"The Thing With Feathers"

As I began to read this article I was brought back to the article we read for Monday. However, unlike Monday's article I didn't feel sadness while reading, I felt hope. The tone of the article is the reason the author kept pulling me back in. Tower's sheer enthusiasm and passion for finding this bird really made me as a reader appreciate what all of the people were trying to do. I enjoyed the camaraderie between Tower's and some of his fellow bird enthusiasts. The easy banter was clear in the quotes and comments made by others. It was a nice change of pace to read an aritlce that included so many thoughts and ideas from other's about the bird and how it is effecting their life.

Even though the article was fairly entertaining to read some parts to me seemed insincere. For instance, the small towns that are trying to benefit from the "rediscovery" of this bird don't actually care for the bird they only care about the profit the bird can bring. Also a lot of the people that the author talked to seemed passionate about finding the bird but it seemed as if they were trying harder to convince themselves that the bird was back instead of convincing Tower's or the readers. I believe that hope does this sort of thing to people. When a person is deeply passionate about something it is all they think about and these people honestly wanted to believe that the bird was still alive without much factual evidence. Even Tower's said he was "suffering for the ivory bill mania" looking everywhere he went for just a glimpse of this elusive bird. Even though most of the article was based off of other people's observations and sometimes semi-sarcastic comments I don't think it effected the credibility of the article. There was still a lot of great information in the article that does point to the fact that the Ivorybill woodpecker may be back.

To answer Rachel's question, I too may have kept the sighting to myself. However, my reasoning isn't because I would be afraid of doubt my reasoning would be that I would want to protect this bird from anyone disturbing its habitat. Of course I would most likely actually doubt myself because I don't have much experience with bird watching or what they bird actually looked like. If I did suspect that my sighting was however an Ivorybill I may keep it to myself because I wouldn't want the bird to live a life were it feels threatened.