260 
WATERFOWL BREEDING GROUND SURVEY IN OHIO 
Delmar Handley 
Intreduction 
Up until 1952 only sporadic attempts, mostly in the form of specialized 
studies, had been made by both private individuals and the Ohio Division of Wildlife 
to gather and evaluate data on waterfowl in Ohio. However, on June 1, 1952 the 
Ohio Division of Wildlife initiated a Pittman-Robertson waterfowl research project 
(W 70-R) to make an over-all waterfowl survey including breeding ground Surveys, 
migration and wintering ground surveys, banding, habitat inventory as well as other 
specialized waterfowl studies. 
Methods of Sampling and Area Covered 
The Division of Wildlife has, for administrative purposes, divided the State 
of Ohio into six wildlife management districts. District number one is concerned 
only with commercial fishing in Lake Erie. The remaining five districts consist 
of approximately eighteen counties per district. The personnel of each district 
consists of, among others, a game management supervisor and an assistant whose 
duties consist working almost entirely with pame animals. [tis these men who will 
hereafter conduct the major portion of the field work involved in making the breeding 
ground surveys. The leader of project W 70-R will tabulate, analyze, and report 
these data along with data accumulated on specialized waterfowl projects. 
Due to the fact that the waterfowl project did not get underway until June 1, 
there was no attempt by the district personnel to obtain any data on breeding pairs. 
In the brood surveys, each district was instructed to work as many water areas as 
possible with major emphasis being placed on the large inland lakes. Water areas 
were to be chosen that could be worked each year with the same methods in order to 
obtain comparable data. 
The water areas were to be covered by travelling completely around the 
Shoreline in a boat and recording all of the broods that could be discovered with the 
aid of binoculars. These areas were to be worked only. from dawn until 8:00 a.m. 
and from 5:00 p.m. until approximately dusk, Two coverages were to be made, one 
the second week of June and the other one the second week in July. 
In addition to the brood surveys conducted by the district personnel there were 
specialized waterfowl projects being carried on at the State-owned Magee Marsh, the 
Resthaven State Hunting Preserve and at Indian and Loramie Lakes. 
The study at the Resthaven State Hunting Preserve is an over-all year round 
study of waterfowl as part of a P-R project (61-R) set up to study the populations 
and production of both upland game and waterfowl on this area. The census methods 
used are as outlined in Special Scientific Report: Wildlife No. 13. 
The study at Indian and Loramie Lakes, which are old reservoir lakes, is an 
intensified brood production study with one man spending three days a week from 
June 15 to July 19 at each lake searching the entire water areas by boat for broods. 
A similar intensified brood study was conducted on Indian Lake during the previous 
summer. 
