Ghost Bird

Stephen Lyn Bales

This unique book goes back to a time when the fabled Ivory Billed Woodpecker was still seen, though not on a regular basis. The species has since become a symbol of lost wilderness in America, and a symbol of hopes and dreams. One small Arkansas town placed hopes on a tourist boom after a recent alleged sighting. Some birders dream of finding a lost remnant population of this bird, generally believed extinct. In his introduction to the book, Stephen Lyn Bales stated that as he learned more about Jim Tanner and his research efforts to document the Ivory Billed Woodpecker, he became convinced that someone should write a book about Tanner.

He states that he did not want to write the book. He had one book already, and said that writing a book is like putting socks on an octopus, that one does not wish to undertake the task again. Despite those reservations, it became clear to him that he should be the one to write this book. He lived near Tanner’s widow, Nancy, and knew her from participation in a bird club. Through Nancy, he had access to Tanner’s journals and photographs, some of which he published in the magazine, Tennessee Conservationist. This reviewer is glad he undertook the project, and gave us his second book. He obviously put hours of research into the project and cared enough to produce a quality project.

When Jim Tanner set off on his first expedition, he didn’t know he would observe a species which became his doctoral research project, and become famous for its absence. He began the journey with Arthur Allen, director of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, when they set out to film birds and record their songs. They had none of the equipment we take for granted today, hand held and compact. Their sound laboratory alone weighed around 1,500 pounds. Their field equipment was heavy, bulky and cranky.

In the end, the researchers filmed and recorded the Ivory Billed Woodpecker, already disappearing from our continent. Turner then spent three years searching for these ghost birds. He completed the research and became a professor at a school which would later become East Tennessee State University. After service with the Navy during World War II, he taught at the University of Tennessee. He died believing the Ivory Billed Woodpecker had become extinct in his lifetime, and verifiable results of recent searches tend to support that conclusion. 

Mr. Bales tells the story in a way that prompts the reader to want to learn more. The one disadvantage of this book is that it has not been released as an ebook.

An article which could serve as a footnote to the book appeared in Tennessee Conservationist magazine earlier this year. Prior to the death of Tanner's wife Nancy in 2014, she was the last living person to have seen the Ivory Billed Woodpecker.