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Two birds in her hand

Jasmina Meyer/Highlands Today

Lauren Gilson a biologist with the Archbold Biological Station observes, supervises and documents the Red-cockaded woodpecker on a portion of the Avon Park Air Force Range. After climbing a ladder about 25 feet up she extracts nestlings from the cavity of a Longleaf pine tree and carefully measures, weighs and bands the birds with individual colored and numbered tags.

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By LAURA NESBITT

Highlands Today

Published: May 18, 2009

AVON PARK - Lauren Gilson, or "National Geographic" as her friends call her, marched off through thick saw palmetto, carrying two 10-foot long ladders.

Her target: A natural nest cavity made by the red-cockaded woodpecker - a federally endangered species that she is working to preserve.

"My job is to spy on another living organism and find out how to use what I've learned for their benefit," Gilson explained.

The biologist is working on a portion of the Avon Park Air Force Range for Archbold Biological Station, a private research-based foundation. Archbold began work at the range in the early '90s.

Along with the red-cockaded woodpecker, the foundation also tracks two other bird species located there. Currently, there are 68 adult red-cockaded woodpeckers that Gilson is tracking, she said.

"Do you hear that?" she asked. "That's the begging babies. They sound healthy. That's what we like."

As she drove to one of the monitored sites, Gilson scanned the area for wildlife. After seven seasons tracking this particular bird, she quite capably demonstrated five or six different bird calls.

She also appeared to be the embodiment of a field scientist - her short hair was pulled back into two small pigtails. She wore a camouflage slouch hat, like the kind worn in Australia. As she talked about the behavior of a female red-cockaded woodpecker, her words sounded like the text of a romance novel:

"She got pushed out of that territory by another female, so she didn't have a partner, and she sort of floated around and visited everybody in that neighborhood, and then she settled in with another pair of birds, and they tolerated her until their breeding season came around, and then they got a little aggressive toward her, but she just stayed put."

But Gilson takes her job to save the birds very seriously.

Under a blistering hot sun, she secured the two ladders to a longleaf pine tree, clipped herself into a safety harness, and methodically climbed the tree.

About 25 feet up, she extracted two nestling birds that just fit into her palm. The pair was eight days old with closed bulging eyes and barely emerged feathers. Gilson carefully placed the baby birds into a bag that hung around her neck beneath her T-shirt and then climbed down the ladders.

"This is their first time out of the cavity ever - they're totally exposed," Gilson said.

Seasonal Research Assistant Jessica Butts and Gilson sat close beside one another on the ground surrounded by field equipment as they examined the birds.

Gilson measured the babies with calipers and a scale. Butts recorded the data into a banding log and then clipped colored tags for Gilson, who secured them around the birds' small legs.

The nestlings also received numbered tags from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

When the birds are anywhere from 26 to 30 days old, they will be ready to fly - and be tracked by the two women.

The goal is to increase the numbers of the endangered species. The trees the birds prefer to live in have been cut down and harvested, affecting the bird population.

Because it takes a very long time for a bird to excavate a nest cavity out of a living tree, the women are helping out. They have chiseled holes in tree trunks and have inserted man made nests, which come complete with an entrance made out of PVC pipes.

"Housing and Urban Development - we are HUD for the endangered species," Gilson quipped.

Later in the afternoon, the group visited two artificial cavities. Instead of climbing the tree, Gilson used a TreeTop Peeper, a camera system that uses an extending pole to inspect the nest cavity from the ground.

On a screen was a black-and-white image of two baby birds. They were squirming around beside the shells that had been their home until four days ago.

"We have some good kids growing - I hope they're girls," Gilson said.

She works 12-hour days, sometimes 7 days a week, and has invested a tremendous amount into the career she said she loves.

"I feel like we're doing an important thing," Gilson said. "We're not the only things living here. The whole world is not just for us to use."

Highlands Today reporter Laura Nesbitt can be reached at (863) 386-5857 or lnesbitt@highlandstoday.com.

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