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severe thunderstorms occurred on June 23 and 24 in central and southern counties. 
July was considerably wetter than usual, this being the fourth wettest July on 
record. Heavy rains on July 1 and 2 in west-central Minnesota caused excessive high 
waters in the Moorhead area. Severe thunderstorms occurred on July 9 in Polk, 
Norman and Clay Counties and from July 16 to 20 there were general rains. At 
this time particularly heavy downpours occurred in the Aitkin area. 
Breeding Population Trends 
The aerial sampling was begun on May 5 in southern Minnesota, commencing 
with Transect No. 32 and was completed on May 15 with Transect No. 1. The 
Bureau of Game used a Stinson Station Wagon piloted by John Zorichak, with 
Gerald Bue and Forrest Lee observing. Waterfowl data were recorded by Lee in 
12-mile units of the quarter-mile wide sample strips. The quarter-mile strips 
extending in an east-west direction include approximately 2 (plus) percent of the 
area being sampled. Speed and altitude of flight varied with the demands of field 
conditions, with the extremes of approximately 80 and 120 miles per hour, and 
20 tm 200 feet of altitude. Approximately 51 hours of flying time were required to 
complete the 1952 survey. 
This was the second year of the aerial transects. Transect lines total 
3,108 miles, or 777.3 square miles of sample. This sample represents 37, 296 
Square miles sampled. Cn these 777.3 square miles, 2,841 ducks were tallied 
compared with 2,785 in 1951. In terms of ducks per square mile, there were 3.66 
ducks per square mile compared with 3.58 in 1951. 
Much less temporary water was present in southern Minnesota at the time of 
the transects, and the number of waterfowl] tallied was similar to the 1951 counts. 
Central Minnesota did not have an excess of temporary water, yet Class B and C 
areas had plenty of water. In central Minnesota; increases in number of ducks were 
noted along many transects. Northwestern Minnesota experienced a dry spring and 
fewer ducks were tallied on most of these transects. 
Automobile transects totaling 1,230 miles were run ina north - south direction 
in the delineated area of the aerial sampling. Auto transects were also run in some 
of the Game Management Areas outside of this area, bringing the total auto transect 
mileage to 1,868. Almost identical routes were runin 1951. The 1951 mileage was 
1,965 miles and 51 counties sampled; in 1952 48 counties were sampled. Of the 
ducks that could be tallied by sex, there were 523 males and 335 females. 
The auto transects in the delineated area show a somewhat greater increase in 
the breeding waterfowl population than is indicated by the aerial transects. Pairs 
per square mile were 1.79 compared with 1.22, and ducks per square mile were 3.31 
compared with 2.45 in 1951, It is believed the pairs per square mile figure is a better 
index to breeding populations since the ducks per square mile figure includes the late 
migrants such as scaup, which are sometimes present in the State when our local 
population is already beginning to nest. Since the aerial transects sample the pothole 
and dry areas indiscriminately, it is likely that the actual increase in breeding 
waterfowl is somewhat less than that shown by the ground transects. The following 
table shows a summary of all ground transect data compared with 1951, The water 
areas per square mile is slightly lower than last year, 3.1 compared with 3. 5. 
