Always in Season/ Mike Jacobs: Spring and ducks go well together – Grand Forks Herald

Charlie Christianson and I spent a morning looking at ducks last week. Our best sightings were at the Grand Forks Air Force base lagoons. We climbed onto the end gate of my pickup to see over the levee. The wind nearly blew us into the pond, but we persevered, and we were rewarded.

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Ring-necked ducks were the prize. We had a bit of hesitation. Ring-necked ducks are not among the most common of ducks in the Red River Valley, even in migration. Whats more, they closely resemble the scaup, which are among the most numerous of ducks around here in spring migration. So, odds were against our identification.

We cinched it, however, by a close examination of a beautiful drake that presented himself within easy viewing distance. All the field marks were there: a large head, somewhat iridescent and somewhat tufted, a white blaze Christianson called it a spur behind the dark breast and ahead of the dark upper part of the belly.

The neck played no part in the identification; the ring is effectively invisible.

The bill, however, is distinctively ringed. The bill pattern put all of our doubts to rest.

The ring-necked duck is the least abundant of the so-called diving ducks that frequent North Dakota. One of these, the lesser scaup, is fairly common. Its close relative, the greater scaup, migrates through the state. It can be abundant in late fall.

Other diving ducks that nest in the state dont pose any possible confusion with ring-necked ducks, apart from the common features that all duck species share broad bills and webbed feet. The divers, in order of abundance, are lesser scaup, redhead, canvasback, ruddy duck, a unique species with a stiff tail thats often held erect, and the ring-necked duck.

Most other ducks in the state are dabblers. In order of abundance these are the blue-winged teal, mallard, gadwall, northern shoveler, American wigeon and green-winged teal.

Within the city of Grand Forks, mallards are probably most abundant, with wood ducks in second place. Wood ducks are tree nesters, unlike most other ducks.

Ring-necked ducks are fussy about habitat. They are not so fond of prairie potholes as most of the states other nesting species. Instead, they like wooded lakes. This habitat preference makes them more numerous in the Turtle Mountains than elsewhere in the state, although they nest as far west as Des Lacs National Wildlife Refuge northwest of Minot.

On Monday, April 5, Suezette and I made a day trip to the International Peace Garden. A drive through the park produced a red-necked grebe but no ring-necked ducks. We werent concentrating on bird finding in any case. Wed made the drive to see the cactuses in bloom. The Peace Garden has one of the worlds largest collections of cactus species.

The red-necked grebe is another of those finicky nesters. Other grebes are found on prairie wetlands but the red-necked insists on wooded lakes, like the ring-necked duck.

Elsewhere in the bird world, sharp-tailed grouse have shown up at the lek I wrote about several weeks ago. Clearly, the extraordinarily warm weather lured me to look for grouse earlier than the grouse were ready to dance. The birds at the lek this week were nervous and easily spooked. I made a quick estimate of their number about 20 and left them to their business.

Feeder activity has fallen off dramatically; Im expecting an upturn as migrating sparrows begin moving northward. So far, Ive had only American tree sparrows and fox sparrows, always the vanguard of sparrow migration.

Mourning doves are back. So are grackles and blackbirds the latter in large numbers. And the house sparrows are still hanging out at my feeder array.

Later this spring, Ill make my meadowlark survey hoping that numbers remain steady, at least. Im not optimistic. The long, dry fall allowed tilling and burning, both of which reduce the cover that meadowlarks need for successful nesting.

Jacobs is a retired publisher and editor of the Herald. Reach him at mjacobs@polarcomm.com.

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Always in Season/ Mike Jacobs: Spring and ducks go well together - Grand Forks Herald