July 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??? Interesting month actually and with near daily walks
with fine tuned attention to detail, I was able to observe and document the
steady descent of once daily breeding songsters as one by one,
migrant/breeding neotropical residents subtly slipped into final seasonal silence and
otherwise quiet ambiguity, while other long time regulars gradually vanished
all together; first Tree Swallow, then Violet-green Swallow, followed by
Brown-headed Cowbird, but most surprising and least expected, the sudden
disappearance of European Starlings and Red-winged Blackbirds during the
final week, the latter two having not ever been missed since early &
mid-January! The biggest outright and disappointing miss for the whole month,
Rufous Hummingbird, a species I suspect is overwhelmed and out-competed by the
ever increasingly numerous and more aggressive Anna's.





total days & walks -- 28
cumulative walk time -- 52.3 hrs
average walk time -- 1.9 hrs
cumulative species 'units' -- 940
average species / walk -- 33.6 (high: 42 on 7/01, low: 23 on 7/31)


total species = 68 (+0 known misses)


Canada Goose -- 24
Wood Duck -- 9
Gadwall -- 1
Mallard -- 28
California Quail -- 1 (7/19, m/f pair, roaming the PL parking lot)
Pied-billed Grebe -- 3
Great Blue Heron -- 21
GREEN HERON -- 1 (7/01, flyby LL)
OSPREY -- 10 (mostly at LL, usually one, but two there 7/24)
Bald Eagle -- 3
*Cooper's Hawk -- 19 (SEE note #1 below)
Red-tailed Hawk -- 25
MERLIN -- 4 (a very black "black" Merlin seen occasionally, LL and PL)
Virginia Rail -- 4 (including two black fluffy downy chicks on main trail,
central section, 7/09)
Killdeer -- 2
GREATER YELLOWLEGS -- 1 (7/08, unexpected and EARLY noisy high flyover,
"tu-tu-tu-tu" at PL)
*DUNLIN -- (one at PL on 7/04. SEE note #2 below)
Ring-billed Gull -- 2
Glaucous-winged Gull -- 5
Rock Pigeon -- 14
Band-tailed Pigeon -- 16
Vaux's Swift -- 16 (always LL, usually one, sometimes two)
Anna's Hummingbird -- 26
Belted Kingfisher -- 2
Downy Woodpecker -- 11
Northern (R-s) Flicker -- 27
Pileated Woodpecker -- 10
Western Wood-Pewee -- 10 (only along the boardwalk west of LL and 148th SE)
Willow Flycatcher -- 14 (went silent after 7/21)
Pacific-slope Flycatcher -- 5 (went silent after 7/13)
Hutton's Vireo -- 8
Warbling Vireo -- 8 (went silent & unseen after 7/14)
Steller's Jay -- 21
American Crow -- 28
Tree Swallow -- 7 (disappeared after 7/09)
Violet-green Swallow -- 21 (disappeared after 7/24)
Northern Rough-winged Swallow -- 3 (2-3 birds at LL, 7/19-21)
Cliff Swallow -- 1 (single at LL, 7/25)
Barn Swallow -- 28
Black-capped Chickadee -- 28
Chestnut-backed Chickadee -- 12
Bushtit -- 19
Red-breasted Nuthatch -- 24
Brown Creeper -- 3
Bewick's Wren -- 28
Pacific Wren -- 4
Marsh Wren -- 1 (PL and first in the LHG since 5/01)
Golden-crowned Kinglet -- 4
Swainson's Thrush -- 27 (stopped singing mid-month with first miss since
mid-May on 7/31)
American Robin -- 28
European Starling -- 19 (abruptly disappeared[!!] after 7/23 with first
miss since 20 January!!)
Cedar Waxwing -- 28 (ubiquitous throughout the LHG daily)
Orange-crowned Warbler -- 1
Yellow Warbler -- 1 (7/15. Only one once?!?, scheesch! just like in June)
Common Yellowthroat -- 27 (went silent after 7/24)
Spotted Towhee -- 28
Song Sparrow -- 28
White-crowned Sparrow -- 15
Dark-eyed Junco -- 13
Western Tanager -- 3 (first post-breeding wanderer & first detection since
mid-May on 7/19)

Black-headed Grosbeak -- 27 (went silent after 7/12)
Red-winged Blackbird -- 26 (abruptly disappeared[!!] after 7/23 with first
miss since 02 January!!)
Brown-headed Cowbird -- 17 (mostly gone after mid-month)
Purple Finch -- 23
House Finch -- 28
Pine Siskin -- 2 (7/01 and 7/07 only, two birds each)
American Goldfinch -- 27 (first miss since 20Apr on 7/31)
House Sparrow -- 6

*note #1: Cooper's Hawk -- fledged 4, maybe 5, maybe even 6 young from a
nest in the central hemlock/cedar grove. Very noisy and often gregarious
when present and/or hungry or just in the mood to make a lot of noise.
Calls reminiscent of a slightly off Western Wood-Pewee which I in fact I
thought "it" was when single calls were first heard for the first couple of days
in a row mid-month. Third day, it sounded like there was a whole flock of
calling WWPEs in there which seemed utterly impossible in a place where
I'd never even heard or seen a WWPE at all all season. Sleuthing it out on
that occasion, much to my surprise, juvenile Cooper's Hawks!

*note #2: DUNLIN -- most surprising and unexpected find EVER for my
tenure and now 231 LHG walks since Oct 1; totally out of place, out of synch,
out of wack! A single bird flying back and forth the length of Phantom Lake
three times in search of a suitable place to land I suppose, each time
passing by me at eye level a few feet from the west side observation deck
before finally lifting out and flying away to the north. I might expect/hope
to maybe find Dunlin someday in the winter, most likely in the flooded farm
fields, but I could have never thought one would ever turn up out of the
blue in the bone dry of mid-summer! Indeed, according to Hunn (2012), there
are no previous King County records during the months of June, July, or
August, so that strange and inexplicable sighting seems quite extraordinary!


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