BREEDING GROUND SURVEY 
ALASKA 
Data supplied by Peter E., K. 
Shepherd, Alaska Department of 
Fish and Game, and Ray Woolford, 
Bureau of Sport Fisheries and 
Wildlife 
WEATHER AND WATER CONDITIONS 
The season was somewhat later than nor- 
mal in interior Alaska north of the Alaska 
Range, but earlier from Bristol Bay north 
along the Bering Sea coast. This 
unusual condition, inasmuch as the western 
coast seldom breaks up earlier than eastern 
Alaska due to the influence of the offshore 
pack ice. The season was not seriously 
late, however, and advanced rapidly fol- 
lowing breakup. 
Many ponds and lakes in interior Alaska 
have the lowest water levels observed inthe 
past 7 years, following many winters of 
light snowfall. Although one does not think 
of a water shortage in the Arctic in terms 
of total number of ponds or total acres of 
water, habitat may deteriorate seriously 
as the water table lowers even as in the 
Prairies. This is one of the factors affecting 
production that is being intensively studied 
on the upper Yukon where the low water 
level is most pronounced. 
At about the peak of the dabbling duck 
hatch, heavy persistent rain blanketed most 
of Alaska raising the rivers to near-flood 
stage. Water in the upper Tanana near the 
Yukon border was reported tobe the highest 
recorded since 1923. There is little or no 
evidence that many nests were destroyed 
but the average brood size for some species 
is smaller thannormal, indicating mortality 
among newly hatched young. 
On June 30 a severe storm struck the 
Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta causing extremely 
high tides and widespread inundation of the 
black brant nesting grounds. However, the 
first brant nests hatched June 16 and the 
peak of the hatch occurred June 22. Of the 
115 successful nests under observation, 90 
percent were hatched by June 27; thus, 
about 50 percent of the young were a week 
old or older at the time of the storm. It is 
not unrealistic that this storm caused some 
losses from exposure, nest flooding, and 
is an. 
indirectly from predation; however, nodata 
are available to assess possible losses. 
BREEDING POPULATION INDEXES 
There has been a modest increase in 
game ducks with scoters, eiders, and old 
squaw no more than maintaining lastyear's 
breeding population. Only about one-third 
as many canvasback were counted as last 
year. Ground studies have since proved the 
aerial survey to be inaccurate in this 
respect, however. Biologists in the Tetlin, 
Fort Yukon, and Minto areas, whichcontain 
most of Alaska's canvasback, report con- 
siderably more canvasback, redhead, and 
blue-winged teal in all three areas thanlast 
year. Apparently they were late migrants 
moving into Alaska after the aerial survey 
was completed in the eastern part of the 
State on May 23. Widgeon, onthe other hand, 
are reported to be fewer than last year in 
the upper Yukon River Basin. The widgeon 
has a very low visibility factor from the air; 
hence, an aerial survey is a poor indicator 
of total widgeon abundance and perhaps gives 
an inaccurate population trend for this 
Species from year to year. 
In general, the lower-density stratum II 
showed the biggest increase, doubling the 
1960 population. At first glance, this might 
indicate that the duck population has been 
well below the carrying capacity of the 
northern habitat in the past several years. 
Since 1956 comparable coverage has been 
given Alaska annually, and the population 
index has slowly but steadily increased from 
about 1,160,000 ducks to a high of 1,763,000 
in 1961, or roughly 50 percent. Whether 
this increase reflects an influx of ducks 
from the deteriorating habitat to the south, 
an actual increase of resident birds, or 
increased ability to count birds on the part 
of the observers has not yet been deter- 
mined. The fact remains that much of the 
northern habitat still appears tobe sparsely 
populated. 
Comparison of previous black brant 
studies on the Yukon-Kuskokwim suggestsa 
substantial increase inbreeding populations 
of this species. An intensive search of a 
nesting study area established in 1951 by 
the Fish and Wildlife Service revealed a 
remarkable increase in nest density. In 
