Birding Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge

On our recent visit to Ridgefield NWR, we saw two small flocks of Ring-Necked Ducks, a duck I used to see a lot at the pond at Nisqually NWR but haven’t seen often since I quit visiting there regularly.

For some reason, it’s one of those ducks that I always have trouble identifying, perhaps because the male Ring-Necked

looks an awful lot like a Scaup and because it seems misnamed. Shouldn’t that be a Ringed-Beak duck? I’ve never been able to see the ring around it’s neck.

Luckily, the female Ring-Necked duck

is quite distinctive and is not easily mistaken for other female ducks.

We also saw several Gadwall, like this male.

Though the male is an easily recognizable duck I often struggle to remember its name because I seldom see them and I have a tendency to confuse its name with Gander.