The Ring-Necked Duck as a Transient in the Northeastern States

Abstract

IN Mendall's important announcement (Auk, 55: 401-404, 1938) of the breeding of the Ring-necked Duck (Nyroca collaris) in some numbers in northern Maine and New Brunswick, field workers in the northeastern States have at last found an explanation of why this species has changed to a regular transient in recent years, whereas it was formerly an accidental visitant. The degree to which this has become increasingly true in the past five years is information as yet unpublished or scattered in local publications, and a summary of it is offered here as a matter of general record. The facts of chief interest are: (1) the number of birds is far greater than realized; (2) definite spring and fall migration routes have been established; (3) the Ring-necked Duck has very definite habitat preference in the area considered; (4) all these factors suggest very strongly the inference that the local transients are not going to or coming from the original northwestern breeding area, as they do not behave in the way that the other species in this group( do. From 1922 on, in New Jersey and the New York City region, the Ringnecked Duck became a regular spring transient in certain inland ponds, marshes and reservoirs. It was several years later that the bird became of regular occurrence on Long Island, and then chiefly in fall and winter (Griscom, Auk, 46: 52, 1929). Farther south in New Jersey, we learn (Stone, 'Bird Studies at Old Cape May') that Delaware City is a good place in spring with a maximum of 83 on April 14, 1935. At Barnegat Bay on the outer coast, however, the late Charles A. Urner found no real spring migration at all. The bird is an uncommon fall migrant, the maximum only thirty-one birds in an entire season, and when wintering lingers to April 1. Farther north, judging from the records in the 'Proceedings' of the Linnaean Society of New York, the Ring-necked Duck is rapidly increasing on the inland ponds and reservoirs of northern New Jersey and New York State (reservoirs of Westchester County). Where we used to see from one to twelve birds in spring, flocks of thirty to a hundred individuals are now of annual occurrence. The spring migration amounts to much less elsewhere, and is often entirely lacking on Long Island. The final point of interest is the lateness of this migration. As with the Blue-winged Teal, early April is often the peak of the flight, and a few birds linger to April 20. Proceeding northward into New England, the Ring-neck is regularly recorded in the lakes of western Connecticut. In Massachusetts it was not until 1930 (eight years later than in New Jersey) that it became a regular