Bobby Caldwell with a ringneck taken at dawn on the Great Lake in the Croatan National Forest. Photo by Mike Marsh.

There are plenty of ways of identifying different ducks on the wing. Mallards fly high in large V-shaped formations when they're migrating, but condense into big clouds when they're descending toward the decoys. Mallard hens quack loudly and the drakes softly wheeze. The body art of both sexes is unmistakable within shotgun range. While other species are lesser known, they still have their flight signatures, vocalizations and colorations. One species has the loudest wings.

Jim Bushardt and I were hunting at Suggs Millpond Game Land. Overcast sky obscured starlight as we set our decoys. Suddenly, he stopped in mid-decoy drop. Freezing his head in an odd cant to one side so his ear was swiveled upward like a radar antenna to catch the sound, Jim named the ducks overhead by the sound of their wings alone.

"Listen," he hissed. "Can you hear all those ringnecks?"

Even with the shell-shocked ears of a half-century's steady diet of 3-inch magnum waterfowl loads, you bet I could. As daylight grayed the clouds, we could see the flocks rocketing overhead. Their wings sounded like those of a jet plane shearing the aerial elements, punctuated by rapid squeaks as they pumped up and down too fast for the eye to see.

At distances of more than 1,000 yards, the big billows of ringnecks were nearly always heard before they were spotted. As the flocks approached the decoys, their wings virtually screamed as they created enough drag to land by twisting their primary feathers.

It looked for like our decoys were under attack, bombarded by wave after wave of blackjacks, one of several gunners' names for the ring-necked duck. Other names are ring-bill, bumblebee duck and jack. By any name it's called, a ringneck is one of the sportiest ducks that flies.

A ringneck is easily misidentified on the wing, but easily identifiable once brought to bag. In flight, a hen ringneck can be mistaken for a hen redhead or greater or lesser scaup. The drake is almost impossible to differentiate from a drake scaup by all but the most accomplished waterfowl hunters until it is well within gunning range. White rings on the drakes' bills are unmistakable, along with the forward edge of the underside completely black with a straight line separating the shoulder area from the white belly. Waiting for the flock to land before flushing the birds to pull the trigger is the best option for the novice so he can read the lines on the bills of the drakes. But even if one drake in a flock has been correctly identified before making the shot, care must be taken when targeting another bird because ringnecks and scaup do mix.

Once in the hand, the russet collar of the mature drake ringneck shows how the ringneck got its name. It seems odd that the Disney cartoon character, Daffy Duck, is supposed to be a ringneck, although he has a white neck ring. That can be blamed on the poetic license of fiction media: The wild ringneck's coppery neck ring is the real deal, along with his demeanor. Daffy Duck is an easy target of his cartoon counter characters. But when it comes to interplay between duck hunters and ringnecks, there is no sportier webfoot.