BRINKLEY - Over a period of a year, from February 2004 to February 2005, several ornithologists and researchers had glimpses of the ivory-billed woodpecker in the Bayou DeView area just north of Brinkley.

Dr. John Fitzpatrick of Cornell University’s Laboratory of Ornithology said, “We don’t know if one ivory-billed was seen several times or if more than one has been seen.” Fitzpatrick said of the total number of sightings by researchers, four were confirmed as male ivory-billeds. The others were of unknown gender.

Some other researchers heard sounds thought to be ivory-billeds but did not see the birds.

The sightings and sound incidents:

Feb. 11, 2004, while kayaking through the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge, Gene Sparling of Hot Springs spots what he believes is an ivory-billed woodpecker.

Feb. 27, 2004, Tim Gallagher of Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Bobby Harrison of Oakwood College in Huntsville, Ala., in a canoe behind Sparling in his kayak, report a “close-up, unmistakable sighting” of an ivory-billed woodpecker. The two watch the bird move from tree to tree before it flies out of sight. This sighting was the first time since 1944 two experienced observers had together positively identified an ivory-billed woodpecker in the United States.

April 5, 2004, Jim Fitzpatrick, executive director for the Carpenter St. Croix Valley Nature Center in Minnesota and brother of John Fitzpatrick, sees an ivory-billed flying just above the treetops near Sparling’s initial sighting area.

April 10, 2004, Melinda LaBranche of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology watches through binoculars as an ivory-billed flies above the treetops at the same location where the April 5 sighting occurred.

April 11, 2004, Melanie Driscoll of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology watches through binoculars as an ivory-billed flies across a gap in the forest.

April 25, 2004. David Luneau, of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, captures on video what he and other experts now believe to be an ivory-billed woodpecker. After the video is analyzed, John Fitzpatrick stated, “The bird captured on this video can be nothing other than an ivory-billed woodpecker.”

June 9, 2004, Harrison, one of the first three to spot the ivory-billed in the Arkansas search, reports seeing an ivory-billed flush from near the base of a bald-cypress tree about 15 meters in front of him.

Nov. 9, 2004, Marshall Iliff, a long-time birder who has extensive experience with Campephilus woodpeckers (the genus to which the ivory-billed belongs), hears double-knocks that he identifies as sounds made by an ivory-billed woodpecker.

December 2004 to January 2005, an automatic recording unit captures a number of distinct double-knocks strikingly similar to those made by Campephilus woodpeckers. So far, however, researchers have not been able to rule out other potential sound sources.