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WATERFOWL BREEDING GROUND SURVEYS IN SOUTH DAKOTA 
Ray Murdy and Maurice Anderson* 
Introduction 
This report presents the findings of waterfowl breeding ground surveys in 
South Dakota during the spring of 1952. These surveys deal with the various 
aspects of waterfowl breeding potential and water conditions at the start of the 
breeding season and, at present, are not concerned with the estimation of duck 
production. 
Methods of Sampling and Area Covered 
The methods of survey were the same as in 1951, and consisted of two phases. 
One, a gridded State-wide aerial survey, provides the best estimates of waterfowl 
and water area densities and trends. The second, a ground survey in the’more 
permanent waterfowl habitat in most of the counties throughout the State, provides 
a correction factor with which to correct aerially-observed duck densities for 
unobserved females on nests, data on species composition, and a check on waterfowl 
densities in the more permanent habitat in each county. These surveys were made 
concurrently during the week of May 12-17. 
The aerial survey consisted of 16, east-west, 1/4-mile wide transects, spaced 
12 miles apart north to south. These transects totaled 5,720 linear miles or 1,430 
Square miles, and were flown by three pilot-observer teams. 
The ground survey consisted of 2,424 linear miles or 606 square miles of 
standardized, 1/4-mile ground transects run in 48 counties by 37 state game wardens. 
Water Conditions 
At the start of the breeding season, when the aerial surveys were made, there 
was an abundance of water areas and water levels were very high. However, very 
little rainfall occurred during the late spring and summer making this period one of 
the driest on record. This was especially true in the central portion of the James 
River Valley area. Fortunately, water levels were high at the start of the breeding 
season as the result of the very wet summer of 1951 and heavy snows during the 
winter of 1951-1952. Because of these high initial water levels relatively few of the 
more permanent water areas went dry until mid-summer. 
In the Prairie Hills the more permanent water areas (Class C or better) did 
not start to go dry in numbers until mid-August. Thus the drying up of water areas 
did not seriously affect brood production, In respect to the longevity of water areas 
the breeding season of 1952 was similar to that of 1950 which had better than average 
water conditions for brood production. 
* Small Game and Furbearer Research Project (17-R). 
