Friday Morning Musings

Ducks and Chickens and Ringnecks~!

Ring-necked Duck. Photo Credit: Jason Covey.

I’ve been wanting to share a close-up picture of the Ring-necked duck ever since I found them staging at Kensington for their flight south. My new friend Jason sent me this photo on Thanksgiving Day, and agreed I could share it with you. Thanks Jason, nice shot!

Why are they called Ring-necked Ducks rather than Ring-billed ducks? Good question!

The feathers around the neck are actually cinnamon in color, but the difference in color is only apparent on close inspection. The early naturalists shot their subjects, and so had time to carefully inspect the dead birds. But in the field you can’t see the cinnamon colored feathers around the neck, even on closeup:

The Ring-neck is an omnivore, diving in shallow water for both vegetation, shellfish, insects and invertebrates. The female especially enjoys protein during the nesting period.

Above: Ring-necked Duck nest. Credit: Biodiversity Centre for Wildlife Studies, British Columbia.

The big white egg is a Ruddy Duck egg, while the rest are Ring-necked Duck eggs. I’ll keep an eye out for some Ruddy Ducks to show you. Here’s a better map of the range of the Ring-necks:

We’re located in the grey area just south of the orange. They will be heading further south soon. This morning we had a light coating of snow, and the cold Canadian air moving in will quickly freeze the shallows.

The Ringnecks don’t dive very deep, nor swim underwater very far, preferring water about a meter or so deep. They prefer boggy ponds in the boreal forest for their nests.

They are susceptible to lead poisoning from spent shot. Even though lead shot is outlawed in North America, there is still a lot of it around. Their life expectancy is 12-20 years. {I will post links to my earlier journals on the Ring-Necked Duck and Kensington at the end.}

For all of you Americans out there, I hope you had an enjoyable Thanksgiving. Our Brilliant Exchange Student from Romania called Thanksgiving “The Great American Feast.” An appropriate name! What makes it my favorite holiday is the focus on food, family and football.

Confession: We didn’t eat Turkey on Turkey Day.

Above: Four Piri Piri chickens on the grill.

To get four on the grill you have to split one of them. I’ve already removed the wings off these guys. On top are Onions (with the little pointy foil ears) and potatoes.

We have another big extended family feast tomorrow!

I enjoyed some time out in the cold air tossing the football with my two grandsons, and playing games with the whole family. Plus the Lions won!

I hope your days are good ones, thanks for paddling along~!

Links to prior posts on Ringed-neck Duck and Kensington:

Return to Kensington Nov. 14th

Good Gadwall! Ringed-necks! Nov. 15th

Nature Center Visit: Gadwalls! Nov. 16th

Cranes, Woodpeckers, Gobblers and Friends. Nov. 24th

Checking on the Ringnecks. Nov. 27

Enjoy~!