NORTHERN ALBERTA AND NORTHWEST TERRITORIES 
Weather and Water Conditions 
Weather conditions during the period were rather difficult to 
evaluate. In the first place we began the survey earlier than we normally 
do, and a season that started out to be early had a relapse and ended up 
as a cold late one. We first encountered ice on the lakes May 28 in latitude 
57° 23'. On June 3 south of Great Slave Lake in latitude 62° 10' new ice 
had formed on what little open water there was around the edges of the lakes 
and as we proceded east into the forest tundra open water became scarcer 
and snow more abundant until finally there was no open water and the ground 
was completely white. This condition prevailed throughout the survey period; 
new ice forming every night in forest tundra with showers becoming so thick 
as to be almost a continuous snow storm. Almost an inch of ice formed at 
Aklavik the night of June 12 and ona flight to Yellowknife the following day 
we encountered intermittent snow and freezing rain the entire distance. 
South of latitude 58° conditions were quite dry and there was 
little temporary surface water. North of 58° water levels were high and 
temporary water areas, flooded meadows and flats, were most numerous in 
the Slave River parklands and in the Lac La Martre-Providence area. Water 
levels continued high all the way north, the MacKenzie Delta being almost 
entirely flooded, particularly on the treeless delta. 
It should be borne in mind that, in the north, the scarcity of 
water is never a problem and temporary waters, if they occur, are not duck 
breeding habitat. Too much water can be a liability, as it was this year on 
the MacKenzie Delta. 
Breeding Population Indices 
A perusal of the following table will reveal that, with one excep- 
tion, prairie nesting ducks increased, which was to be expected with the 
drying of the prairies in the south. We even saw coots on flooded meadows 
of the Slave River parklands north of 60 , our first observation of this 
species north of Lake Claire. The one exception, canvasback, occurs in 
such small numbers in the survey area as to be insignificant. 
The only species that changed significantly were baldpate, up 
30 percent; green-winged teal, down 34 percent; bufflehead, down 23 per- 
cent; goldeneye, up. 74 percent; merganser, down 19 percent; ringneck duck, 
down 26 percent; and blue-winged teal, up 116 percent. Canada geese and 
Swan were also down considerably. 
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