habitat and some use by harlequins, as indicated by our 1989 

 observation of a lone female. 



Lolo National Forest - Several streams on the Lolo Forest 

 appear to have a likelihood of possessing harlequin ducks. 

 Predominate streams are Rock Creek (Missoula District) , Fishtrap 

 Creek (Plains-Thompson Falls District) and the St. Regis River 

 (Superior District) . 



Discussion of Results 



Because harlequins can be difficult to see we feel that it 

 is important to emphasize that a lack of observations during a 

 survey does not necessarily indicate harlequins are not there but 

 rather they were not observed. 



We located harlequins in a number of different habitat 

 components. Due to this high variability we encountered, we were 

 not able to delineate specific parameters for harlequin habitat. 

 In general, we can describe harlequin habitat as containing a 

 clean flowing stream with gravel bars, beaver activity, shrub 

 and/or rock cover and a lack of overhanging canopy cover over 

 most of the main flow of the stream. We found harlequins on 

 streams ranging from 5 m (16 ft) to over 30 m (100 ft) wide. 

 Stream flows ranged form 24 cfs to >4000 cfs. The sections of 

 streams where we found ducks had gradients between 1.8% and 2.8%. 

 Streams were generally cool ranging in temperature of 5.5° C to 19* 

 C. 



We feel that the American dipper (Cinclus mexicanus) can not 



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