wall as obssrvationa on sprite migrations of waterfowl. During the brevding 
geneon, soma of thes man kept nest and brood observations, and some of them 
ran ground tranascts along laks shores and streams or mads rapsated obssrvations 
on a seriss of lakes, ponds and potholes. Savers forest fires this apring cur- 
tailed activitigs along thess lines but much taluabls date was secured nseyerths- 
Jeas. Ths date collected naxt ysar will provids us with the first comparative 
material on these mors inaccessibls northarn arses of Alberta, 
Bgcause of the fact that agrial coverags was not possible this summer, 
new ground transscts of an exploratory naturs were run. This was dons in an 
effort to sxtend ths area corersd by ths ground crew in former years snd to 
intensify ths coverag?: of oresas whers coverages had nesgasarily been light in 
ths past. 
A totel of 615.7 square miles of ground transects ware run plus 251.8 
aquars miles of agrial transscts, making a grand total of 857.5 squars miles 
of sample in the Alberte waterfowl survsy, or 41.43 percent sampls of the 
64,000 square mils study area, 
Waather and Water Conditions 
Undoubtedly the greatast singls factor which may affect the waterfowl 
bresding grounds in any singl: year is ths influence of ths weather, Weather 
conditions during 1949 ara good gsxeamplas of this. With a dry fall and wintoar 
of 1948-49,.and with an extremaly low run-off this svring, tha Alberta prairies 
wera almost devoid of surfaces water. When tho spring migretiona began, waterfowl 
found suitable breeding arsas in southern Alberta only in tha irrigation districts 
and in the very few uaturally permansnt lakes in this arga, This was reflected 
in the acarecity of waterfowl, excapt in the areas noted abovs, On some transects, 
where 1948 populations reached 24.9 ducks per square mile, there was neituer 
water nor ducks this past summer. Ths drought continued until July when suffi- 
clant amounts of rain fell to aid crops immeasurably, but not in quantitiss 
sufficient tae cause much variation in existing water leyels or to bring water 
back to potholsas already dry, The ultimate effect of this spring drought was 
of somes benefit te the waterfowl for thay passed on through ths prairiss ta — 
regione of more permanent water. Tsspite the increased parklend waterfowl 
populations and ths fact that water levels continued to receds dangsrously sen 
in the parklands throughout the bresding ssason, parmanant water was still 
general enough in distribution there te pravent appreciable losses fram this 
CAUSS. 
The =xtroms nature of the drought as it was related to waterfowl habitats 
may be sean from Table 1 which illustrates the comparison of water areas on ths 
Sane trangacts for 1948 and 1949. 
Table 1. --Water Areas on Ground Transsects 1948 and 1949 
Type 1948 1949 Changes 
Short-gTraas prairia 1904 23d, -B 
Transition 535 127 - 7 
Parklands 1eas6 £26 ~7 Fh 
