Awesome walk this morning as I kick off a new month and start all over
again at zero. Below, copy/pasting my notes from this morning's glorious
outing so I'm not sure exactly how these may get translated and/or altered in
the listserv software, but often worse, ABA & Surfbirds collection sites.
Hopefully it will come across good enough.


01Dec ? All the ?hot? action this morning was around Larsen Lake (LL).
Totally off my radar and unexpected were 8-9 WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILLS seen
at 0900hrs that flew across the path and alighted atop one of the more
isolated taller Hemlocks SE of Larsen Lake, west side of the path and just north
of Lake Hills Blvd. Initially, I couldn?t immediately place the
distinctive and more raspy ?chiff-chiff-chiff? call notes. Only when most
conveniently one of the birds, an adult male, perched near the tippy top was the
most exposed to view which right then was hit by a rare few seconds of
sunshine, lighting off the pastel pink body and bright distinctive wing bars.
Wow, what a total shocker! Meanwhile, generous overnight rains again meant
flooding of Larsen Lake again, water levels reaching 10-12? on my high
rubber boots through that low stretch on the west and north side paths. Lots
of ducks initially (Mallards, American Wigeon, Gadwall, et.al) while two
flocks of geese passed overhead (NE>SW) including ~45 Cackling and 28 Canada.
Nearing the LL observation platform, ALL the ducks suddenly up and
departed as out of nowhere, a Peregrine Falcon swooped over the lake then landed
atop to the tall ?Red-tailed Hawk tree? on the south side ? no captures.
Finishing the Larsen Lake loop but via the off trail alternate through the ?
new? east side restoration area and approaching the old library at
0940hrs, I heard House Sparrows chirping off over there somewhere and went to
investigate since they seem so unpredictable and hard to come by around here
for some reason. As I was doing so, there was a sudden eruption of crossbill
chatter overhead, both Reds and White-winged scattering in all directions
as a Merlin careened through the tree tops from the west, made a ?U? turn
and returned empty-taloned in the direction from which it came. The
White-winged Crossbills (maybe a few Red?s too) then remained in the assorted
evergreens on the north and northeast side of the old library (now a ?Boy?s
and Girl?s Club?), some of the WWCRs actually singing even! A few minutes
later and back on the main path again ~50 yards west and near where the
WWCRs were initially sighted at 0900hrs, one of the alders right along the
path there was full of Pine Siskins (~60) plus a nice mix of adult male and
female Red Crossbills (~15) all nice and low and happily co-existing picking
apart and feeding amongst the catkins although the crossbills tended to
snip the whole catkin off more often than not rather than just picking out the
seeds like the more polite siskins. So, quite a morning, good and
unexpected birds, but ironically I missed one of the most predictable regulars,
Fox Sparrow! 48 out of 48 times since Oct 1, then come Dec 1, walk #49,
Fox Sparrow goes missing ?oh well, go figure?..sighhh. 2.2hrs, 46 species.

Richard Rowlett
Bellevue (Eastgate), WA