*Hopefully*, some of you might find this to be of interest. From the Rare
Bird Alert for
Alaska* Upper Cook Inlet Region [Anchorage & Vicinity]* 10 February 2002
* AKUC0202.10- Transcript
This is the Upper Cook Inlet (UCI) bird report updated on Sunday,
February 10th, sponsored by the Anchorage Audubon Society.
While barely on the northern fringe of the UCI region, I would be remise
not to mention that there is a male, as well as reportedly a female,
GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER visiting a feeder at a residence near Caswell
Lake, off the Parks Highway between Willow and Talkeetna. Apparently,
the pair has been present since at least the early fall of 2001. The
male was confirmed this past week by several observers on the 8th and
9th, but the female has apparently not been seen since about the 6th.
Great Spotted Woodpecker is fairly common across much of Europe and Asia
and has been recorded in Alaska now on about nine different occasions;
although this is the first from the mainland. The homeowners, Myrtle
and Steve Heinrich have said they would welcome birders who want to see
this bird, their phone number is 907-495-5749, but request no visits or
calls before about 10 am in the morning - folks outside Alaska please
take note of the time change. Further, we ask that attempts be made to
coordinate visits in ?groups' to minimize complete disruption of the
Heinrich's personal life. Note also that the feeders are not visible
from the road, but can be seen clearly from the driveway. The home is
about a two hour drive from Anchorage; take the Parks Highway north to
about ?mile-marker' 88.1 and turn right onto ?Hidden Lake Access Road',
drive about 0.7 miles and turn left onto ?Caswell Lake Road', drive
about 3.8 miles to a stop sign and turn left on to ?Bendapole Road' and
go about 1.1 miles, the Heinrich's, a white two story home with a
separate two car garage, is on the left.


Dave Beaudette,
Wenatchee