WATERFOWL BREEDING GROUND SURVEY IN ALASKA 
Paul D. Adams, John L. Buckley, and Urban C. Nelson 
Introduction 
The 1952 breeding-ground surveys covered the key waterfowl producing 
areas in Alaska thus providing a fourth year of similar surveys on certain areas 
and adding a second or third year of record to the newer areas. Northwestern 
Alaska surveys were made by Robert F. Scott with David Hooper as observer. 
Included are the Kotzebue Sound transects and those in western Alaska covering 
the Innoko area and the Yukon bottomlands. Surveys in the peneral Fairbanks area 
-of interior Alaska were made by John L. Buckley and others with Scott as pilot on 
Minto Lakes and Fort Yukon Flats and Ray Woolford pilot for the Northway-Tetlin | 
and Tangle Lakes transects. Buckley, Hooper, Kessel and Lensink functioned as 
observers. Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta surveys were made by David L. Spencer with 
Paul Adams as observer. Fred L. Robards and Charles Stovall surveyed the 
Copper River Flats with Warren Nystrom as pilot. 
Detailed nesting studies were not possible during the past season although 
some observations were made incidental to other work. 
Banding operations were conducted on three areas formerly worked and at 
one new location. At Yukon Delta, from July 3 to August 17, Refuge Manager 
Paul Adams was assisted by Pilot-biologist Joe E. Miner with David Hooper running 
the crew at Kashunuk and Igiak Bay and Matthew Peterson running the crew at the 
Aphoon mouth of the Yukon. Mr. Everett Schiller of the Public Health Service 
conducted parasitological studies of waterfowl on the delta. At Minto Lakes, 
John L. Buckley, Calvin J. Lensink and Leslie A. Viereck of the Cooperative 
Research Unit banded ducks late in the season (July 30 to August 7) in order to 
concentrate on diving ducks. Copper River Flats banding during the period July 15 
to July 25 was conducted by Federal Aid Leader Urban C. Nelson, Stream-guard 
Hugh Hosick and Agent Fred Robards. At Cold Bay, Refuge Manager Robert D. Jones 
assisted by David C. Hooper banded geese during the period September 10 to 29. 
This is the first flight-route banding of black brant in Alaska and is being carried out 
at Izembek Bay, a major migratory concentration point just across the tip of the 
Alaska Peninsula from Cold Bay. 
Methods Used in Sampling, and Area Covered 
All transects were made by air without benefit of ground checks. One- 
quarter mile transects (1/8-mile on each side of the airplane) were flown in all 
cases except the Copper River Flats where a half mile transect was used. Some 
variations in transect pattern were experimented with in an attempt to obtain a 
better sample and to minimize the influence of factors affecting transect results. 
Certain 1951 transects which sampled areas of low waterfowl density or 
areas of such limited extent that they were unimportant have been eliminated from 
the 1952 survey. Of most interest among these are the Arctic Coast transects which 
have shown a sparse waterfowl population ranging from 2.6 to 3 birds per square 

