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Description
Inktober day 1 - New Ghosts (Campephilus principalis)
4x6" ink & watercolor

Doing a bit of an off-the-prompts #Inktober this year with a little bit of everything (ink critters, birds, weird things, whatever strikes fancy) as I can. I will put the decent ones up for sale at the end (if there are any hah).

Yesterday, the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker was officially declared extinct, to the surprise of very few - it has been decades since the last confirmed sighting of one. Despite knowing that this big ugly stamp was coming, it still stung to see it come down. I remember learning about them in elementary or middle school and thought their big stark eyes and coloring were so striking, and having some tiny sliver of hope that maybe someday we might find them by surprise again. The destruction of their habitat by logging made this loss possible - these guys need a rather large span of old growth forest to survive (it stings to think of the loss of so much old growth forest too, argh, seldom is it just one thing....). To make matters worse, keeping them on the endangered species list, rather than declaring them extinct, afforded some of these extremely precious and threatened forests special protection since it meant there was a chance there could be some of these fellows flying out there somewhere, hiding, depending on it. With this declaration likely comes one less layer of protection for these forests as well.

This wasn't what I had planned to do for today's little project but I couldn't get them off my mind since hearing the news yesterday.

I may bookmark this idea and do something bigger and more thoughtful with it later instead of just a wonky tiny inktober sketch. It all feels very futile, though there is something nice about sitting and holding a thing in your mind, spending time on it....

Please support the preservation and protection of ecosystems & critters.

Description
Inktober day 1 - New Ghosts (Campephilus principalis)
4x6" ink & watercolor

Doing a bit of an off-the-prompts #Inktober this year with a little bit of everything (ink critters, birds, weird things, whatever strikes fancy) as I can. I will put the decent ones up for sale at the end (if there are any hah).

Yesterday, the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker was officially declared extinct, to the surprise of very few - it has been decades since the last confirmed sighting of one. Despite knowing that this big ugly stamp was coming, it still stung to see it come down. I remember learning about them in elementary or middle school and thought their big stark eyes and coloring were so striking, and having some tiny sliver of hope that maybe someday we might find them by surprise again. The destruction of their habitat by logging made this loss possible - these guys need a rather large span of old growth forest to survive (it stings to think of the loss of so much old growth forest too, argh, seldom is it just one thing....). To make matters worse, keeping them on the endangered species list, rather than declaring them extinct, afforded some of these extremely precious and threatened forests special protection since it meant there was a chance there could be some of these fellows flying out there somewhere, hiding, depending on it. With this declaration likely comes one less layer of protection for these forests as well.

This wasn't what I had planned to do for today's little project but I couldn't get them off my mind since hearing the news yesterday.

I may bookmark this idea and do something bigger and more thoughtful with it later instead of just a wonky tiny inktober sketch. It all feels very futile, though there is something nice about sitting and holding a thing in your mind, spending time on it....

Please support the preservation and protection of ecosystems & critters.