This morning the dog and I had a delightful walk around Lake Artemesia in College Park, where there was also a very nice 
selection of birds.  The oddest thing that I saw was a hybrid goose.  It had the black head and neck and grayish-brown 
body of a Canada, but without the pale breast, a larger and somewhat paler bill, white at the base of the bill, a large white 
patch on the face, and yellow legs.  The most surprising thing that I heard was a truncated "kon-ka-reee" coming from a 
male Red-winged Blackbird.  Clearly, the hormones aren't surging yet:  he wasn't showing his epaulets and wasn't at all  
perturbed by another male perched in the top of a tree barely 30 feet away.

Besides the usual Canada Geese, Mallards, and coots, highlights included the following:

Pied-billed Grebe - 6
Wood Duck - 1 male
American Wigeon - 2 females
Ring-necked Duck - 4
Lesser Scaup - 8 males, 1 female
Bufflehead - 1 female
Ruddy Duck - 20+
Hooded Merganser - 1 male, 1 female
Red-breasted Merganser - 3 females - in the southernmost part of the lake

Elaine Hendricks
Greenbelt, MD  (PG County)






   

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