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 November 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, and just getting
myself out of my cocoon and maybe, just maybe, burn off a few pounds, and #2
just simply 'ticking' the bird species casually seen or heard along the way
without going all CBC-anal about it recording 'exact' numbers of
everything like I used to. Doing a #2 defeats the prime objective, #1, and turns
what should be a 2-hour dash into a 4-5hr slow-slog marathon.

LHG is certainly no Marymoor, Magnusen, Seward, or Discovery Park, nor
hundreds more. LHG is Puget Sound's version of Midwestern "fly-over" country.
Speaking of fly-overs, it is 'fly-over' country for aircraft in and out
of SeaTac and sometimes I think I should start adding airlines to the list
on days when I can actually see and identify them, especially when more
times than I care to admit and first glanced out of the corner of my eye I
often find myself thinking a 'feathered' bird of some sort. Nope, just another
'gashawk'.

total days & walks -- 24
cumulative walk time -- 52.0 hrs
average walk time -- 2.2 hrs
cumulative species 'units' -- 925
average species / walk -- 38.5
total species = 75 (+3 missed, see closing comments below)

Snow Goose -- 2
Canada Goose -- 23
Cackling Goose -- 7 (incl. both minima & taverneri)
Trumpeter Swan -- 1
Tundra Swan -- 2
Wood Duck -- 3
Gadwall -- 7
American Wigeon -- 24
Mallard -- 24
Northern Shoveler -- 17
Northern Pintail -- 3
Canvasback -- 2
Bufflehead -- 24
Ring-necked Duck -- 24
Greater Scaup -- 24
Common Goldeneye -- 4
Hooded Merganser -- 3
Common Merganser -- 8
Ruddy Duck -- 19
Pied-billed Grebe -- 23
Double-crested Cormorant -- 23
Great Blue Heron -- 13
Bald Eagle -- 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk -- 7
Cooper's Hawk -- 11
Red-tailed Hawk -- 20
Merlin -- 3
Virginia Rail -- 4
American Coot -- 24
Killdeer -- 23
Wilson's Snipe -- 3
Mew Gull -- 1
Herring Gull -- 2
Glaucous-winged Gull -- 14
Rock Pigeon -- 16
Band-tailed Pigeon -- 3
Barn Owl -- 4
[Barred Owl] -- see comments below
[LONG-EARED OWL] -- see comments below
Anna's Hummingbird -- 9
Belted Kingfisher -- 8
Downy Woodpecker -- 6
Northern Flicker -- 24
Pileated Woodpecker -- 6
Hutton's Vireo -- 1
Steller's Jay -- 24
American Crow -- 24
Common Raven -- 4
Black-capped Chickadee -- 23
Chestnut-backed Chickadee -- 6
Bushtit -- 8
Red-breasted Nuthatch -- 18
[Brown Creeper] -- see comments below
Bewick's Wren -- 22
Pacific Wren -- 13
Golden-crowned Kinglet -- 10
Ruby-crowned Kinglet -- 18
Hermit Thrush -- 1
American Robin -- 23
Varied Thrush -- 15
European Starling -- 17
Townsend's Warbler -- 1
PALM WARBLER -- 1 ('western', 1-day wonder at Larsen Lake, 02Nov)
Spotted Towhee -- 24
Fox Sparrow -- 24
Song Sparrow -- 24
WHITE-THROATED SPARROW -- 3 (01-02Nov and 24Nov, up to 4 individuals
total)
White-crowned Sparrow -- 8
Golden-crowned Sparrow -- 23
Dark-eyed Junco -- 24
Red-winged Blackbird -- 16
Purple Finch -- 13
House Finch -- 24
Red Crossbill -- 7
Pine Siskin -- 24
American Goldfinch -- 5
Evening Grosbeak -- 7
House Sparrow -- 2

Comments:
Additional species [+3] 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.
[Barred Owl] -- at least 3 sightings by MaryAnn
[LONG-EARED OWL] -- 1 sighting, 08Nov, MaryAnn
[Brown Creeper] -- 1 sighting, 22Nov, Hugh

MaryAnn's Long-eared Owl was a most painful personal miss ... missed by me
literally by 5 MINUTES!! For MaryAnn an incredibly lucky serendipitous
encounter when perched briefly in the open a few feet off the path when then
being mobbed by a bunch of highly agitated small passerines. MaryAnn just
happened serendipitously along at literally just the right second when this
bird had most likely just been disturbed and dislodged from a more
secretive roost by the mobbing action, then paused briefly in the open before
being chased off into the "impossible" (i.e., impenetrable) swampy tangle of
brush and blackberries, and a very similar looking type of habitat where I
saw Long-eared Owls at Vancouver BC's Reifel way back last century sometime.
It still could be in this LHG mess 'somewhere' and maybe I'll get lucky
in December ...or not.

Richard Rowlett
Bellevue (Eastgate), WA