2024-04-03
All about the beautiful ring-necked duck
On March 23, I found ring-necked ducks at quite a few locations and Steven Hiltz reported them at Wentzell's Lake at Back Centre on March 24.
Despite the name, the brown neck ring is almost never visible. The ring-necked duck is 37.5 to 46.25 cm long with a wingspread of 60 to 75 cm. They closely resemble the lesser scaup.
Both sexes have a puffy, triangular-shaped head. The male has a black head and neck, and a black back. There are conspicuous white crescents in front of the wings. The sides are grey and the bill is black-tipped and ringed twice with white.
The brown female has a white eye ring and a thin white line leading from the eye toward the back of the head. She has a white ring around the bill and indistinct white on the face around the base of the bill. The belly is white. Both sexes have a grey wing stripe.
The ring-necked duck nests from British Columbia and the prairie provinces of Canada to Ontario, Quebec and south to Oregon, California, Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, Pennsylvania and from the Maritime Provinces of Canada south to Maine, and New Hampshire. They winter from British Columbia, south to Mexico and Guatemala, in Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Arkansas, Illinois and on the Atlantic coast from Massachusetts, to Florida, the southern states and the Gulf coast of the United States, south to Panama, the Bahamas and Greater Antilles.
The diet of the ring-necked duck is mostly plant food, which makes up about 80 per cent of what they eat. This includes aquatic plants, seeds of sedges, grasses, smartweeds, water lilies and also seeds, rootstalks, tubers, leaves of pondweeds and muskgrass and other algae.
Animal foods are eaten especially in the summer such as aquatic insects, snails and other mollusks, some spiders, water mites, crabs, water fleas, amphipods, annelid worms, etc. The ring-necked duck is highly susceptible to lead poisoning when picking up food from the bottom of ponds, lakes and other watercourses.
On March 13, Judy Purcell saw a group of 30 waxwings in Stonehurst. It is not clear as to whether they were cedar or Bohemian waxwings. At the time of her sighting both species were still present in Lunenburg County.
Robert Keereweer reported two turkey vultures in East River on March 19. On March 21, I spotted one flying over the Sawpit Park in Lunenburg. On March 20 Kerry Javis sighted a male northern pintail, in the pond by the Bridgewater Cemetery. Stephen Joudrey of Whynott's Settlement had three common grackles and two fox sparrows. He now has a pair of downy and hairy woodpeckers visiting. Lynette Barnes of Green Bay had a pair of gadwall for quite some time.
On March 21, after an absence that made me think that the clay-coloured sparrow had left Kissing Bridge Road, it was back. Glenn Rhodenizer saw a killdeer at Second Peninsula and Michele Stevens told me about seeing Canada geese pairing up there.
Barbara McLean noticed 10 American robins, and a few greater scaup on March 23. Lots of American robins seemed to be about on that day. Barbara also saw 12 purple finches at her feeders in Lunenburg. On March 25 Kerry Jarvis sighted a male wood duck in the pond at the Woodland Gardens Park in Bridgewater. Steven Hiltz of Back Centre had a pair of white-breasted nuthatches arrive on that day.
On March 19 Richard Stern saw a turkey vulture between Avonport and Wolfville. On March 21 Phil Taylor discovered a Eurasian green-winged teal at Canard Pond. Paul Gould found one at Chebogue Point on March 25.
On March 23 Natalie Barkhouse-Bishop saw an eastern bluebird at Carroll's Corner in Canning and sandhill cranes along the Meadowvale Road in Colchester. March 24 produced a red-shouldered hawk, for Jake Chute at Granville Ferry. On March 25 Paul Gould reported that the mute swan was still at Pickney's Point in Yarmouth County.
You may reach me at 902-693-2174 or email jrhbirder@hotmail.com.
