Subject: [Tweeters] LHG-Bellevue, August 2013 summary
Date: Aug 31 18:55:30 2013
From: Pterodroma at aol.com - Pterodroma at aol.com






August 2013 report summary for Lake Hills Greenbelt (LHG), Bellevue. This
is an easy flat 3.5 mile loop walk, between Phantom Lake (PL) and Larsen
Lake (LL), 156th & 148th Avenues SE and SE 24th to Main Streets, an
interesting 'island' of mediocrity in the residential 'mediocrity' of southeast
Bellevue. The number following the species are the number of times
(days/walks) that the listed species was observed.

Summer doldrums ended abruptly after Aug 12. The Larsen Lake blueberry
fields hit their peak mid-August, as swarms of berry pickers (human & birds)
arrived enmass. A 5-day run in there during that period (Aug 13-17
especially!) and the Larsen Lake area was hopping HOT with berry feeders,
waxwings-robins-house
finches-tanagers-orioles-grosbeaks-warblers-vireos-flycatchers and more. After that, the action subsided abruptly, patchy, some days
good, some days not so. By Aug 30, the last of the remaining blueberries
were cleaned out by the last lingering flock of Cedar Waxwings and on the
31st, hardly a berry can be found now and the waxwings and everything else are
mostly gone and scattered to other areas for less concentrated dining. I
was actually surprised at how fast that all happened and how short the
prime window of opportunity really was! Representatives are all still around
and coming and going every day but anything could be anywhere and
unpredictable as to exactly where and no two days are quite the same. Still plenty
of loaded berry and seed bearing trees and bushes around (European Mountain
Ash, Cascara, alders, et.al.), so there's still plenty of potential for a
good long time yet. Some least expected shorebirds made brief surprise
flyover-flyby showings; with no suitable habitat, none other than Killdeer &
Spotted Sandpiper stopped of course and sightings at all were just sheer
dumb luck serendipitous with one each Greater Yellowlegs, Lesser Yellowlegs
and Semipalmated Plover.

The main highlight of my last walk of the month, today 31Aug, was not a
bird at all, rather my first ever snake sighting in the LHG, a lovely 14"
Common Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis) on the path near the Phantom Lake
observation deck. The brightly colored dorsal stripes contrasting with the
grayish-blue underside, more blue than gray, made this specimen stunningly
handsome!

total days & walks -- 25



cumulative walk time -- 57.7 hrs
average walk time -- 2.3 hrs
cumulative species 'units' -- 884
average species / walk -- 35.3 (high: 48 on 8/14 & 8/17, all time
record low: 19 on 8/29)

total species = 82 (+1 known miss)

Canada Goose -- 1 (abruptly disappeared from LHG after the early-Aug LSSP
mass roundup and execution)
Wood Duck -- 17
Gadwall -- 1
Mallard -- 25
Hooded Merganser --1
Pied-billed Grebe -- 3
Double-crested Cormorant -- 1 (one briefly at PL 17Aug & first sighting
since 05May)
Great Blue Heron -- 9
Green Heron -- 11 (up to 3 present & continuing at both LL and PL)
Osprey -- 5
Northern Harrier -- 1 (high flyover female at LL 17Aug)
Sharp-shinned Hawk -- 1
Cooper's Hawk -- 5
Red-tailed Hawk -- 16
Merlin -- 2
Virginia Rail -- 10
American Coot -- 1 (one immature at LL 02Aug & 1st sighting since 24Apr)
Killdeer -- 1
SEMIPALMATED PLOVER -- 1 (one quick low eye-level flyby, 12Aug PL, then up
up up and out of there!)
GREATER YELLOWLEGS -- 1 (one noisy high flyover, 09Aug PL)
LESSER YELLOWLEGS -- 1 (one noisy high flyover, 17Aug PL)
Spotted Sandpiper -- 3 (all at PL)
Glaucous-winged Gull -- 1 (wow, only one once this month?!?)
Rock Pigeon -- 22
Band-tailed Pigeon -- 15
Vaux's Swift -- 14
Anna's Hummingbird -- 25
Rufous Hummingbird -- 7
Belted Kingfisher -- 12
Red-breasted Sapsucker -- 5
Downy Woodpecker -- 17
Hairy Woodpecker -- 4 (first sightings since my only previous sighting on
08Oct)
Northern (R-s) Flicker -- 24
Pileated Woodpecker -- 17
Olive-sided Flycatcher -- 2
Western Wood-Pewee -- 14
Willow Flycatcher -- 15
Hammond's Flycatcher -- 2
unid Empidonax -- 1
Pacific-slope Flycatcher -- 3
Hutton's Vireo -- 2
Warbling Vireo -- 11
Red-eyed Vireo -- 2 (single adults, 26 & 30Aug)
Steller's Jay -- 25
American Crow -- 25
Common Raven -- 3 (first sightings since 31Mar on 12, 17, & 27Aug)
Tree Swallow -- 2
Violet-green Swallow -- 7
Northern Rough-winged Swallow -- 3
Cliff Swallow -- 3
Barn Swallow -- 25
Black-capped Chickadee -- 25
Chestnut-backed Chickadee -- 11
Bushtit -- 18
Red-breasted Nuthatch -- 22
Brown Creeper -- 1
Bewick's Wren -- 22
Marsh Wren -- 1
Golden-crowned Kinglet -- 7
Swainson's Thrush -- 14
American Robin -- 25
European Starling -- 6 (very scarce this month)
Cedar Waxwing -- 25 (300+ during the mid-Aug peak rush)
Orange-crowned Warbler -- 12
Yellow Warbler -- 5
Black-throated Gray Warbler -- 11
Wilson's Warbler -- 3
Common Yellowthroat -- 19
Spotted Towhee -- 25
Savannah Sparrow -- 7
Song Sparrow -- 25
White-crowned Sparrow -- 22
Dark-eyed Junco -- 10
Western Tanager -- 20 (awesome showing during the mid-Aug peak rush with
upwards of 30 to maybe 50+ concentrated in the LL blueberries & adjacent
alders & other shrubs)
Black-headed Grosbeak -- 21

[Lazuli Bunting] -- (miss, 16Aug at Larsen Lake by visiting birder from
Boston, w/photos)

Red-winged Blackbird -- 19 (scarce actually, seldom ever more than one or
two / walk)
Brown-headed Cowbird -- 4
Bullock's Oriole -- 5 (present only during the mid-Aug LL blueberry feast)
Purple Finch -- 21
House Finch -- 25
American Goldfinch -- 23
Evening Grosbeak -- 5 (FOF 17Aug and becoming more regular by late-Aug)
House Sparrow -- 1 (positively rare this month! only sighting on 02Aug)


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