
103 
Table I, - Breeding Population - Caron Potholes. 
Species 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 
EEE —eEEEE~7™_7EE~7™_UE~™~_—EE———————_—_———=——5—[x=[_—SBnaIE eS 
Blue-winged Teal 75 90 143 154 114 149 
Pintail 35 57 79 71 79 86 
Shoveler 42 52 34 39 63 29 
Mallard 31 34 111 154 193 106 
Gadwall : 18 33 40 53 62 42 
Baldpate 28 24 26 39 52 53 
Redhead 2 10 23 24 6 13 
Lesser Scaup 7 8 9 22 16 66 
Green-winged Teal 1 5 14 9 7 10 
Canvasback - 4 5 16 4 6 
Ruddy Duck l 4 6 6 - 1 
Cinnamon Teal - = a = 1 - 
Unidentified - - - 4 ll 5 
———EEEolElE———E—E SE 
Total Pairs 240 321 490 591 608 566 
Per Square Mile 56.3 75.5 115.3 139.0 143.0 133.1 

The data show a considerable reduction in mallards from the 
previous year and an increase in blue-winged teal. Decreases also took place 
in gadwall and shoveler. The large increase in scaup was apparently due to 
the inadvertent inclusion of migrants since the brood counts do not confirm that 
so many scaup remained to nest, unless they were subjected to nest predation 
well above normal, which is not supported by the blue-winged teal data. 
During the breeding pair count the number of lone mallard and 
pintail drakes was abnormally low. The data showed the mallard breeding popu- 
lation to be composed of 46 percent lone drakes and the pintail population 64 
percent. In 1954 these percentages were 67 and 80 percent; in 1953, 58 and 
77 percent, and in 1952 (the last big duck crop), 76 and 86 percent. The June 
brood count confirmed that early nesting attempts, in spite of an early season, 
had been largely unsuccessful when only 12 broods were counted, including four 
mallard and five pintail. The June brood count in 1954 located 38 broods; in 1953, 
53; and in 1952, 99. In view of the lack of evidence of abnormal losses from 
other sources, it would appear that in this particular area the two-inch rain of 
early May and subsequent snow may have been more damaging to early nests than 
was at first believed and may have been peculiar to knob and kettle topography, 
since early nesting success seems to have been normal or better elsewhere. 
Brood counts using the ''beat out"' method were carried out June 20 
and 22 and August 24 and 25, the results of which are given in Table II. 
