Good complete report. One reason I try to record total birds seen of each species is that is useful info for the Birding the Lake Hills Greenbelt pamphlet and for eBird to determine the probability of any bird being seen on a walk in the area.

This morning at the LHG, after recording 1.7? of rain overnight, I found Larsen L. in flood stage. I checked the gaging station north of Main St. before starting and found the level at 3.02 ft. This is the highest since Nov. 2011.

The south side, west and north trails were flooded and too much for my ankle high boots. I was able to walk thru the blueberry patches along the south and north sides and and see the birds in the lake and in flooded areas. I came up with 1 Greater Scaup, 6 Bufflehead, over 40 Mallard, 11 Ring-necked Ducks, 2 Wood Ducks, 2 American Coot, 1 Northern Shoveler, 2 American Wigeon and 1 Canada Goose. I couldn?t get to the viewing deck. To get back to my car I had to walk up thru the Kelsey Creek Shopping Center.

Hugh
From: Pterodroma at aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2012 3:22 PM
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Cc: h2ouzel at comcast.net ; maruthruff at yahoo.com
Subject: Lake Hills Greenbelt, Bellevue, October summary

Here follows a summary of birds detected (seen/heard) during 24 generally fast-paced / no 'dilly-dally' walks through the ~3.3 mile long Lake Hills Greenbelt (LHG) loop in southeast Bellevue between Phantom Lake and Larson Lake, between 156th & 148th Avenues SE and ~SE 20th Place to Main Street during the month of October 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 #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 that defeats the prime objective, #1, and turns what should be a 2-hour dash into a 4-5hr slow-slog marathon. Besides, who really cares whether there's 18 Song Sparrows or 27 on any given day, 62 American Robins or 2,439, etc., etc., etc. This is turning into an obsession/compulsion, it's fun, it's lean, and it's GREEN. Close to home, commute distance via gas guzzling motorized vehicle, ~3500 yards ... phew, what a road trip! Thank God daylight savings turns off soon and we can roll back the clock an hour! Too bad we can't roll it back THREE and just keep it that way all year. I'm just an early riser by nature, always have been, always will be I suppose.

*Some select interesting general notes/observations/trends briefly included at the bottom.

total days & walks -- 24
cumulative walk time -- 49.6 hrs
average walk time -- 2.1 hrs
cumulative species 'units' -- 892
average species / walk -- 37.2
total species = 85

*Greater White-fronted Goose -- 1
Canada Goose -- 6
Cackling Goose -- 2
Wood Duck -- 15
Gadwall -- 3
*Eurasian Wigeon -- 1
American Wigeon -- 9
Mallard -- 24
Northern Shoveler -- 11
Northern Pintail -- 3
Green-winged Teal -- 4
Bufflehead -- 10
Ring-necked Duck -- 18
Greater Scaup -- 21
Hooded Merganser -- 2
Ruddy Duck -- 4
Pied-billed Grebe -- 23
Horned Grebe -- 1
Double-crested Cormorant -- 4
Great Blue Heron -- 14
Green Heron -- 1
Bald Eagle -- 3
Northern Harrier -- 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk -- 2
Cooper's Hawk -- 10
Red-tailed Hawk -- 16
Merlin -- 3
Virginia Rail -- 9
American Coot -- 21
Killdeer -- 1
Wilson's Snipe -- 6
Ring-billed Gull -- 1
Glaucous-winged Gull -- 9
Rock Pigeon -- 18
Band-tailed Pigeon -- 12
*Barn Owl -- 7
Barred Owl -- 1
Short-eared Owl -- 1
Anna's Hummingbird -- 13
Belted Kingfisher -- 9
Red-breasted Sapsucker -- 1
Downy Woodpecker -- 7
Hairy Woodpecker -- 1
Northern (R-s) Flicker -- 23
Pileated Woodpecker -- 6
Hutton's Vireo -- 1
*Steller's Jay -- 24
American Crow -- 24
Common Raven -- 1
Black-capped Chickadee -- 24
Chestnut-backed Chickadee -- 10
Bushtit -- 5
Red-breasted Nuthatch -- 20
Bewick's Wren -- 23
Pacific Wren -- 10
Marsh Wren -- 4
Golden-crowned Kinglet -- 6
Ruby-crowned Kinglet -- 21
Cedar Waxwing -- 4
Hermit Thrush -- 1
American Robin -- 24
Varied Thrush -- 14
European Starling -- 15
Orange-crowned Warbler -- 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler -- 8
Townsend's Warbler -- 2
*Western Tanager -- 1
Spotted Towhee -- 24
Savannah Sparrow -- 1
Fox Sparrow -- 24
Song Sparrow -- 24
Lincoln's Sparrow -- 4
*White-throated Sparrow -- 6
White-crowned Sparrow -- 22
Golden-crowned Sparrow -- 23
Dark-eyed ('Oregon') Junco -- 23
Red-winged Blackbird -- 24
Brewer's Blackbird -- 1
*Purple Finch -- 24
House Finch -- 24
Red Crossbill -- 2
*Pine Siskin -- 24
American Goldfinch -- 19
Evening Grosbeak -- 13
House Sparrow -- 7

