Every year I clean out three Wood Duck nest boxes located at the edge
of Fawn Lake in Mason County. Scores of young Hooded Mergansers and
Wood Ducks have fledged from these boxes during the last decade.

This morning I watched as female Hoodies began flying up to the boxes
to check them out; they may be beginning the egg-laying process.
There were three female and at least two male Hooded Mergansers on
the water below the nest box, and two female and one male Wood
Ducks. This year the Wood Ducks have arrived early; in prior years
they ceded the boxes to the earlier-arriving Hoodies.

It should be an interesting spring. I'll keep you posted.

Lee Rentz
Shelton, WA, USA
lee at leerentz.com
http://leerentz.wordpress.com (photography/nature blog)