Some interesting birds in Bellevue's Lake Hills Greenbelt today. In the
small NE corner farm (herb) field at 156th Ave SE and SE 16th St early to
mid afternoon (and all day I think) was an actual *flock* of 16 GREATER
WHITE-FRONTED GEESE among the 65 or so Canadas. We see the occasional GWFG
around the LHG occasionally and once in awhile in season a flyover flock, but
have never had more than one actually down and grounded such as this. I
wonder how long this bunch will last before pushing on. Meanwhile, out in the
middle and toward the far SE side of Phantom Lake, an unusual duck for
this small inland kettle lake was a first winter female (I think) SURF SCOTER
continuing since first sighted on Su 06Oct, and a different bird from our
first ever Surf Scoter (im. male) seen on PL on 25Sep. Other duckery of
the Fall/Winter variety out there on Phantom Lake and now augmenting the
usual Mallards and Wood Duck, were American Wigeon (7), Northern Pintail
(1f), Ring-necked Duck (7), Greater Scaup (9), Lesser Scaup (2), and Ruddy Duck
(1). At Larsen Lake and perched atop the 'red-tailed hawk' tree on the SE
side was a female AMERICAN KESTREL, a species otherwise very seldom seen
in the LHG.

Richard Rowlett
Bellevue (Eastgate), WA