Ivorybill pair find 'forever home' at Ijams

"Two stuffed and mounted ivory-billed woodpeckers (one a male and one a female) finally found a forever home as a part of Ijams Nature Center's lost species exhibit.

The amazing story of how they came to be donated involves a beautiful old picture frame, a lifelong friendship between two men who grew up together in Worcester County, Mass., two friends in a Knoxville book club, and a letter written by Ijams Director Paul James."

For the rest of the story, go the Birdlife column by Marcia Davis at ivory-bills' journey.


- Photo by Stephen Lyn Bales

Hope is the thing with feathers

As my friend Chris Cokinos so aptly pointed out, quoting the Belle of Amherst, “Hope is the thing with feathers — That perches in the soul — And sings the tune without the words — And never stops — at all.”

Never stops at all. That’s our hope. For if a bird as plentiful as the passenger pigeon and one as leery and lost as an ivory-bill can both go extinct, then there is no hope.

Although I have known Nancy Tanner for over 12 years (we are both members of the local bird club) and knew of her connection to the ivory-billed woodpecker, it was really Chris Cokinos’ book that first set my mental gears in motion.

His Hope Is the Thing with Feathers: A Personal Chronicle of Vanished Birds, first published in the year 2000, is a look at several lost avian species: Carolina parakeet, heath hen, great auk, passenger pigeon, Labrador duck and the ivory-billed woodpecker that are extinct or nearly so. (The jury is still out on the ivorybill and may be sequestered for many years to come. Read Scott Weidensaul’s The Ghost with Trembling Wings.)

If have not read “Hope” then please stop reading this and run out and buy a copy. Don’t check it out of the library; authors struggle to make ends meet.

I was lucky to meet Chris a few years ago when he came to Ijams Nature Center to speak.

Many thanks Chris, for your words of support. My book about Jim Tanner is finally finished.

- Photo of Christopher Cokinos and Nancy Tanner taken January 15, 2007 at Ijams Nature Center in Knoxville.

Tennessee Ornithological Society

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Jim Tanner joined the Tennessee Ornithological Society (TOS) in the late 1940s while teaching in Johnson City at Tennessee State Teachers College, known today as East Tennessee State University.

After accepting a job at the University of Tennessee, he transferred his membership to the Knoxville Chapter of TOS. The above group photo was taken in 1952 at the annual Spring Field Day at the home of H.P. and Alice Ijams. Their original home site is now part of Ijams Nature Center.

Jim Tanner is sitting in the center, wearing a kwiki shirt. H.P. is wearing a brown sweater, standing to the left of Tanner and Alice Ijams is wearing the black dress to the right of Tanner. Noted Tennessee ornithologist Albert Ganier is sitting in front of Tanner to the left

Joe Howell, who spent time with the 1935 Cornell Expedition while they were in Florida, also taught at UT. Howell is the tall man standing on the far right.

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