Alston and Philip Watt

Two things are constants for Alston and Philip Watt: You'll find them at Brice's Pond every Saturday morning during duck season and, there will be ring-necked ducks.

The conservation-minded couple from Thomasville, Georgia, cherishes their time-honored weekly ritual at the family's duck hole. Each autumn, the nearly 1,000-acre cypress pond draws in thousands of wintering ducks-almost all of them ringnecks. The promise of dashing flocks of diving ducks ripping through the air draws the Watts, along with family and friends, out of comfortable beds before dawn each Saturday to enjoy the spectacle. And, as you might guess, the hunting is spectacular, too.

"It's our family's family room," Alston Watt explained. "Any family members who are in town always make sure they can be here on a Saturday morning so they can hunt Brice's Pond. It's a really special place. We love to share it with friends and family. It's a very social opportunity to be outdoors and appreciate God's creation and hunt ducks. Then we always have a big breakfast after we hunt on Brice's Pond."

Alston, who serves as executive director of the Williams Family Foundation of Georgia, grew up with strong roots in the outdoors.

"I grew up in Baltimore but spent my Christmas holidays coming to Thomasville, Georgia, visiting my grandparents," she recalled. "My grandfather bought a small pond in the 1960s to enjoy with my uncle. That became the place where my brothers and I learned to duck hunt. I'm the only daughter of an only daughter, so if I wanted to be with my family, they were pretty much always outside hunting. If I wanted to be a part of the party, I was going to be outdoors. I didn't want to miss a thing, so I was always tagging along."

Just like his wife, Philip Watt was raised a hunter. A Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine graduate and family physician who now works for Conifer Advisors, Philip was indoctrinated into hunting as a boy.

"I got my first duck with one of those old single-shot .410s with a hammer on it down on Lake Iamonia, which is one of the big lakes just south of town (Thomasville). I can still see it. It was coming behind one of these brushed blinds that you build out on the water. Probably I was lucky just to throw up the gun and it flew into the pattern, but it was a drake ringneck. I was 9 years old. I shot it with a gun I got on Christmas morning when I was 8 years old. At lunch (Christmas Day), I slipped off in my little coat and tie and killed a squirrel with my .410 and came back in with it real proud. It was all downhill from there," he said, chuckling. "I was blessed with a lot of opportunity to hunt and just always had a passion for it."

It's rather fitting that Philip's first duck was a ring-necked duck. Ringnecks were also the first ducks taken by the couple's two sons, Christopher and Parker.

"Ringnecks are so sporting," Philip Watt said. "They're so much fun. We put out decoy spreads and hunt them over decoys."

So, when Philip found out about Delta's radio-collar research on ring-necked ducks from his friend, Paul Tudor Jones, he immediately sought more information.

"I was intrigued by it," Philip Watt said. "I thought, 'Gosh, this is so important.' Ringnecks are the main duck we have in our area, especially on these big lakes. I was drawn to the research. Anything that impacts ringnecks is important to us."

After learning more about Delta's research, Alston and Philip decided to fund the implantation of radios in four ringnecks, one for each member of their immediate family. They all greatly enjoyed following "their ducks" on the spring migration from the Red Hills Region near the Florida-Georgia border to the breeding grounds in Canada's boreal forest. During the second year of the study, the Watts funded even more radioed ringnecks, this time naming several of the ducks for family friends.

"It's made conservation fun and relevant to people who don't necessarily know they value conservation," Alston Watt said. "We thought we knew where the ducks all went. But those ducks don't all go to the same place. They travel a lot farther west than we ever anticipated. So that was fascinating."

Philip, who served on the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Board from 2008 to 2018, including a term as chairman, said his family is proud to have contributed to Delta's ongoing study.

"I was intrigued that we didn't know the information about ring-necked ducks," he said. "The use of the technology has allowed us to learn. The more we learn, the more we find out we didn't know."

In addition to Delta's innovative research, the Watts support the organization's mission to ensure the future of duck hunting in North America.

"Hunting and fishing have been an important part of our family," Alston Watt said. "We love introducing new people to hunting. It's actually more fun to us watching someone else hunt for the first time-whether it's duck or quail. Really, taking someone out duck hunting and having them get that first duck and being in the blind with them … it really just doesn't get any better than that."

Delta's goal of abundant waterfowl and endless opportunities to hunt them aligns perfectly with the world the Watts envision-both today and in the future.

"It is an organization for the duck hunters," Philip Watt said. "I like the work Delta is doing."

Alston Watt added, "Delta is laser-focused on its mission, and it's never wavered from it. The pursuit of science-based research that can ultimately impact policy in a meaningful way to always put the duck hunter at the forefront of that policy is really important. Conservation is such an important tenet of the American ideal. Hunters are not always appreciated as being the first conservationists and the folks who are the most focused on conservation."

The Watts certainly have made supporting conservation a tenet of their existence, both in and out of the duck blind. You can be sure that every Saturday morning from Thanksgiving to the end of January, the Watts will be at their favorite pond in southern Georgia, eagerly waiting for another flock of speedy ring-necked ducks to pitch longingly into the decoys.

"If the season's open, we're out there," Alston Watt said. - Paul Wait