
oO 
» 
Table 1. -- (continued) 
Species Areal Area2 Area3 Area4d AreaS Area6é Misc. Total, 











20 18 15 27 2  -B2 
Shoveler (9.5) (0.0) (8.6) (4.8) (8.2) (1.6) ( 6.0) 
B-w. & Cinn, 31 16 39 67 65 10 228 
Teal (14.7) (9.9) (18.6) (21.6) (19.8) (7.8) | (16. 6) 
17 2 14 17 8 3 1. 62 
Pintail (8.0) (1.2) (6.7) (5.5) (2.4) (2.3) (3.8) (4.5) - 
17 29 7 10 63 
Scaup (10. 5) (9.4) ( 2.1) ( 7.8) ( 4, 6) 
3 5 8 
Canvasback ( 1.9) ( 1.6) ( 0. 6) 
10 1 11 
Golden-eye ( 3.0) . (3.8) ( 0.8) 
: 3 3 
Wood duck (11.5) ( 0.2) 
2 11 11 24 
Canada goose ( 0.9) ( 6.8) ( 3.3) { 1.7) 
2° 7 11 4 24 
Unid. teal (0.9) ( 0.0) (2.3) (3.3) (3.1) ( 1.7) 
11 8 12 10 26 3 “4 71 
Unidentified (5.2) (4.9) (5.7) (3.2) (7.9) (2.3) (3.8) (5.2) 
Coote 12 32 157 53 44 9 2 309 
Total 
Waterfowl 211 162 21 310 329 129 26 1377 
Grand Total 223 194 367 363 373 138 28 1686 

Resident Waterfowl Population and Population Trend 

A brood inventory alone does not seem adequate to properly evaluate popula- 
tion trends or total production for an area as large and diverse as Eastern Washington. 
Correlated with the brood studies is our count of all resident waterfowl encountered on 
the transects. In checking these annual tabulations against each other, area by area, 
we have arrived at a production trend and an estimated total production for Eastern 
Washington. Table 2 lists the resident waterfowl observed during the 1950 breeding 
season, The mallard decline becomes very obvious when the inventory figures for 
1950 are compared with those of 1949. Under similar conditions, and with a comparable 
expenditure of time and effort both summer's, roughly 35 percent fewer broods were 
tabulated in 1950. Similarly, 45 percent fewer mallard ducks, adult plus juvenile, were 
counted in 1950. The above difference of 10 percent between broods and total ducks can 
be accounted for, in part at least, by a decrease of 13 percent in brood size of age class 
111 in 1950. There seemed to be about a 15 percent decrease in redhead production in 
1950. There was 20 percent fewer redhead broods counted but only 14 percent fewer 
total redhead ducks tabulated. The average brood size of age class 111, however, was 
10 percent higher than in 1950. In the two-year comparison of all other important 
species there was fairly good correlation between total broods counted and total ducks 
counted, tr: 
Through a combination of ground transects and the aerial survey of all the 
important waterfowl areas in Eastern Washington, we feel that we are arriving ata 
