Oops. woodpecker raps were actually gunshots. (Zoology).The knock-knock sounds recorded and replayed with such hope last January by ornithologists This is a list of ornithologists who have articles, in alphabetical order by surname. See also . A-D
prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. researchers at the Cornell (N.Y.) Laboratory of Ornithology ornithology Branch of zoology dealing with the study of birds. Early writings on birds were largely anecdotal (including folklore) or practical (e.g., treatises on falconry and game-bird management). . An international team of bird experts spent a month last winter combing Louisiana's Pearl River Pearl River, uninc. village (1990 pop. 15,314), Rockland co., SE N.Y., near the N.J. line. It is a residential suburb of New York City, and a computer and telecommunications research and development center. Pearl River River, central Mississippi, U. Wildlife Management Area for signs that the charismatic woodpecker woodpecker, common name for members of the Picidae, a large family of climbing birds found in most parts of the world. Woodpeckers typically have sharp, chisellike bills for pecking holes in tree trunks, and long, barbed, extensible tongues with which they impale , which had not been seen for years, had somehow escaped extinction (SN: 3/2/02, p. 141). On Jan. 27, searchers recorded pairs of loud raps, as if a huge woodpecker were drumming on a hollow tree. The Cornell lab has analyzed digital recordings from 12 round-the-clock microphones on trees in the Pearl River region. Audio experts found the rapping noises all right, but they were clearly gunshots, says lab director John Fitzpatrick There have been a number of people named John Fitzpatrick:
He and his colleagues studied the recordings using a computer program that presents sounds as visual patterns. "There was a big, thick vertical line and then a big smudge," says Fitzpatrick. "Woodpecker drumming looks small on the screen in comparison to a gunshot." The researchers also fed the 4,000 hours of recordings through programs that automatically check for certain sounds. Other scientists have used such programs to find whale songs in ocean recordings and elephant rumbles in African forests. The Cornell laboratory prepped the program with recordings of real ivory-billed woodpeckers made during the 1940s. In the Louisiana recordings from last winter, however, the programs found neither ivory-billed woodpecker calls nor raps. "We have not given up," says Fitzpatrick. He acknowledges that the searches are long shots but says he plans a few more and is even considering another round of recording near the Pearl River.--S.M. |
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