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Big Woods Field Notes: Latest News, Information, Updates on the Search for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker in the Big Woods of Arkansas

Ivory-billed woodpecker field notes photo. © David Luneau

A photo David took of his friends at the Ark. Hwy. 17 bridge over Bayou DeView.
Photo © David Luneau

A typical day in the Big Woods with David

Author: David Luneau

Author: David Luneau
Date: March 2006
Location: Big Woods of Arkansas

A typical winter morning trip to the swamp begins at around 5:00 am for me. I pack everything the night before to streamline the trip. I can be out of the house with a cup of hot tea and a Pop-tart 15 minutes after the alarm goes off. The drive from my house to the oh-so-popular-now Arkansas Highway 17 bridge just north of Brinkley takes about one hour and 15 minutes, so I can be there by 6:30 am.

Speaking of the Highway 17 bridge, it is a rare day that I go to the bridge and don’t run into someone that I know or that I have corresponded with. Bill Shepherd, who is a member of the original ivory-bill search team in Arkansas, refers to it as a "Patagonian Picnic Table." It seems to be the place for launching an ivory-bill search in the Big Woods. If you go to the Big Woods to look for ivory-bills or just to enjoy the scenery, don’t forget that there are many other places that are not as heavily used and that are just as beautiful and probably just as promising for offering a chance to see the bird.

Since I am back to teaching full-time now, my schedule requires that I leave around noon after putting in a six-hour field day in the swamp. That leaves me time for office hours and an evening class, and it makes for a very long day. Since I am spending most of my time deploying and checking remote cameras, I bring back literally thousands of pictures when I return from the swamp. It is not unusual for me to have more than 40,000 pictures from the time-lapse cameras. (Many thanks to Bill and Cindy Ward for supporting the remote camera effort.) It takes several hours to browse through the pictures looking for interesting things, but it’s nice to be able to sit in my office and look at pictures of the swamp. It’s not quite the same as being in the swamp, but it offers a temporary escape from the indoor city life.