The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), Naugatuck Valley Audubon, and Audubon CT will present a screening of Ghost Bird, a movie about the sightings of the Ivory-billed woodpecker.
The program will take place on Tuesday, January 17 at 7:30 p.m. at the Kellogg Environmental Center, Derby.
Set in a murky swamp overrun with birders, scientists, and reporters, Ghost Bird explores the limits of certainty, the power of hope, and how one phantom woodpecker changed a sleepy Southern town forever.
In 2005, scientists announced that the Ivory-billed woodpecker, a species thought to be extinct for 60 years, had been found in the swamps of Eastern Arkansas. Other creatures have wrongly been presumed extinct, but the reappearance of the Ivory-bill was celebrated around the world as the rediscovery of a lifetime, prompting the largest recovery effort ever undertaken for a lost species.
Millions of dollars poured in from the government while ornithologists and birders flooded the swamps to find the rare bird.
Down the road, the town of Brinkley, Arkansas – itself on the brink of extinction – was transformed by the hope, commerce, and controversy surrounding their feathered friend. But continued sightings by expert birders only highlighted the mysterious absence of credible evidence.
Now six years later, the woodpecker remains as elusive as ever. Ghost Bird brings the Ivory-bill’s blurry rediscovery into focus revealing our uneasy relationship with nature and the increasing uncertainty of our place within it.
The program is offered free of charge. Donations are accepted. The Kellogg Environmental Center, a facility of the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, is located at 500 Hawthorne Avenue, Derby, CT. Light refreshments will be served after the showing of the movie.
For further information, directions or to register, please phone the Kellogg Environmental Center at (203) 734‑2513 or contact Dennis Kocyla at (203) 734‑9325 or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
