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WATERFOWL BREEDING GROUND SURVEY IN IOWA, 1952 
James G. Sieh 
Introduction 
Iowa is in the initial stage of State-wide waterfowl production study and 
habitat improvement, Meager population trend data were gathered during the 
breeding seasons of 1949, 1950, 1951 and 1952. Production data have been 
gathered during on-the-spot check counts made on productive areas in north- 
western Iowa. In 1952, aerial survey was initiated in northwest Iowa in an 
attempt to compare the same productive areas. A wood duck nesting box study 
was continued on the Lake Odessa area in Louisa County near the Mississippi 
River. Plans are underway to band blue-winged teal during the late summer and 
early fall at the Ingham-High Lakes Game Management Area near Estherville, 
Emmet County, Iowa. 
Spring Migration, 1952 
The two main river valleys on Iowa's borders caught the vanguard and main 
flight of migrant waterfowl during the spring of 1952. The spring flight in north- 
western lowa was skimpy at its best. Even the later flight of blue-winged teal in 
northwestern Iowa was smaller than usual. 
Geese were reported in extreme southwestern Iowa as early as February 13, 
1952. On March 18, 1952, blue and snow geese were first reported in Dickinson 
County in extreme northern Iowa. On this same date a warm front moving north- 
ward caused a high of 53°F. at Des Moines. By March 19, the vanguard of the main 
flight, along the Missouri River, had forced its way north to Sioux City. On 
March 19, the northern most local concentration of blue and snow geese (estimated 
between 3-6 thousand birds) were encountered in the Onawa flats just east of the 
Missouri River. Geese were present in smaller migrating numbers south to 
Forney's Lake in the southwestern corner of Iowa and southward to the Missouri 
line, 
On the evening of March 21, the worst blizzard of the winter struck western 
Iowa and continued throughout the day and night of March 22. On the morning of 
March 23, the wind and snow abated, but the six foot snow drifts that paralyzed 
avian as well as vehicular traffic remained. Migratory waterfowl recoiled 
southward in the teeth of the storm, but rapid break up and thawing along the 
Missouri and its tributaries saw the main flight pass northward into Iowa and up 
the valleys of the Missouri, the Platte, the James, and the Sioux Rivers. By 
March 30, practically all geese were reported as having left western Iowa, and 
many of the mallards and pintails as well. 
Reports from the eastern shore of lowa indicated a similar migratory 
build-up along the Mississippi River. Waterfowl were reported from the Davenport 
area on February 20. These early stragglers preceded some very large local 
concentrations of waterfowl in the Mississippi bottoms. By March 30, most of the 
mallards and pintails had left the Davenport area, and moved northward. Wood 
ducks pushed up the Mississippi Valley in Iowa during the first week in March. 
