The first Lewis’s Woodpecker for Alaska was found about a week ago in Petersburg by Sunny Rice, and identified and photographed by Brad Hunter. Until today, however, I was not able to make a trip to Petersburg to try to add it to my state list and my AK big year list. Finally, this morning I boarded a very full plane flying via a bunch of southeast AK cities to Seattle. I got off at its second stop, Petersburg, my first visit there.
After getting a shuttle to my hotel and checking in, I met with Brad and we walked from my hotel to the apple tree where the woodpecker has been regularly, but not always, seen. Brad has augmented the tree’s apples by adding some store-bought apples on a stick (the tree is over his shoulder in picture).
As the apple tree came into our view, there was the LEWIS’S WOODPECKER at Brad’s apple treats. It immediately flew away, but we waited 20 minutes or so and it returned to Brad’s apples, where it ate on the apples and stayed in the quickly diminishing daylight for about 15 minutes before flying away into the darkness. I plan to be back there tomorrow morning for better pictures in hopefully more light, and then if there’s time before my flight, I’ll explore a bit more in Petersburg. Wonderful bird!!
304 species so far
Lynn Barber's Birding Blog 
Congratulations on number 304! What a beauty and its tummy matches the pink of the apples–color-coordinated nature!
LikeLike