65 
WATERFOWL BREEDING GROUND SURVEY IN SASKATCHEWAN - 1953 
SPECIAL STUDY AREA - KINDERSLEY-ESTON 
J. B. Gollop 
Methods of Sampling 
The 20.5 square mile Kindersley-Eston Study Area consisted of the same 
82-mile transect covered in 1952, However, 44 miles of additional transect were 
included this year -- from Kindersley north to the junction of Highways 30 and 31 
and then east to Plenty. Comparable data for 1952 are not available tor this new 
section and it is not dealt with in this report. 
It was originally planned to change the study area from a transect-type to a 
block-type, but this was not done, first, because a linear strip is normally more 
suitable for ground-to-air comparison and, second, because spring water conditions 
appeared to be at least as good as in 1952. 
Observations were made within 148-mile on each side of the road for the 
breeding pair coverage in May, the breeding pair-brood coverage in June and the 
brood coverage in July. The transect was not checked in August because of the 
unsuccessful July results. These surveys were carried out as part of an investiga- 
tion of waterfowl depredation on cereal crops in the Kindersley area. Mr. D. L. 
Hurst, Canadian Wildlife Service, assisted the writer in these investigations from 
May to September. 
Weather and Early Spring Populations 
The area was first visited on April 5 and 6 this year when 150 miles were 
covered by car; pintails and mallards were common and a very few individual pairs 
of green-winged teal, American goldeneye, baldpate and canvasback were seen. 
Practically all water areas less than an acre in size were completely open and the. 
larger sloughs were partly open. Snow was confined to ditches, windbreaks and 
snow fences. 
The week of April 12 brought record-breaking below-freezing temperatures 
and snow. The transect was again visited on April 15 by car and on April 17 by 
plane. The absence of waterfowl on the study. area and vicinity was striking. 
Practically all field sloughs, as well as lakes, were frozen solid. Only two large 
flocks of pintails and mallards were seen (300 + or - and 3,000 + or -) on the 
April 15 trip which involved 310 miles by car. The April 17 flight found an 
estimated 16,500 ducks, 8,000 Canada geese, and 3 snow geese along a 95-mile 
stretch of the South Saskatchewan River (Empress, Alberta to Kyle, Saskatchewan), 
part of which lies 15 miles south of the southern section of the transect. . “a 
Canada geese north of the Saskatchewan River totaled 30 on the April 17, 1953 
flight compared to 1,065 + or - on an April 18, 1952 flight (the River was not covered 
in 1952). Snow and blue geese were absent this year while 1,900 + or - were’ 
estimated on the 1952 flight. 

