Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #175313 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04-18
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780618709410
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Scientific American
This book is an outstanding example of the behind-the-recent-headlines genre. It tells the story of the obsessive quest to find the ivory-billed woodpecker, which was feared to be extinct (no confirmed sightings since 1944). Big, mysterious, iconic, the bird is "a symbol of everything that has gone wrong with our relationship to the environment." In the 19th century, it was plundered by collectors, and in the 20th, extensive habitat destruction seemingly drove it to extinction.

Gallagher, editor of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology's publication Living Bird, has searched for the bird off and on for three decades. One day in February 2004 he read a posting on a canoe club Web site about a strange woodpecker that a kayaker named Gene Sparling had seen on a float trip down a remote bayou in eastern Arkansas. Less than two weeks later Gallagher and his fellow seeker, Bobby Ray Harrison, were in the swamp with Sparling, looking for the elusive bird. As readers of headlines know, they found it. The discovery gives us, Gallagher writes, "one final chance to get it right, to save this bird and the bottomland swamp forests it needs to survive."

Editors of Scientific American

From Bookmarks Magazine
Gallagher displays his passion for conversation, competition, and wildlife in his account of the rediscovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker—a remarkable event. His conversational tone allows readers to engage in this adventure. But to critics’ chagrin, Gallagher attacks members in the scientific community, whom he claims did not do enough in their search to rediscover this lost species. Despite this criticism, readers will stay close on Gallagher’s heels throughout his adventure, learn about the history of this rare bird, and consider what its rediscovery means for conservation.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

From Booklist
In April 2005, a startling announcement burst into the national and international news--a bird long feared extinct, a bird so distinctive that it has been referred to as the "Lord God bird," had been rediscovered. Not only had various noted ornithologists sighted the bird, but one researcher had also managed to get a few seconds on videotape of the bird in flight. The ivory-billed woodpecker, the largest of its kind in North America, was back from the dead. Gallagher, currently editor in chief of Cornell University Laboratory of Ornithology's journal Living Bird, was one of the first two qualified observers to see the bird in February 2004. This set off a massive, organized search, and with several other sightings, the scientists felt it was safe to report that the ivory-bill was not extinct. Although this momentous event had obvious implications for avid birders, it also validated the conservation technique of setting aside large tracts of habitat, and the author painlessly works both the science and the adventure into his tale. Gallagher's firsthand account, filled with portraits of other ivory-bill searchers, both professional and amateur, and evocative descriptions of the swamps and bayous where it was rediscovered, has an immediacy that sweeps the reader into the thrill of his first sighting. This is popular science writing at its best, and deserves a place in all libraries. Nancy Bent
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

the inside story of the 2004 ivory-bill sighting!
This is a well-written insider's tale of the confirmed sightings of the ivory-billed woodpecker in Arkansas in 2004, which amazed all of us who are even remotely interested in birds and wildlife. The last previous confirmed sighting was in 1944, in the NE corner of Louisiana, an area that was logged and destroyed later that year. Interesting, then, that the rare bird, long thought extinct, shows up just upriver in Arkansas.

One of the things that makes Gallagher's book so good is his tracking down various unconfirmed sightings over the years. In light of what we now know, that the ivory-bill lives!, these sightings become much more plausible in retrospect. And there is a pattern that emerges -- sightings across southern Louisiana from west (Sabine River) to central (Atchafalaya Basin) to east (Pearl River). A long-lost tape has been unearthed confirming a 1966 "sighting" (hearing) in the Sabine River area of east Texas. The 850,000 acre Atchafalaya Basin was the location of several sightings in the 1970s and 1980s. A highly credible 1999 sighting in the Pearl River area led to an intensive search that found nothing. It is quite possible therefore, based on the evidence presented in this book, that the ivory-bill survives not only in the Cache and White River area of east-central Arkansas, but in the swamps of southern Lousiana as well!

What's the moral of the story? Habitat preservation! The area in Arkansas is protected land, which was expanded by Nature Conservancy purchases between the February 2004 sightings and the recent public announcement, and protecting critical habitat in the three river basins mentioned above might well secure more elusive ivory-bill populations. Designation and protection of critical habitat is in fact mandated by the Endangered Species Act.

The two top websites for more on the amazing ivory-bill story are The Nature Conservancy (http://www.tnc.org) and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (http://www.birds.cornell.edu).

Ivory-billed Woodpecker: The TRUTH behind the rediscovery
Tim Gallagher's newest book, The Grail Bird, is indeed the truth behind the rediscovery. I've been a follower of Ivory-billed Woodpecker history and sightings for several years. I've tried to read any book that has any noteworthy mention of the species within. This is the best book I have ever come across. It contains a great wealth of information on the history of the species right up to Tim's own personal sighting a little more than a year ago.

Do you know who took the mystery photos of the 1971 Ivory-billed Woodpecker? Tim does. And, thanks to his sleuthing, now I do too. It's all in his book.

Tim is a great writer and a great detective. He tracked down every possible lead he could find and interviewed anyone he thought may have seen an Ivory-billed Woodpecker or who knew of someone who had. His interviews and stories are very interesting with great personal lines from Tim that will make you laugh and maybe even cry. After reading his book you will come away feeling as if you were there, right alongside Tim and his friend, Bobby, on their journeys for the truth.

I know you will thoroughly enjoy this.

Good reading!

The Next Best Thing to Being There
I assumed we would have to wait a few months, or even a year, for the inside story of the rediscovery of the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker. Fortunately, we didn't have to wait at all, as Tim Gallagher was simultaneously searching for the bird and working on this most excellent book. Another reviewer used the word "perfect" to describe The Grail Bird, and I think that's about right, as Gallagher has somehow arrived at the perfect mix of natural history, detective story, and memoir. It's a delicate balance, and he found it. This book won't be a best-seller, but deserves to be.