Lovely sunny morning for my loop through the Lake Hills Greenbelt (LHG)
including Phantom (PL) and Larson Lakes (LL) in Bellevue this morning. Most
interesting was the unforeseen out of the blue Merlin encounter at the LL
end. I had just paused for a few seconds to look at a junco that at first
glance looked perhaps like a 'slate-colored' ... it wasn't. A moment later
it flew out of the brush heading out over the tops of the blueberries just
above eye level maybe 30 feet away. Watching it fly away in my bins, out
of nowhere and from behind me a Merlin swept in to the field of view and
snatched the junco without so much as a squeak. Poof!...gone in an instant
and one less junco, leaving behind just a light snowfall of feathers drifting
back to earth, scheesh! The Merlin flew off with the catch and alighted
atop one of the tallish tree trunk snags a few hundred feet further down the
path where it proceeded to consume it. Nice close views in great sunlight
and just stayed put as I marched on past it and finish my walk back to
where I started at Phantom Lake.

Otherwise, pretty decent birding (I'm liking this rain schedule lately,
rain late afternoon / overnight, and fresh crisp mostly sunny mornings),
2.0hrs, 37 species, 82 for the month. New October additions this morning:
Horned Grebe (1-PL), Hooded Merganser (pair-LL), Hermit Thrush (1), and the
biggest surprise other than the Merlin drama, an immature Green Heron basking
in the sun near the LL viewing platform. I had a single low slow flyover
Greater White-fronted Goose at LL during yesterday's outing, an unexpected
pleasant surprise. No resights for the Phantom Lake Eurasian Wigeon seen
and reported on Thursday (Oct 18). Waterfowl-wise and generally speaking
and apart from the resident Mallards, there's not much to be seen there yet
but waterbirds do come and go there very quickly so you never know what
might be 'in town' when paying a visit.

Richard Rowlett
Bellevue (Eastgate), WA