all Oldsquaws seen on Audubon Christmas Counts along the Atlantic coast that 

 year. Along the Gulf coast Oldsquaws are most abundant from the Florida pan- 

 handle to eastern Louisiana (Map 24). 



The Audubon counts provided by Bellrose (1976) suggest that much smaller 

 numbers of Oldsquaws winter along the Pacific coast than along the Atlantic. 

 On the 1975 January waterfowl survey (Goldsberry et al. 1980), only 432 Old- 

 squaws were reported along the Pacific coast, compared to 11,966 seen along the 

 Atlantic Seaboard. Slightly over half this many (6,800) were seen in Wisconsin 

 and Michigan. 



Eurasian Oldsquaws winter throughout most of their breeding area — the 

 southern Scandinavian peninsula, the Baltic States and adjacent parts of the 

 U.S.S.R. — south to the British Isles, northern France, the Netherlands, Belgium, 

 and the Black Sea. In Asia they winter south, largely in coastal areas, to Jap- 

 an and Korea. There are no overall population figures for birds wintering in 

 the Old World. Cramp et al . (1977) reported a provisional estimate of no more 

 than 500,000 wintering in western Europe in recent years. They suggested that 

 the disparity between this estimate and estimates for breeding and migrant birds 

 was the result of the latter being wrong or that there were massive concentra- 

 tions of Oldsquaws wintering in unknown areas. 



Cramp et al. (1977) suggested that Oldsquaw populations in the Old World 

 may have declined due to oil pollution. Palmer (1976b) believes that North Am- 

 erican populations are undiminished from earlier times. 



Migration Information on the migration of North American Oldsquaws is so 

 poor that Bellrose (1976) was unable to provide a map showing their migratory 

 pathways. He suggested, however, that their migration paralleled the coast when 

 breeding and wintering areas were near salt water and that birds found in the 

 interior and on the Great Lakes migrated overland. This may also be true for 

 birds wintering on the northern Gulf coast. 



The fall migration of the Oldsquaw is late compared with the migrations of 

 other species. Some may remain on the northern breeding grounds until early 

 September. Long-distance flights overland usually occur after raid-October. 

 Oldsquaws wintering on the southeastern Atlantic coast begin arriving by the 

 last third of October, with others arriving past raid-December (Palmer 1976b). 

 Males apparently migrate a shorter distance than females (Palmer 1976b). Con- 

 sequently, one may expect most of the birds in southeastern waters to be females. 



Oldsquaws in the southern portions of their winter range in the United 

 States migrate earlier in spring than those wintering farther north (Palmer 

 1976b). Most of the Oldsquaws wintering in the Chesapeake Bay, just to the 

 north of North Carolina, depart between mid-March and raid-April; peak numbers 

 arrive there in the fall between early November and early December (Bellrose 

 1976). 



Cramp et. al . (1977) indicated that some populations of Eurasian Oldsquaws 

 are migratory and that others are partially migratory (i.e., some birds migrate 

 to other areas to spend the winter and others remain to winter in waters near 

 the breeding area). Migratory pathways are poorly known, but the timing of 



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