Here follows a summary of birds detected (seen/heard) during 24 generally
fast-paced / no 'dilly-dally' walks through the ~3.5 mile long Lake Hills
Greenbelt (LHG) loop in southeast Bellevue between Phantom Lake and Larsen
Lake, between 156th & 148th Avenues SE and ~SE 20th Place to Main Street
during the month of December 2012. The number following each species
represents the number of walks on which a species was detected. Route and routine
always the same with emphasis #1, the walk & exercise.

total days & walks -- 24
cumulative walk time -- 47.3 hrs
average walk time -- 2.0 hrs
cumulative species 'units' -- 941
average species / walk -- 39.2

total species = 74 (cumulatively 96 species for the quarter, Oct-Dec
2012, 24 walks each month -- only those recorded in December are listed below;
a monthly summary table file for the quarter is available upon request)

Snow Goose -- 1
Canada Goose -- 18
Cackling Goose -- 4
Trumpeter Swan -- 1
Tundra Swan -- 1
Gadwall -- 17
American Wigeon -- 24
EURASIAN WIGEON -- 1 (im. male among 75 AMWI, 156th Ave SE at SE 16th St
on 27Dec)
Mallard -- 24
Northern Shoveler -- 12
Northern Pintail -- 1
Green-winged Teal -- 4
Bufflehead -- 24
Ring-necked Duck -- 19
Greater Scaup -- 24
Common Goldeneye -- 1
Hooded Merganser -- 1
Common Merganser -- 22
Ruddy Duck -- 22
Pied-billed Grebe -- 24
Double-crested Cormorant -- 23
Great Blue Heron -- 15
Bald Eagle -- 6
Sharp-shinned Hawk -- 9
Cooper's Hawk -- 7
Red-tailed Hawk -- 20
Merlin -- 5
PEREGRINE FALCON -- 2 (1 adult Larsen Lake 01Dec, and 2 adults Phantom
Lake 18Dec)
American Coot -- 24
Killdeer -- 24 (traditional & annual wintering flock up to 19 in NE
corner field,156th SE & SE 16th)
Ring-billed Gull -- 2
Herring Gull -- 1
Glaucous-winged Gull -- 21
Rock Pigeon -- 14
Band-tailed Pigeon -- 4
Barn Owl -- 1
Barred Owl -- 1
Anna's Hummingbird -- 6
Belted Kingfisher -- 10
Downy Woodpecker -- 7
Northern Flicker -- 24 (incl. bright "yellow-shafted" hybrid twice)
Pileated Woodpecker -- 9
Hutton's Vireo -- 3
Steller's Jay -- 24
American Crow -- 24
Black-capped Chickadee -- 24
Chestnut-backed Chickadee -- 13
Bushtit -- 7
Red-breasted Nuthatch -- 13
Bewick's Wren -- 21
Pacific Wren -- 10
Marsh Wren -- 1
Golden-crowned Kinglet -- 11
Ruby-crowned Kinglet -- 21
American Robin -- 24
Varied Thrush -- 9
European Starling -- 19
Townsend's Warbler -- 3
Spotted Towhee -- 24
Fox Sparrow -- 21
Song Sparrow -- 24
WHITE-THROATED SPARROW -- 3 (adult 'tan-striped' on 08, 28, and 29Dec)
White-crowned Sparrow -- 6
Golden-crowned Sparrow -- 24
Dark-eyed Junco -- 24
Red-winged Blackbird -- 22
Purple Finch -- 9
House Finch -- 23
Red Crossbill -- 23
WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL -- 1 (flock of 8-9 on 01Dec, hemlocks SE of Larsen
Lake)
**Pine Siskin -- 24 (see comments below!)
American Goldfinch -- 3
Evening Grosbeak -- 1
House Sparrow -- 3

Comments:
Additional species seen by Hugh Jennings and/or MaryAnn Ruthruff but not
by me during same days (often same time) as my independent walks while I was
elsewhere on the loop: None known.

**Pine Siskin -- Recorded on ALL 72 walks since October 1, typically
200-300-500, but sometimes in ever growing HUGE numbers, single "mega-flocks" up
to 1000, 1200, 1500, 1800, then the monster flock of all, ~2500(!) on
16Dec. When such nearly incomprehensible numbers were all present enmass, they
would bring their favored alders alive like rustling leaves in the wind,
feed ravenously for several minutes, then for whatever inexplicable reason,
all would take flight in a cacophonous flutter of wings and chatter, and
off they'd go as a big black cloud, swirl around for awhile, then alight to
do it all over again in another alder. After that 16Dec mega-swam blew
through in mid-December, things settled down with much smaller daily
aggregations of 100-200 up to 300. I have probably looked at, and carefully gleaned
through 20-25,000 Pine Siskin "units" over this month, and so much now to
my surprise, NO Redpolls! Nary a glimmer of hopeful sign, sight or sound.
So why not here when it seems like everyone else is reporting the odd
Redpoll or two in their flocks of Pine Siskins?!? I am 99% certain of a few
Redpolls back in mid to late November one day, sure sounded like them anyway,
but they appeared and disappeared so fast as flyovers, I had no time to
even react much less raise my bins. As of these last few days of December,
the Pine Siskins are beginning to shift from the exclusive attraction to the
heavily seed and catkin laden alders to the white-barked birches and their
catkins and seeds. So, maybe if this change-over continues, THEN maybe a
Redpoll or two will show up as I think they tend to like the birches a bit
better anyway. I am counting on it in January! But then..., I've been
saying all through December, "any day now" and I guess that didn't work out.
This Redpoll thing is turning into an LHG nemesis and I'm getting a complex
:-))

Richard Rowlett
Bellevue (Eastgate), WA
Pterodroma AT aol.com