Weather conditions during the survey period were variable, 
but in general the coverage was good and the figures obtained were 
at least as accurate and complete as those gathered during past years. 
In the northern portion of the Flyway, unusually cold weather con- 
centrated the birds, thereby facilitating counting. In the southern 
portion of the Flyway, icing conditions occurred over much of the 
wintering ground during the survey period, but the operations was 
hampered only briefly and the general feeling was that a new high 
in efficiency was reached. One important area still lacks adequate 
coverage--the off-shore waters along the Louisiana Coast. This 
results each year in variable proportions of the scaup population 
being included in the count. To date, a remedy to this problem has 
not been found. 
The total numbers of ducks, geese, and coot as recorded 
in the Flyway during the January surveys of 1958 and 1959 were 
remarkably similar. When the ducks were divided into dabblers and 
divers, the same thing remained true. 
Among the species, the blue-winged teal made the most 
spectacular showing in 1959. The 1958 figure was the highest on 
record up to that time, but this year's population was almost 
twice as great. This increase probably reflects a change in 
habitat rather than change in overall numerical strength of the 
species. Superb food conditions in the Louisiana Coastal marshes, 
an aftermath of otherwise destructive Hurricane Audry, apparently 
explains the difference. Normally, these birds migrate farther 
south. A major increase in shoveller probably has a similar 
explanation, as may a lesser increase in green-winged teal. 
The mallard wintering population shows no appreciable 
change from 1958, yet there may be cause for some concern, An 
apparent decrease in 1958 as compared to 1957 was apparently the 
result of a large increase in the number of birds remaining along 
the Missouri River in South Dakota and in Nabraska, a location 
from which these birds normally move into the Mississippi Flyway. 
This year, however, these two central flyway States "lost" nearly 
a million mallards as compared to 1958, and there was no corre- 
sponding increase anywhere in the Central Flyway. If the 1958 
wintering population of mallards along the Missouri River was in 
fact a part of the Mississippi Flyway population, then the decrease 
recorded this year in the Central Flyway may be more a reflection 
of change in the Missiselippi Flyway. 
102 
