Louisiana Formerly regarded as only a casual winter visitor to Louisiana 

 (Oberholser 1938) , the Oldsquaw is now regarded as a rare to uncommon winter 

 visitor (Lowery 1974). The number seen has increased markedly in the last few 

 decades. Many of the records are from inland, despite the birds' decided pre- 

 ference for salt water (Lowery 1974). 



We found about six records for Oldsquaws in Lousiana listed in American 

 Birds, 1970-1979. The localities where they were seen were Lake Pontchartrain , 

 Holly Beach, Natchitoches, Baton Rouge, and on the Calcasieu River near Cameron 

 (Hamilton 1971, 1974, 1975, 1976; Purrington 1973b). The species has been re- 

 corded in Louisiana between 15 November and 3 May (Lowery 1974). 



Texas The Oldsquaw is a rare and irregular visitor to Texas during the 

 winter, most common in the northern third of the state and on the Gulf coast 

 (Oberholser 1974). At least 16 records of about 24 birds were reported from 

 Texas in American Birds from 1970-1979. The majority of these records were 

 from the coast and consisted of sightings of individual birds. The most re- 

 ported at once were five seen off High Island, 27 February 1977 (Webster 1977). 

 A majority of the records fell between November and January; Oberholser (1974) 

 listed dates of occurrence for the state as 1 9 October to 30 May. 



SYNOPSIS OF PRESENT DISTRIBUTION AND ABUNDANCE 



Breeding The Oldsquaw nests in the arctic and subarctic regions of the 

 Holarctic and is one of the northernmost of ducks in its breeding distribution. 

 Oldsquaws breed circumpolarly with no major gaps in their distribution. In the 

 New World they regularly breed south to Davis Inlet in Labrador (Bellrose 1976); 

 in the Old World, Oldsquaws breed south to southern Finland (Cramp et al. 1977), 

 northeastern Kamchatka, and the Koraandorskiye Islands (Vaurie 1965). 



The total number of Oldsquaws is unknown, but Johnsgard (1978) speculated 

 that the worldwide population is about 10,000,000 birds. Bellrose (1976) esti- 

 mated that the early summer population of Oldsquaws in North America was 

 3,000,000 to 4,000,000. In the Old World, the Oldsquaw is the most abundant 

 duck far north in the western Palearctic (Cramp et al. 1977). The total breed- 

 ing population in Eurasia is unknown, but authors cited in Cramp et al. (1977) 

 suggest populations of ca. 2,076,000 in the U.S.S.R.; 200,000 to 600,000 in 

 Iceland; and 1,000 in Finland. 



Winter Most North American Oldsquaws winter in the Bering Sea; others win- 

 ter south along the Pacific coast to Washington, occasionally to southern Cali- 

 fornia. Bellrose (1976) indicated that more than 1,200,000 winter in the area 

 from St. Lawrence Island and the Aleutians to the Alaskan peninsula. More than 

 20,000 Oldsquaws winter in the interior on the Great Lakes (Bellrose 1976), and 

 lesser numbers may be found on other bodies of water in the interior. 



Relatively small numbers winter along the Atlantic coast from southern 

 Greenland and Newfoundland to South Carolina and Georgia. They also occur ir- 

 regularly or in small numbers in Florida and the Gulf Coast States. Bellrose 

 (1976) reported that 11,800 Oldsquaws were seen between the coast of New Jersey 

 and the lower Chesapeake Bay in 1972. This figure represents more than half of 



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