Unable to get over to Lake Artemesia some weeks ago when the Ross' Geese were there, I took advantage of a needed car servicing in Hyattsville, and biked by Lake Artemesia on my way to campus this morning.

In addition to the usual waterfowl, I was delighted to find a diminutive (Richardson's?) CACKLING GOOSE, easily distinguished from the hundreds of Canada's present.  I was fortunate, in that as soon as I rounded the bend and saw all the Canadas, there was another that I thought, "either that's a duck or..." and sure enough it was a Cackling Goose.  It had a rather dark chest and what's normally white on the cheek was rather dim as well.

A little further up the lake, I found a small flock of SNOW GEESE, I counted 28 in all, 23.5 white-phase, 4.5 blue-phase (one looked like a hybrid, blue-phase on top, with a white belly).

To finish up, just as I was leaving, I found a small raft of ring-necked ducks, I counted 16, but in their company were two male REDHEADs!  Not a bad way to end. :)

A map with the approximate locations of these birds is here:
http://tinyurl.com/b86r7y

Good birding,
Ryan Farrell
College Park, MD


p.s. Yesterday along the Paint Branch Trail, I was surprised by a single white-phase snow goose at the golf course pond, the first I've seen on the trail in ~5 years of birding it.  Later on the way home ~5pm, I saw a large flock of Canada Geese flying north overhead.  There were 10-12 that stood out due to their black outer primaries... more Snow Geese!