
36 
WATERFOWL BREEDING GROUND SURVEY IN SASKATCHEWAN, 1950 
D. G. Colls 
The following report deals with the results of the breeding ground and brood 
survey of that portion of the Province of Saskatchewan south of latitude 54°N, which 
area includes the Grasslands, the Aspen Parklands, and portions of the Mixed 
Coniferous Forest. This area is the same as that which was covered and reported in 
1948 and 1949. 
Population trends were determined by means of aerial and ground transects, 
Stephen Creech, United States Game Management Agent, and John Lynch, Biologist, 
flew 60 hours of air transects during May using a Stinson L-5 of the United States Fish 
and Wildlife Service. Marvin MacDonald, Saskatchewan Game Branch Field Officer, 
and D, G. Colls, Dominion Wildlife Officer, ran the ground transects, covering some 
3,500 lineal miles during the month of May. 
During July, V. C. Conover, United States Game Management Agent, and 
John Lynch, Biologist, flew another complete coverage of the aerial transects and 
made a brood count. W. Hyska, Saskatchewan Game Branch Field Officer, and 
A. Benson, Biologist, ran a brood count over the ground transects. 
Methods 
Aerial and ground work followed the basic pattern set up in 1948. 
The 17 unwieldy air survey regions which have been used since 1948 were 
discarded this year in favour of the more simplified four soil regions used by the 
ground crews. This enabled the aerial crew to employ fewer transects of greater 
individual length, and will permit of more ready comparison of air and ground data. 
The wet spring made several country roads in the western part of the 
Province impassable during the May ground coverage. Out of the total of 49 transects, 
39 were completely run and 1 was only partially run. 
The only change in the basic pattern of the transect work was that the data 
obtained along aerial and ground transects were kept by segments. In the air, 
information was recorded along the transect in 10-minute segments. On the ground 
an 8-mile segment was used. 
Weather and Water Conditions 
In the southern part of the Province all the snow disappeared from the ground 
quickly about April 15, The more northerly lake country, however, remained ice- 
bound in some cases as late as the end of May. Unseasonably cold weather has been 
experienced over Saskatchewan for most of this summer. Rainfall has been abundant 
although by no means evenly distributed over the Province. The south-east, and east- 
central, and northern parts of the Province received most of the showers. 
Surface water conditions were excellent throughout the Province, except in 
the southwest parts of the northwest and west-central regions. Most depressions were 
full of water at the end of the survey, and little was being lost through evaporation. 
The season was decidedly later in 1950 than it was in 1949; in fact there are 
indications that this might be the latest season in many years. 
