ML104395

Media notes

See American Birds, June 1975, Vol. 29, No. 3. pp 647-651, John William Hardy publication on this recording. The field recorder was Craig Model 2016 cassette recorder. At 7:30 on 25 February 1968, John V. Dennis, accompanied by his wife and Mrs. Peter Isleib, were approaching a heavily wooded bluff overlooking Village Creek, a tributary of the Neches River, when the party heard the distinct "hant, hant" notes of an Ivory-billed Woodpecker. The tree from which the notes came was screened from view by a dense canopy of pine and other growth. Dennis, who was carrying an inexpensive tape recorder, immediately turned on the recording switch. He succeeded in obtaining several minutes of the "hant, hant" sequence. The party listened for a while in the hope of hearing more call notes. Failing to do so, they followed a path to the edge of the bluff and tried to find the bird. Apparently, by then it had flown, as nothing was seen of it. At the time of the recording, the bird may have been only about 150 feet away. It was a foggy and still morning and a number of birds were singing. ML: Seventeen examples of what I believe is the "kent" or "kint" call of Campephilus principalis (14 in the first part and I believe three in the second). Although the calls are not too different from those of a nuthatch, they do have the quality of the calls in ML6784. (CAM, 22Apr2005).