WATERFOWL BREEDING GROUND SURVEY - SASKATCHEWAN 
1954 
SPECIAL STUDY AREA - KINDERSLEY -ESTON 
Introduction 
Most of the field work on which this report is based was carried out by 
Maurice H. Lundy, Game Management Agent, U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and 
by Richard W. Fyfe, summer assistant, Canadian Wildlife Service. The writer 
was in charge of the operation but was unable to take part full-time until July. 
The waterfowl survey and banding operations described below were carried 
out as part of an investigation of waterfowl damage to cereal crops in the Kindersley- 
Eston-Kerrobert area of west-central Saskatchewan. Emphasis in all phases of 
the study was on mallards. 4 
Water Conditions 
A comparison of water areas in May of 1953 and 1954 on the 20.5 square 
mile transect is as follows: 
Semi-permanent Pieces of Ditch Temporary Other Total 
EA i re 
May 11-13, 1954 7 176 4 8 195 
May 20-21, 1953 55 173 38 9 275 
The steady long term drop in water areas from May, 1953 through the 
open winter of 1953-54 is indicated by the decrease in areas classified as semi- 
permanent. The lack of spring run-off in 1954 is emphasized by the decrease in 
temporary (shallow field water) areas. While the number of ditches held up, they 
were more shallow than in the previous spring and their number had dropped to 39 
(from 176) in the three weeks following the May coverage. 
Surface water this year continued to drop through July but August rains 
raised and created water areas so that the southern part of the district looked like 
it did a full year before and the northern part apparently had more sheet water than 
in May, 1953. 
