The last confirmed sighting of the ivory-billed woodpecker was over 50 years ago, though in 1999 a student at Louisiana State University, David Kulivan, gave a pretty serious description of a pair he had sighted. An intensive search is now underway in the Pearl River Wildlife Management Area (SE Louisiana, about 30 miles by 5 of swampy forest) for this elusive, possibly extinct, possibly not, bird. You can follow the search every day at: www.zeiss.com, which is the entry point for daily reports from the teams who are roaming the woods for 30 "good-weather days" beginning Jan 17. Time is beginning to run short for this search!

yours, Peter T.