At the Migratory Bird Populations Station, waterfowl carcasses are processed by staff biologists concerned with 

 species age and sex identification. The data provide basic facts for the determination of hunting regulations. 

 Other information useful in the management program, such as food habits, diseases and parasites, and pesticidal 

 contamination is also obtained from the specimens. (Photo by Frederick C. Schmid) 



in California, the principal harvest area for snow 

 geese in the Pacific Flyway. White-fronted goose 

 age ratios showed a decline. Black brant on the 

 Pacific coast showed a marked drop in immatures 

 per adult, but tlie age ratios of the Americ^an 

 brant on tlie Atlantic coast indicated a pronotmced 

 increase. 



Rapid waterfowl habitat inventory method — 

 At the Lafayette, La., field station, efforts are 

 being made by Patuxent Center personnel to de- 

 velop rapid methods of identifying and evaluating 

 waterfowl habitat, and to determine the accuracy 

 of aerial transects in invent oiying waterfowl pop- 

 ulations over a 1,'200-square-mile area in tlie soutii- 

 western part of the State. 



Tlie use of a "timed aerial point observation 

 method," designated as ''TAPO^L" is providing 

 rapid documentation of dominant vegetation, 

 water conditions, and hind use in the expansive 

 marshes of this region. At 1-minute intervals 

 along transect lines, the observer de.scribes the 



characteristics observed on an area of approxi- 

 mately 1 acre, and these are later evaluated in 

 making the inventory. 



Cooperative white-fronted gooxe trapping and 

 handing. — The Northern Prairie Center cooper- 

 ated with personnel of the Canadian Wildlife 

 Service and the Central Flyway Teclmical Com- 

 mittee in trapping and banding 2,223 white- 

 fronted geese in the Kindersley District, Saskat- 

 chewan, during the fall of 1964. Altogether. 7.814 

 white-fronted geese iiave been banded in the 

 first 4 years of a 5-year project on the develop- 

 ment of techniques for capturing this species, and 

 ascertaining its migration patterns and popula- 

 tion dynamics. 



The age comix>sition of tlie banded simple was 

 31 percent first-year birds in 1964, as compared 

 with 46 i>ercent in 1963. 37 percent in 1962. and 21 

 percent in 1961. A preliminary analysis indicated 

 that first-year recover}- rates for adults were 9 

 percent in 1961, 6 percent in 1962, and 6 percent 



15 



