the same.


Updated:
Here's a New York Times article about it.
(Thanks Charles.)

It shouldn't require a login but if so you can grab one from BugMeNot if you don't have or want one.

Updated again:
Link to Cache River National Wildlife Refuge, which has more info.

Yes I'm a bird nerd, but I have no desire to run out and try to see this bird... I'm just happy to know that it's there!