In two of the existing boxes I found fresh eggs, and within weeks there were two pair of wood ducks parading past our house daily.

I thought it was very late in the season, they should be brooding by now, maybe the nest boxes are all full? That weekend I made more boxes, and put one up right in front of my house and another at my neighbors. Within a week we had a duck in our box and about two weeks later our neighbors had “tenants” as well.

The drakes hung around for a while, and the hens were very discrete. We rarely saw her enter or leave the house. One day I noticed the drake sitting on the fence, and the hen sitting on the house, just hanging out. It was kind of unusual.

After a while I noticed there was a second hen, a hooded merganser, who flew up and stuck her head in the house. Our wood duck, on the roof, forced this interloper down into the drink. Clearly the merganser was interested in taking over the nest. They jockeyed for position, up on the roof, around the water, over on the fence, the ladies doing all the negotiating, a peck or hiss now and then, with the drake just staring straight ahead.

The turf war heats up

The male jumps off the fence

Finally the wood duck hen went in the house turned right around and sat half in and half out blocking the entrance. The hooded merganser was beat, and she flew away. Seconds later the wood duck hen took off and the drake followed.

I had not checked the nest for a while, so I decided to go have a look. As I set up my ladder I bumped the duck house and a third hen came flying out of the house! Our duck was sitting on her eggs the whole time. No wonder the other hen did not stay in the house for long, she probably got a nip in the butt from the duck on the eggs!

When I opened the house there were 24 eggs, fresh and clean as any you might see at the grocery store. A typical clutch is 10-15 eggs, so we had at least two ducks “dumping” in our nest. While not ideal conditions, our hen hatched out 9 ducklings from the batch.

My neighbor’s eggs hatched about a week later. They had a dozen in the nest, and I just happened to see six fluff balls right after they jumped, following their mama on a maiden voyage toward the lily pads.

This is the low flow channel July 15, 2010

Over six years ago, the State of Washington initiated a new generation of shoreline management guidelines, requiring each municipality to create a plan that balances shoreline development with ecological preservation.

As a resident of Lake Sammamish and Builder on the Lake, I have been actively involved in the City of Sammamish’s Shoreline Master Plan (SMP), and have kept my eye on the plans being developed by surrounding cities.

If you have a home on a lake, the SMPs will hit you where you live—especially if you are thinking of building a new house or remodeling your existing structure.

Each SMP has its own set of complexities that make a thorough discussion here impossible. Instead, here’s a roundup of where our local cities stand on revising their regulations; click on the links for each city to find out more detailed information.

And if you would like to discuss anything in particular with me, please call 425-868-4217 or send me an e-mail via the link above. I will update this information as developments emerge.

The City of Bellevue’s SMP will impact Lake Washington, Lake Sammamish, Phantom Lake, Kelsey Creek and Mercer Slough. Throughout the first half of 2010, the city will complete its Shoreline Environment Designation, Policy and Regulation Development, and a Cumulative Impacts Analysis and Restoration Plan, and then submit the new SMP to the State Department of Ecology next summer. For more information click here.

Issaquah is continuing public hearings on its SMP, and will hold the next one on January 14, 2010. Shorelines in Issaquah’s jurisdiction are Lake Sammamish, the main stem of Issaquah Creek, and East Fork Issaquah Creek. For more information click here.

On December 1 Kirkland’s City Council formally adopted its new SMP for submission to the State Department of Ecology for approval. To find out what is in the plan click here.

The City of Redmond’s SMP was put into effect in August and impacts parts of Lake Sammamish, the Sammamish River, Bear Creek and Evans Creek. You can read the plan in its entirety here.

Dec 2008

These trumpeter swans came to visit along with the snows of December. It is unusual for them to come this far south. Last year I saw only two, and just for one day. This year we started with two pair, but after a few days we counted as many as 26 at a time. Our friends on Ames Lake have seen them and I saw 6 in flight over Bellevue near Yarrow Bay just before Christmas.