Board

Patti Loesche, president, science advisor, and website administrator. Like many others, Patti’s fascination with raptors began with Bud Anderson’s hawkwatching course. She leads the Puget Sound Peregrine Project and holds a banding permit with the USGS Bird Banding Lab and a Washington State scientific collection permit. Patti has a Ph.D. in animal behavior at the University of Washington, where she studied calls in swallows with a detour to track elephants in Tanzania. She is a former managing editor and book review editor for Animal Behaviour and lecturer at UW and now consults on scientific writing.

Edward A. Deal, vice president and treasurer. Ed has studied birds of prey for over 30 years. He holds a master banding permit with the USGS Bird Banding Laboratory and a scientific collection permit in Washington State. Ed directs the Seattle Cooper’s Hawk Project. He gives talks on Cooper’s hawks to community groups and university classes throughout Washington State and beyond. Ed has authored or coauthored articles on Cooper’s hawks (Journal of Raptor Research, 2017; Washington Birds, 2021) and urban-nesting peregrine falcons (Urban Raptors, Island Press, 2018).

Pat Britain, secretary and database administrator. Pat fell in love with raptors while attending Bud Anderson’s Hawkwatching in Western Washington class in 2014. She’s been an avid raptor enthusiast ever since. Pat brings to URC a wealth of knowledge and experience in nonprofit organizational growth, fundraising, volunteerism, and administration.

Robyn Ricks, creative director. Robyn was a birder long before she was a creative director, thanks to an exceptional high school teacher, Jim Fielder, and an incredible falconer, Steve Layman. She was in the inaugural Seattle Audubon Master birder class and continues to birdwatch, because can you ever stop? Her favorite book growing up was My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George.