So, there is much ado in the media about the discovery of a single, remaining, Ivory-Billed Woodpecker in Arkansas. It's not known whether this is the only one, or whether there are more. Let's hope there are, because it's a pretty sassy looking bird.
I don't know much about birds, but this is a big deal, from what I hear. Phillip Hoose was on Morning Edition today. He wrote a book called "The Lord God Bird", which is one of the woodpecker's 18 nicknames, and is very excited about this discovery to say the least. Could this be the resurgence of an extinct species? What do we need more, in these crazy, death-fixated times, than rebirth of any sort?
Renee Montagne asks Hoose - who is just bouncing off the walls with excitement about this bird in the sweetest ornithological way - if this might not be just a sick joke for humanity - a sighting of one bird that will thrill everyone and then subsequently bum them out because it's about to become extinct again. Is a taste of honey worse than none at all, Renee? Sometimes I despise commentators. A lot.
You could almost hear Hoose smiling through the radio during this interview, and he wouldn't let his hopes be dashed. Sure, it could, he said. There have been sightings before, in an ash tree in a New Orleans parish some years ago, to be precise. But then again, it might not. It might be the real deal. And that's enough for him.
It's enough for me, too, non-birder but nature lover that I am. And just hearing Hoose's last statement made me pull for it to be real more than anything.
"My wild, beating heart just won't stop," he said. "This is just wonderful. What a chance."
And even though I've never heard of this woodpecker, I've heard too little of this kind of genuine excitement lately. God bless the Lord God bird.
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