TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Highlands Today

Ring-Necked Duck A Winter Visitor

ADVERTISEMENT

Hank & Ruth Kowalski

Published: September 2, 2007

Welcome to our roost!

"Bud" and Jean Warren will be the local Audubon Chapter's President and Vice-President for the next two years.

They just completed a birding tour of Ecuador, Argentina and Peru.
We are certain that hundreds of photos have been taken and the Warren's will share their great adventure with the Audubon membership sometime soon.

Bud and Jean did not visit the Galapagos and that is a bit of surprise as we would love to have experienced that tour.

However, our daughter, Betsy, did visit that fantastic island a few years ago, with Dr. Peter Pritchard, the world famous herpetologist, who acted as guide for that particular tour.

Betsy was particularly intrigued with the Galapagos Mockingbird (endemic to the island) as this bird has learned to enjoy dining on the blood of other Galapagos animals!

What an exciting world of birds!

Last Tuesday evening, on our PBS Channel, David Attenborough narrated another chapter of "The Life of Birds."

It would be a shame if you missed watching that gem! Everyone knows how difficult it is to get a good photo of any of our "backyard birds", yet the close — up and personal shots of so many species of birds David is able to tell us about — are just marvelous!

Now back to our neck-of-the-woods.

Our featured bird today is the Ring-necked Duck.

This really is confusing, as the "ring" that is prominent, is around the bird's bill! There is a light brownish ring around the neck; but this really can't be called an easy ID feature.

The Ring-necked Duck (Aythya-collaris) is a winter resident in our area, and a total of 60 were spotted during the last Archbold-Audubon Christmas bird count.

This duck is about 14-18 inches in size. The male has a black back and breast; purple-glossed, black appearing head; pale gray flanks; vertical white mark on side of the breast.

The female is brownish, paler around the base of the bill, and a narrow white eye-ring.

The bill is pale gray with a white ring. Lake Istokpoga seems to be a good place to see this interesting duck.

It is not known to nest in our area. Look for it from October through April. Other names for this duck are: Ringbill, Ring-billed Duck, Blackjack, Blue-bill and Blackhead.

This duck seems to be "holding its own", even though it is the target of hunters.

Again, according to Christmas Bird Count statistics, the 10-year average stands at 258.

Keep an eye out for this duck as we would like to know how often it is seen by our local birders.

Until next time, we wish you great birding, stop and smell the roses –– and peace be with you all. Please call or e-mail us with your unusual bird sightings or actions.

Ruth and Hank live in Lake Placid and are members of the Audubon Society and Ridge Trails Association. They are graduates of the Dr. Reed Bowman Bird Study Course given at SFCC, and have many years experience peering through scopes and binoculars, trying to ID that certain bird.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT