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Subject:

Lake Artemesia and Greenbelt Lake

From:

Elaine Hendricks

Reply-To:

Elaine Hendricks

Date:

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 14:28:19 -0500

Taking advantage of a day off, I walked around Lake Artemesia this 
morning.  Soon after I got there, about 10:30, the geese started 
coming in from the northwest - wave after wave of them - until there 
were well over a thousand on the lake.  I picked through them, 
looking for something unusual, but did not find anything.  As usual, 
there were many Mallards, Ruddy Ducks, and coots.  The lake smelled 
like fish - another sign of spring, I think.

Highlights included the following:

Pied-billed Grebe - 2
WOOD DUCK - 1 male
American Wigeon - 1 female
Ring-necked Duck - 12
Lesser Scaup - 4 or 5
Red-breasted Merganser - 2 females
Hooded Merganser - 1 male, 1 female
Belted Kingfisher - heard

On the way home I stopped by Greenbelt Lake (2 miles away, as the 
crow flies), where the situation was entirely different.  Compared to 
earlier this month, the lake was practically empty of waterfowl.  In 
addition to the couple dozen resident Mallards, I found only a handful 
of Canadas (say, 10-12) scattered around the lake.  

A bit of searching turned up the following:

Pied-billed Grebe - 2
American Wigeon - 1 male, 1 female
REDHEAD - 1 male, 2 females
Ring-necked Duck - 5 males
Lesser Scaup - 2 males
Hooded Merganser - 4
Ruddy Duck - 4 (including 1 male in breeding plumage)
American Coot - 2

It's especially nice that some Redheads have returned, after a 
hiatus of over a week.  A few days ago I was dismayed to find 
a dead Redhead floating in the water near the dam.

Elaine Hendricks
Greenbelt, MD  (PG County)



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