BRINKLEY - The diverse, intense, highly knowledgeable ivory-billed woodpecker research team is packing its bags and heading home.

But they’ll be back.

Dr. John Fitzpatrick of Cornell University’s Laboratory of Ornithology said, that the trees of the Cache River and Bayou DeView country just north of Brinkley are in full foliage, and this sharply reduces visibility and the chances of spotting an ivory-billed.

Plans are for both teams, the one that worked the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge and Dagmar Wildlife Management Area near Brinkley and the one working the White River National Wildlife Refuge to the south, to be back in the Arkansas swamps around November 1.

At least one ivory-billed has been seen in the Bayou DeView area by several scientists over the past 14 months, These are the first confirmed sightings of ivory-billeds in the world since 1944, and the announcement brought forth high-fives from wildlife authorities and every-day nature appreciators around the world.

Fitzpatrick is director of the esteemed Cornell ornithology facility and headed the Arkansas search after Gene Sparling of Hot Springs reported seeing an ivory-billed in February 2004. He said, “Now that the bird has been found, the Big Woods Conservation Partnership will continue its work, and the federal government will form a recovery team. The government will have trump power, but everybody is working together on this.

“The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission has been a big part of this and will continue to do so. (AGFC director) Scott Henderson gave a good talk in Washington when the announcement (of the discovery) was made.”

Much in-the-field work is underway by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also. This agency operates Cache River NWR, where most of the sightings have been.

One facet of the 14-month research effort after Sparling’s find was its successful secrecy.

The researchers had to keep their operations under wraps. If word of the ivory-billed in Bayou DeView had spread, hordes of curious people thrashing through the swamp would have throttled the scientific efforts.

But the researchers, who were from nearby areas of Arkansas and as far away as the Netherlands, worked undisturbed. They had automated cameras and sound equipment set up, and many of the people spent 14-hour days in the swamp. It paid off in the form of multiple sightings of single birds and a short but definitive video segment made by Dr. David Luneau of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

Fitzpatrick praised the work of Martjan Lammertink, the Dutch scientist who is one of the world’s leading woodpecker experts and who came to Arkansas when Fitzpatrick called him. Lammertink was on hand most of the 14 months of the search.

Fitzpatrick said the companion team has been searching similar habitat in the White River NWR.

“Old, dead trees are the key for the ivory-billed,” he said. “They favor gum and oaks rather than cypress and tupelo.”