Morsels of hope # 1

The ivory-billed woodpecker, long thought to be extinct, has been spotted in the swamp forests of eastern Arkansas, according to a paper published online Thursday by the journal Science. The discovery comes some 60 years after the last confirmed sighting of the large woodpecker and conservationists hope it will energize efforts to safeguard endangered species and their habitat.

The last reported sighting (or so the legend goes) was in Mexico ca. the 1950's, by a truck driver who claimed to have killed and eaten the bird.