Dabbling and diving ducks aplenty
Wild ducks have arrived from breeding grounds in the prairie potholes of the northern Great Plains, and I love to see the pretty plumed birds on nearby ponds, marshes and shallow lakes.
In their northern breeding grounds, ancient depressions gouged out by retreating glaciers 10,000 years ago have become freshwater marshes and ponds replete with aquatic plants and marine organisms to nourish the ducks.
But those prairie potholes become ice ponds in winter, impelling the ducks to come to Southeast Texas, where nonfrozen inland lakes, ponds and marshes hold ample food. The wide diversity of waterfowl includes mallards, northern pintails, gadwalls and ring-necked ducks.
Wild ducks are broadly categorized as either dabbling ducks, which dunk their heads underwater to feed, or diving ducks, which plunge underwater for food. The distinction is a bit arbitrary because dabbling ducks will dive and diving ducks will dabble, depending on their food search.
A quick way to tell the difference is by looking at how they float on the water. Dabbling ducks, such as mallards, float high on the water, clearly show
ing their tails. Divers, such as ring-necked ducks, float low on the water, barely showing their tails.
Dabbling ducks have long legs near the center of the body and long, broad wings. They leap almost vertically into the air like a rocket ship when taking flight.
Diving ducks have shorter legs near the rear of the body and shorter wings. They patter speedily across the water’s surface like a jet plane down a runway to lift into flight.
Behavioral characteristics make it easy to identify ducks as dabblers or divers, but naming individual species may take practice. Male ducks, called drakes, generally have distinctive plumage colors, but females, called hens, have mostly nondescript brown plumage.
But find a male, and his harem of females will be close by.
Start with dabbling ducks, like northern pintails with long pointed tails held at an oblique angle. They have cinnamon-brown heads and upper necks, a clean white breast and twin white stripes. .
Diving ducks include ringnecked ducks, with velvety purple heads, black backs, canvaswhite sides and a white wedge up the shoulders. But the name “ring-necked” is slightly misleading. The most visible ring circles the beak’s distal half, while an imperceptible chestnut ring circles the lower neck.