A ringneck drake with a visible ring of chestnut-colored feathers around the neck (photo by Gary Shackelford).
Ring-necked Ducks (Aythya collaris) are named for a chestnut ring encircling the necks of the drakes, but it is faint and can only be seen at close range or with a bird in hand. Their first home, the no-man’s-land lakes of the north, has always been my second home. Floating bog mats rich in sedges, sphagnum, and orchids stretch in all directions and are only interrupted by a few “islands” dotted with spruce or tamarack. After some fall frost, the pitcher plants give up on waiting for unlucky visitors and loon calls cease to echo off of distant treelines.
I have the same ritual on one or two of those October days: hit the “stop” button on my alarm immediately to not wake anyone, strike a match for the oil lamp, put on a pot of coffee, don my waders (toasty from being next to the wood burner), hop in the canoe, throw out some decoys, and make a little nest on the shore just as the eastern horizon starts to glow. Then, basically, I wait. Sometimes for hours before anything happens. Fall mornings are often quiet, so the thing I’m listening for is unmistakable. Suddenly a wad of ducks will breach the treetops making a sound like a jet engine. Not so much the rumble, but the sound of the air being sliced into bits. Other diving ducks have noisy flight, but the flight of a ringneck is the most striking to me. Whether I have the privilege to harvest one of these aerial acrobats doesn’t matter, I’m mostly in it for the scenery…and the sound of their wings.
Typical Ring-necked Duck breeding habitat (photo by Sebastian Hettrich).
While Ring-necked Ducks breed in the sedge meadows and bog lakes of the boreal forest, bird watchers can view this handsome species across North America in many types of habitats. They frequent large lakes, marshes, and even small isolated wetlands to feed on wild rice, tubers, stems, mollusks, and a variety of other invertebrates.
Ring-necked Duck breeding locations (courtesy of the Wisconsin Breeding Bird Atlas II).
The only two confirmed nesting sites for Ring-necked Ducks in the southern third of Wisconsin during the Breeding Bird Atlas II were Rose Lake and Lewiston Swamp. In the early 2000s, Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance purchased 260 acres at Rose Lake and the land was donated to Jefferson County. It is now Rose Lake State Natural Area and Dorothy Carnes Park. The property has high quality habitats like floating sedge mats which support Black Terns, Yellow-headed Blackbirds, Common Gallinules, and a variety of other rare nesting species.
Lewiston Swamp (Corning Lake near the Wisconsin Dells), another exquisite chunk of habitat, provides habitat for eastern prairie white fringed orchid (federally-threatened and state-endangered) and many nesting species including Bald Eagles, Common Ravens, American Woodcock, Osprey, and of course, Ring-necked Ducks. Many species associated with the north call Lewiston home because it has many of the same characteristics of bog lakes in Canada. A group of duck hunters purchased the Lewiston Swamp back in 1915, and their organization was dubbed the Lewiston Outing Club. The 600-acre property is owned by three families including the family of Pat Clark—a wildlife enthusiast and SoWBA board member.
The largest flocks of ringnecks at most sites in Columbia County tend to be spotted in spring. The county’s high count of 470 was set by Ted Keyel in 2020 at the Harvey-Wangsness Wetland. Unfortunately, this highly productive habitat has since been tiled and completely drained. Goose Pond hosted a high count of 310 ringnecks also in 2020 when the pond was thoroughly flooded (at least a 50-year high water record), but there are none at the sanctuary now on account of the low water. However, as of March 24 of this year, there were 400 ringnecks along with many other waterfowl species staging at nearby Schoeneberg Marsh and Erstad Prairie.
Written by Graham Steinhauer, Goose Pond Sanctuary land steward
Cover image: A pair of Ring-necked Ducks, a female with brown plumage and a male with striking gray, black, and white plumage, showing a chestnut-colored ring on the neck (photo by Gary Shackelford).
