Ring-necked Duck?

Aythya collaris does have a chestnut collar. But you usually can’t see it in the field.What sticks out, of course, is the white ring around the bill. Yet nobody calls it a Ring-billed Duck, except perhaps me in my bird-name dyslexia. Why is this?Rick Wright was speaking at NYC Audubon recently. One of the things he said was that the duck got the ring-necked appellation because the type specimen, the actual dead duck described in the literature, was in poor condition. It had been damaged by the shot that bought it down, which ruined the bill.By the way, this has been only the second time this winter I’ve seen an actual duck hanging out with these ridiculous decoys in the Valley Water.

Michael McCarthy on the UK’s stunning loss of biodiversity through toxic farming. The same goes here. I can’t speak to what they farm in the UK, but consider that the plants grown on America’s industrial farms are to a great extent used as animal feed. Also, all that god-damned corn? It’s the basis of the junk food that fills aisle after aisle of the supermarket with products marketed as food, but which are, actually, chemical chimeras concerned only with profit.