This morning we had five Wood Duck males and two females on Fawn Lake
in Mason County. We heard a splashing in the water behind some
trees, then saw the source: it was two Wood Duck males swimming
parallel to each other, extremely close together, and apparently
using their wings to slap each other, with water splashing as in a
children's water fight. It was reminiscent of the King Penguin
females we saw slapping each other on South Georgia Island, and
apparently similarly had mating rivalry as the origin of the
behavior. Has anyone else observed this, and do you have any other
insights into the behavior?

Lee Rentz
Shelton, WA
lee at leerentz.com
http://leerentz.wordpress.com (latest blog about Washington Park
Arboretum)