We see a few wood ducks each year along the Mohawk river near Schenectady, NY down to where it meets the Hudson river in January during our annual waterfowl counts. I never considered they could be returning birds, but they certainly could be. I just wrote them off as hardy late departures staying a little longer when food remained accessible.
I would say that we see them in years where the temps are warmer through December and early January and there is a lot of open water on count day. During years when the temps are frigid and everything is frozen up, wood duck numbers are very low or absent.
Our count over the last 15 years has averaged about (rough estimate from memory) 90:10 mallards to black ducks, but that has been changing toward more black ducks. This past January the ratio more like 80:20. As Dean pointed out, this could be due to a reduction in mallard numbers rather than an increase in black duck numbers.
My one notable wood duck story was the time I was trout fishing along the Kayaderosseras Creek near Wilton, NY. I was fishing a stretch that wound through a heavily wooded area and at one point something caught my eye above the creek bank. It turned out to be a drake wood duck "stuck" to the trunk of a tree about 20 feet up. I was able to climb up to check it out and found that it had flown into the tree head on and impaled itself on a broken-off branch stub.
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