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Posted by Robin Diaz on 12:56:47 11/24/11
In Reply to: Ring-necked back in Delray/Boynton posted by Holly
Holly, your observation is very interesting. As a result of the current duck discussion on BrdBrains, I've been reading up on molt patterns of ducks. Kenn Kaufman has a nice section on ducks in his book _Field Guide to Advanced Birding_, where he treats duck habitat and behavior as well as molt sequence and plumage patterns.
To paraphrase Kaufman, we see various duck species associating on the same body of water, mixing togther and seemingly flocked together willy-nilly. In fact, each species favors a particular habitat, whether it's shallow or deep water. [American Wigeon (dabbler) and Redhead (diver) are exceptions.] There are even subsets within these two general categories -- some ducks prefer muddy water, others prefer clear water, others prefer moving water, etc. Kaufman gives Ring-necked Duck as an example of a diver that prefers tree-lined ponds, as do Hooded Mergansers. Something in this pond must be just right for these ducks and explains why they continually seek it out for wintering.
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