
19 
It should be noted that about half of the interior count (52 percent) were non- 
game ducks (at least so rated in the Mississippi Flyway), including scoters, eiders, 
old squaws, and mergansers. This would reduce the sporting duck density in the 
interior to 1.7 ducks per square mile. Along the coast the scaup was the only diver 
which contributed more than one percent (2.7 percent) to the total count. This was 
because our transects failed to include the off-shore flocks of scoters, eiders, and 
other divers.. Among the eiders, only one king eider was seen; the rest were American 
eiders. All three scoters were found in numbers. Along the bay, the American scoter 
was most common; in the interior the white-winged scoter predominated, except along 
the Tadoule Lake - Knife Lake transect where surf scoters were common. We suspect 
that the old squaw was more abundant than our figures, indicate. This species seems 
more plane-shy than the other ducks surveyed. 
While 17 hline Swans were seen, no evidence of nesting was found. Canada 
geese were noted on 22 of the 27 transecis. Along the coast, broods were seen along 
4 of 13 transects, and in the interior on 9 of 14. However, 46 of the 79 broods tallied 
were found along the coastal strip. The 35 found on Akimiski Island and 6 on Cape 
Churchill account for most of the broods near the Bay. All of the young geese seen 
appeared to be less than two weeks old. A large part of the adult population did not 
fly when approached by the plane, presumably because they were in the flightless stage 
of the moult. It seems probable that these were non-breeders, probably yearlings; 
by far the heaviest population of Canadas found was on Akimiski Island. Elsewhere, 
evidence of breeding was noted in widely-scattered localities. 
Summering flocks of Richardson's geese were found along the south end of 
James Bay and on Cape Henrietta Maria. Blue geese were first encountered on the 
cape where they numbered several hundred, mostly in large flocks. A few were seen 
at widely-spaced intervals elsewhere along the coast to the mouths of the Thlewieza 
and Tha-Anne Rivers, where a few hundred were mixed with many more snow geese. 
At this location it is certain that blues were nesting. Atleast three instances were 
observed ofa blue paired with a snow. | 
Canada Goose Nesting Populations » 
Goose ranges continued without interruption, so far as we could tell, from 
Wawa Lake southwest of Moosonee to Eskimo Point. Along this entire strip, however, 
the only place where Canadas appeared to be nesting in large numbers was on Akimiski 
Island. Otherwise, the population appeared to be widely-scattered. At Weenusk we 
were given 5 goose bands, recently acquired, two of which were of the colored type 
used at Horseshoe Lake, Illinois. Another was a spring banding at Jack Miner's. 
Upon returning to Delta we received a letter from Refuge Manager Dill informing us 
that 7 Canadas which he had banded at Swan Lake Refuge had been shot this spring 
near York Factory. Weenusk and York Factory are 200 airline miles apart, hence 
somewhere between may mark the boundary between the population wintering in 
Illinois and that wintering in Missouri. North of Churchill we may have been observing 
Lesser Canadas, but the difference between those sub-species cannot be determined 
from the air. Our observations to date would indicate that Canada goose production in 
Manitoba may be on a par with that in Ontario. It is probable that the Mississippi 
Flyway population originates over..a much wider breeding range than hitherto supposed, 
Species Other Than Waterfowl 
The first caribou of the trip was seen near York Factory. Approaching 
Churchill from the southeast, and within sight of the grain elevator, 4 more were seen. 
On Cape Churchill we counted 255, and in northern Manitoba, a few miles short of the 
60th parallel, 113 more. The total number of caribou seen in Manitoba: 373. 
