
80 
WATERFOWL BREEDING GROUND SURVEYS IN EASTERN CANADA, 1950 
Cc. E. Addy, L. D. Cool, G. F. Boyer, H. R. Webster, and R. Mosher 
Introduction 
This is the second year of a program of intensive surveys of waterfowl 
breeding grounds in eastern Canada. Many of the breeding areas which were surveyed 
last year were covered, and in addition new habitat was investigated. 
Limited ground surveys were conducted in the spring by G. F. Boyer, Harry 
Webster, Ralph Mosher of the Canadian Wildlife Service, and C. E. Addy of the U. S. 
Fish and Wildlife Service. Aerial surveys over the same census routes as followed 
last year were again conducted by U. S. Game Management Agent and Pilot Leon D. 
Cool and observer Addy with a Fish and Wildlife Service Fairchild plane. In the aerial 
survey many of the overland transect runs made last year were eliminated this year, 
and delays prevented the coverage of any of the St. Lawrence River habitat from Mingan 
west to Lake St. Peter and Lake St. John. Unfortunately, much of the data obtained 
from the aerial flights made are not comparable to those of last year due to the fact that 
many areas were covered three to four weeks later than in 1949. The flights in southern 
New Brunswick and Nova Scotia began May 28 and ended June 9. It was not until June 23 
that aerial surveys were resumed on Prince Edward Island, and the last run on Anticosti 
Island was made on July 2. 
During the period July 5 to 27 Cool and Addy conducted aerial surveys of the 
extensive marshes at the head of the Eagle and St. Lewis rivers in southeastern Labrador 
and the shoreline and marshes of Lake Melville and the Hamilton River Inlet east of 
Goose Bay. 
From early May until the last of July, Ralph Mosher, Student Assistant, 
conducted observations on flocks of adult black ducks in order to determine their breed- 
ing status. Although early observations were made on Prince Edward Island in con- 
junction with a crow-waterfowl study, the period June 14 to July 31 was spent in 
concentrated study of flocks of blacks in the Grand Pre vicinity of Nova Scotia. 
Methods and Areas Covered 
In eastern Canada limited spring ground counts were made by canoe and on 
foot of the same areas as covered in 1949 in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince 
Edward Island. However, the greater part of the breeding ground coverage was by 
plane. As mentioned previously, certain transect and other flights were eliminated 
this year. New areas were investigated in northern New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, 
western Prince Edward Island, the interior of Anticosti, and southeastern Labrador. 
The routes traveled both this year and last are shown in Figure l, 
Weather and Water Conditions 
Throughout most of eastern Quebec and the Maritimes, March temperatures 
ranged from one to five degrees below normal. For the remainder of the breeding 
season temperatures followed closer to the normal although there were many local 
excesses and deficiencies. In general, temperatures during July and August averaged 
a few degrees below normal. 
Precipitation throughout eastern Canada during March was quite variable with 
excesses occurring generally in interior portions and deficiencies in coastal regions. 
During April, however, the southern coastal areas received excesses while much of _ 
