Wood ducks

[Logan77]

I've seen a pair of wood ducks (one male/one female) on the cherry valley release site many times. I've never gotten a clean or close enough shot. It is defiantly the same pair. I'm relatively new to hunting, and just wanted to ask, how common are wood ducks in Washington? There an absolutely beautiful bird.
Thanks,
Logan

[boneaddict]

Its a trophy for sure.  Not real common.  More prevalent in certain areas than others.   

[lokidog]

This late in the season, not too many as they don't seem to like the cold.

I've shot more Wood Ducks here in WA than I have Pintails, but they aren't everywhere.

[Badhabit]

Tri Cities area has Wood ducks. I'm going to target a nice drake wood duck towards the end of the season just to get the best full plumage speciman while I can.

[270Shooter]

Anywhere with river bottoms or timbered ponds/sloughs they seem to be pretty common. The Yakima river corridor has a lot but I do think they migrate pretty early as well.

[DOUBLELUNG]

Wherever there are oaks and open water is a good bet.  Where there are no oaks look for Russian olive on the east side near water.

[BigGoonTuna]

i hunt saltwater mostly so i don't see many of them when i'm packing a shotgun.  see them all the time when i'm fishing the local lakes, though.

[h2ofowlr]

Anywhere with river bottoms or timbered ponds/sloughs they seem to be pretty common. The Yakima river corridor has a lot but I do think they migrate pretty early as well.

Pretty common in these areas.  I have several wood duck boxes that I maintain in my area.  When I check the nest boxes I usually see 10-14 eggs.  They seem to have a good hatch as well.
I usually will try to pick out a few really nice drakes per season.

[lokidog]

Growing up in WI, Wood Ducks were the majority of the birds I shot.  When I moved to the west coast (OR), I asked about Woodies and everyone said "not around here" (I was on the coast).  The funny thing was, a beautiful drake Woody was my first OR duck.     I got it in one of the dune lakes near Coos Bay.

[boneaddict]

I usually photograph a few around Thanksgiving every year.   I haven't been out this year except for a couple minutes scouting ice.