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Chapter 14 Q A Second Nesting Season at Singer The vistas between the widely spaced forest giants were quite open, and the tangles of catbrier and poison ivy that barred our way were easily circumvented. We were in the higher, drier part of the swamp, the “second bottoms.” The trees whose massive crowns towered 150 or more feet above our heads were sweet gum, Nuttall’s oak, and ash. In the lower parts of the swamp grew the pale green cypresses, their knobby “knees” emerging from the dark, coffee-colored water. Never, said Kuhn, had he seen an ivory-bill on a cypress. —Roger Tory Peterson In early February 1938, Tanner was anxious to get back to Louisiana. He arrived in Atlanta and retrieved his car from storage on February 12, driving the next day to Livingston, Alabama, southwest of Birmingham and just east of Mississippi. There had been rumors of ivory-bills in the swamps of Tombigbee Bottoms in Sumter County. These accounts amounted to little more than hearsay , but still Tanner needed to check out their credibility. As he had learned the year before, local lumber companies were good sources of information. They had knowledge of the current state of the woods and knew the old-timers and their stories. At the Allison Lumber Company in Bellamy, south of Livingston, Jim learned of previous efforts to find ivory-bills in the area—attempts that had located nothing. Ultimately, Jim found neither good territory nor anyone there who had seen the birds. On February 15 Tanner drove on to Tallulah. Once again, Ed Cochran gave him use of his cabin at Methiglum. The weather had been warm, almost summer-like. Most of the roads were fairly dry, but Jim knew there were more cool days ahead. He left his car with a local farmer and arranged for the use of a horse to carry his gear into camp from a Dr. Speaker, the local veterinarian, who lived near Quimby. Returning to the cabin he knew so well must have been satisfying. Although sparse, its confines would be home for the next few months. Its roof would keep 136 A Second Nesting Season at Singer him dry during the wet days that were sure to come, and its stove would keep him warm. Winter in Louisiana can consist of days of steady rain that flood the bayous and sloughs; or it can be bright and clear, cool in the morning but warm in the afternoon. Anxious to reconnect with “Pair One,” Tanner was at their favorite roost hole in the group of ashes in John’s Bayou at 6:30 am on February 17. Nothing happened. Had the birds moved on? Disappointed, Tanner began to search the area and an hour and a half later, he found the ivory-bills in the general vicinity of the previous year’s nest. He noted, They left and I waited. About 9 [am] they came back and for 40 minutes hung around. The male was carrying a big grub for a long time. Once the two birds got close together, the male pointed his bill upward, and gave a call much like the notes they made at nest-changing. Twice, when the male was carrying food, he flew to a partly dead maple which had much scaling on it. An hour or more later, 10:45, the female flew to that tree, climbed to a fresh hole, looked in a few times, entered, came out, went half way in again, came out, looked around, flew off. It was mid-February, but spring was already coming to the swamp. Tender green plants were peeking through the soil. Red haw shrubs were beginning to show new leaves, and the American elms and red maples, known in parts of the South as swamp maples, were in full fruit (called samara). Jim’s luck of being in the right place at the right time held true. On his first day back in the Singer Tract, he had found an active nest. But could this be possible so early in the year? For the rest of the day, he observed the interaction of the pair, noting their behavior. He soon realized that they were feeding young. The male and female came and went from the new cavity all day. Tanner estimated that the 1938 nest was roughly 150 yards to the west and 300 yards south of the 1937 nest. Over the next several days, unless it was...

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