
227 
Water areas were classified as to size and type on the first coverage, 
The size of a site is the estimated number of censused acres, including the zone 
of emergent vegetation. The water area classification included: 
~ Permanent, less than 10 acres in size. 
- Semi-permanent (dependable except in dry years), 
- Temporary (dry by late summer except in wet years). 
- Flowage 
- Lake (any permanent body of water, not streamlike, 
which is 10 acres or larger in size). 
S - Stream 
rao op 
To follow water conditions experienced during these surveys, the 
water levels found during the production survey were compared with the water 
levels found during the breeding ground survey using the following terms. 
NC - No Change L - Less Water 
M - More Water D - Completely Dry 
Data on waterfowl species were recorded in the usual way. A total of 
295 water sites were censused in 36 of the 71 State counties (Figure 1). 
Weather and Water Conditions 
During March the temperature and precipitation averaged below normal. 
Cold weather caused a slight delay in the arrival of migrant waterfowl. Tempera- 
hires in April averaged 7.5 degrees above normal, with the only warmer April on 
record being in 1915. Rainfall averaged 17 percent above normal in April. 
The spring waterfowl migration was not spectacular, but rather was a 
continuous northward drift during the last twenty days of April. The only major 
northward exodus of migrant ducks and geese from Wisconsin was recorded on 
April 17 to 20. 
Waterfowl nesting started about seven to 10 days earlier than in 1954, 
with the year 1954 being considered average for the past five-year period. Farm 
field work, as reported by the Wisconsin Crop Reporting Service, was also well 
ahead of normal by May 1. 
Heavy rains which occurred in scattered localities during April caused 
some nest destruction of mallards, In June, Ronald Labisky of the U. S. Fish and 
Wildlife Service reported that heavy rains resulted in nest losses of redheads, 
ruddy ducks, and coots and some abandonment of mallard and blue-winged teal 
nests in lowlands on the Horicon Marsh National Wildlife Refuge. The extent of 
nest losses due to flooding is not definitely known. However, state-wide the 
waterfowl nest losses should have been minor, since the two main species of ducks 
breeding in Wisconsin, the mallard and blue-winged teal, are primarily upland 
nesters. 