A few notes:
Barn Owl -- one incredibly well-hidden owl in a day-roost Douglas Fir in a small evergreen grove and only seen off and on and never guaranteed although perhaps up there somewhere(?) but on a branch even better hidden than the day before. I give it 5-10 seconds max, instant tick or no tick, and move on. As for it's not so obvious 'obvious' sleeping perch, it definitely doesn't seem to like being there when it's wet or has been recently wet and probably moves to somewhere dryer, ...like maybe a barn somewhere? Too bad I only found this bird at all on Oct.08 and just about the very last day of the nearly 3-month long summer dry spell. On that day and soon after coincidentally bumping into MaryAnn Ruthruff on path who showed me suspicious feather she'd just found on the path adjacent to that open grove of evergreens, I wandered in there, literally following a trail of little white feathers, like following cookie crumbs to the source, until I came to a pile of white droppings, pellets, and more feathers. Ah-ha, owl roost! Following a continuing trail of small molted fluffy feathers clinging to and strewn about on the branches up the trunk, it took only seconds to actually spot the sleeping Barn Owl straight up overhead. Now unfortunately, with all the rain, most of the droppings have washed away and those feathers are gradually disappearing as well, and it's beginning to look like the owl may not be frequenting this exact spot like it apparently had been doing for quite a long time during the dryer times. Oh well, better late than never I guess, and I'll keep checking as part of the routine.

Steller's Jay -- Seems like all the Jays for miles around showed up for a few days in early October to feast on the acorn crop in just one oak near Larson Lake. Highest count, ~30 in just that one tree on Oct.5. With the crop soon depleted a few days later, LHG Steller's Jay life returned to 'normal', one or two here and there and scattered about.

Western Tanager -- LHG season finale(?), one on Oct.01.

Purple Finch -- The heavily red berry-laden Mountain Ashes (central section) have been loaded with up to 40+ Purple Finches all month long! Never missed in all 24 walks, adult males curiously were detected only twice amongst the mix of otherwise all females and presumably immature males. These Mountain Ashes have been the near daily scene of quite a sensational feeding frenzy of not only Purple Finches but also American Robins and occasionally Cedar Waxwings and Evening Grosbeaks. On the rare occasions when little or no birds are right there when I pass, it's likely because one of the resident Cooper's Hawks blew through there first.

Pine Siskin -- Siskins have been nervously swirling about all over the place all month long and never missed in 24 walks, favoring the many seed/catkin laden alders scattered about. Typically, 80-200, up to 400 on each visit and one mega-flock of at least 1,000(!) swirling cloud-like over the northwest corner of Phantom Lake on Oct.22.

Some notable 'rarities' of sorts for LHG I suppose: Greater White-fronted Goose (single lone goose flyover, Larson Lake, Oct.20), Eurasian Wigeon (ad male, Phantom Lake, Oct.18), Short-eared Owl (1 high flyover, Larson Lake, Oct.28), and White-throated Sparrows (at least 3, with 2 kind of anchored now and fairly dependable on the SE corner of 156th Ave SE and SE 16th St since Oct.25)

Richard Rowlett
Bellevue (Eastgate), WA