September 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.

September, the vagaries of Fall migration, and unpredictably patchy
distribution, with species spiking up one day, low dips the next, and long
stretches of just muddling along average. Among the highlights of the month was
a most unexpected very very early GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE that planted
itself like some lone garden ornament each morning (07-11Sep) in the exact
same spot out in the small NE corner farm field at 156th Ave SE and SE 16th
St, but the surprise 'shocker' of the month and first record for the LHG
was a female SURF SCOTER seen out in the middle of Phantom Lake on 25 Sep
while doing the loop that morning with Hugh Jennings and Sally Lawrence.
Also 'new' this month were the LHG's first EURASIAN COLLARED-DOVES seen in
the Larsen Lake area with one bird seen and heard incessantly calling for
~10 min on 04Sep, and two flyovers at LL were seen on 25Sep. It was only a
matter of time for the LHG to see it's first EUCD, and as the population
continues to spread and numbers increase, the EUCD will over time likely
become an increasing routine part of the LHG avifauna.

total days & walks -- 24



cumulative walk time -- 52.5 hrs
average walk time -- 2.2 hrs
cumulative species 'units' -- 780
average species / walk -- 32.5 (high: 44 on 9/20, low: 22 on 9/22)


total species = 80 (+1 known miss)

GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE -- 5 (single lone goose in farm field 156th SE
& SE 16th, 07-11Sep)
Canada Goose -- 7
Wood Duck -- 14
American Wigeon -- 5 (FOF, 18Sep)
Mallard -- 24
Ring-necked Duck -- 4 (FOF, 20Sep)
Greater Scaup -- 2 (FOF, 26Sep)
SURF SCOTER -- 1 (female on PL, 25Sep, first LHG record)
California Quail -- 2
Pied-billed Grebe -- 18
Double-crested Cormorant -- 1
Great Blue Heron -- 7
Green Heron -- 5 (up to 3 continuing from Aug, LL & PL, last seen 07Sep
LL)
Sharp-shinned Hawk -- 5
Cooper's Hawk -- 4
Red-tailed Hawk -- 8
Merlin -- 3
Virginia Rail -- 16
American Coot -- 14 (FOF, 13Sep, PL)
Killdeer -- 5
GREATER YELLOWLEGS -- 1 (one flyover PL, 09Aug)
Glaucous-winged Gull -- 2
Rock Pigeon -- 16
Band-tailed Pigeon -- 14
EURASIAN COLLARED-DOVE -- 2 (1 & 2 at LL, 04 & 23Sep, first LHG records)
Vaux's Swift -- 3
Anna's Hummingbird -- 24
Belted Kingfisher -- 8
Red-breasted Sapsucker -- 7
Downy Woodpecker -- 9
Hairy Woodpecker -- 3
Northern (R-s) Flicker -- 24
Pileated Woodpecker -- 21
Olive-sided Flycatcher -- 3 (single birds, 01, 02, & 04Sep)
Western Wood-Pewee -- 3
Willow Flycatcher -- 4
Hammond's Flycatcher -- 1
Pacific-slope Flycatcher -- 1
Hutton's Vireo -- 3
Warbling Vireo -- 7
Steller's Jay -- 24
American Crow -- 24
Common Raven -- 1
Violet-green Swallow -- 4
Barn Swallow -- 9
Black-capped Chickadee -- 24
Chestnut-backed Chickadee -- 9
Bushtit -- 3 (hard to find this month for some reason)
Red-breasted Nuthatch -- 13
[Brown Creeper] -- (personal miss, 1 on 02Sep by MaryAnn Ruthruff)
Bewick's Wren -- 22
Pacific Wren -- 2
Golden-crowned Kinglet -- 2
Ruby-crowned Kinglet -- 4 (FOF, 17Sep)
Swainson's Thrush -- 11
Hermit Thrush -- 1 (FOF, 21Sep)
American Robin -- 24
European Starling -- 9 (scarce again this month)
Cedar Waxwing -- 22
Orange-crowned Warbler -- 16
Yellow Warbler -- 5
Yellow-rumped Warbler -- 9
Black-throated Gray Warbler -- 9
Townsend's Warbler -- 2
Common Yellowthroat -- 6
Spotted Towhee -- 24
Savannah Sparrow -- 9
Fox Sparrow -- 4 (FOF, 18Sep)
Song Sparrow -- 24
Lincoln's Sparrow -- 11 (FOF, 09Sep)
White-crowned Sparrow -- 19
Golden-crowned Sparrow -- 5 (FOF, 19Sep)
Dark-eyed Junco -- 13
Western Tanager -- 13
Black-headed Grosbeak -- 5
Red-winged Blackbird -- 19
Purple Finch -- 24
House Finch -- 24
American Goldfinch -- 20
Evening Grosbeak -- 7
House Sparrow -- 1 (positively rare again this month! only sighting, 1
female on 01Sep)


This will be the LAST of my monthly LHG report summaries as this last day
of September marks the END of what after this year-long campaign started
turned in to be what I now call, "My Little Big Year", i.e., Fiscal Year 2013
(Oct 1, 2012 thru Sep 30, 2013). Nothing conventional about MY calendar,
...nothing conventional about ME at all about for that matter :-)) All
total, 280 walks, 980 miles, 591.3 hours, average 2.1hrs/walk, 143 species (+6
known misses: Blue-winged Teal, Solitary Sandpiper, Long-eared Owl, Least
Flycatcher, Chipping Sparrow, Lazuli Bunting), 11,782 species 'units', 42.1
species/walk, and one additional species remains on 'review' status, Hoary
Redpoll. This doesn't mean I'm quitting the LHG, just scaling back; it's
an ideal neighborhood destination just for exercise and a good walk, the
birds are bonus and no two days ever exactly the same. But devoting 77% of
the 365 day year to just this one 'patch' became something of an
obsessive/compulsive commitment at the expense of going nowhere else, EVER, a 'little
big year' of sorts, and in some minds at such a intensely local level,
kind of insane I suppose. But, it's been fun, the 3.5mi walks great exercise
as long as I kept up a reasonably pace (2hrs), and simply placing full
focus on just one habitat diverse little birdable patch in a residential area
of SE Bellevue was something I've never before had the luxury of time to do
and get to know and monitor so intimately for a mostly uninterrupted full
year. Future notes and updates from the LHG will pertain to rarities and/or
species that might be of greater birder audience appeal.


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