When I stepped out under the carport yesterday morning just to check on
the remaining snow in the driveway, I spotted three people in the street at
the foot of the drive, one holding an antenna aimed toward the house.
Someone spying on me??? Property tax assessors??? But then, I figured out what
they were doing pretty quickly as I am familiar with this kind of get up.
Turns out they were a team of biologists from the University of
Washington's College of Forest Services studying Pileated Woodpeckers around urban
Puget Sound, and they were radio tracking/monitoring mine which have been
coming to my suet feeders regularly for years. I had noticed for a few years
now, and since suddenly one day in 2009, the female was sporting a silver
aluminum band on it's left leg. Apparently it has a radio antenna attached
to it's back as well, but havn't noticed that yet so will have to look more
closely next time she comes by. I was always curious that one of my birds
had a band but never knew the backstory before, so this team's random
chance visit yesterday morning was most welcome and enlightening, nice folks,
and they had in fact banded that very bird in 2009 two blocks away over in
Eastgate Park. So, it was kind of neat learning more about why and what
these folks are doing plus nice to have a most distinguished bird of greater
interest visiting my yard and feeders.

In addition to (1) Eastgate Park, three other neighborhood areas where
Pileated Woodpeckers are being radio tracked and monitored are (2) Lee
Experimental Forest / Montare, Maltby, WA, (3) Union Hill, Redmond, WA, and (4)
Cougar Mountain, Bellevue, WA. So, if you live in any of those areas, take a
closer look at your Pileated Woodpeckers, and if you'd like to help out in
any way you can contact Jorge.

The main biologist, phD Chilean student Jorge Tomasevic gave me his card
with a Internet link that explains everything. Click on this link to learn
more: _University of Washington - Pileated Woodpecker study_
(http://students.washington.edu/tomasevi/)

Richard Rowlett
Bellevue (Eastgate), WA