28 
in breeding population and the fall flight 
from this area will be somewhat larger 
than last year. 
SOUTHERN MANITOBA 
Data supplied by Charles D, Evans 
and Howard Brown, 
Bureau of Sport Fisheries 
and Wildlife 
WEATHER AND HABITAT CONDITIONS 
Spring 1961 in southern Manitoba was 
characterized by an extremely late breakup 
and widespread drought. A heavy snow in 
April provided good water conditions in the 
south-central portion of the Province, from 
the Red River west to Whitewater Lake, 
Oak Lake, and the Riding Mountains. Else- 
where in the survey area the drought was 
severe, causing the number of water areas 
to be the lowest since 1952. 
In areas where water conditions were 
good, nesting cover for diving ducks was 
much improved over the years since 1954, 
due to the good growth of emergents in 
1960. Because of the low water levels in 
most of the survey area, this improvement 
in cover was only of local benefit. 
By July, water levels were far below 
any previously seen. Manitoba, which had 
escaped the worst of the 2 previous years 
of drought, experienced one of the driest 
seasons on record. Vast expanses of habitat 
that normally are highly productive of 
waterfowl were reduced to a few scattered 
drying water areas. Water areas recorded 
in July were reduced 66 percent from their 
1960 numbers and were 78 percent below 
the average of previous years. Thoseareas 
that remained were in most cases at low 
levels and the emergent vegetation, which 
made such good growth in 1960, was gen- 
erally stranded on dry shores. While these 
conditions reduced the habitat available for 
nesting and brood rearing, they probably 
made the broods that were present more 
visible from the air than is normally the 
Situation, contrasting with 1960, when 
emergent vegetation made brood observa- 
tion difficult. So it is probable that the 
broods recorded this season represent a 
higher -than-average percentage of the popu- 
lation present. 
The estimated number of water areas, 
by strata and years, for the May and July 
periods is presented in table D-8 (p. 79). 
BREEDING POPULATION INDEXES 
Between 1960 and 1961, a 27-percent 
decrease occurred in the number of adult 
birds recorded during the May survey in 
southern Manitoba. Flocked birds, prevalent 
in Manitoba since 1958, made up approxi- 
mately 17 percent of the total. The most 
severely affected species of consequence 
were pintail, mallard, shoveler, and red- 
head. Blue-winged teal, scaup, and canvas- 
back had moderate reductions, while ruddy 
and baldpate had moderate increases. Other 
species occurred in numbers too small 
for changes to be significant. Population 
indexes, by species and by stratum, for 
1960 and 1961 are presented in table E-27 
(p. 99). Table E-28 gives the breeding pop- 
ulation indexes, by species, for each year 
since 1953, 
PRODUCTION INDEXES 
Table F-28(p.119) shows the brood index 
of ducks and coots and the late-nesting 
indexes, by species and by strata, for 
1960 and 1961. The only species occurring 
in any numbers for which the late-nesting 
index was not reduced were scaup ‘and 
redhead. The overall reduction from 1960 
was 50 percent. 
Table F-28 also shows the average size 
of the class-II and class-III duck broods, 
on which good counts were made in 1960 
and 1961. The 5.5 young per brood recorded 
during 1961 is slightly below the 8-year 
average. 
While the species of broods are not listed, 
both air and ground observations showed 
a scarcity of canvasback and redhead 
broods. Even in the choice nesting area 
in the vicinity of Brandon-Minnedosa-New- 
dale where water conditions were nearly 
normal, very few broods of these species 
were located. 
It should be noted that along with the 
birds recorded as late nesters were many 
unrecorded, grouped birds that gave no 
evidence of nesting activity, and it is 
probable that many were recorded as late 
nesters that were temporarily separated 
from these groups. It is possible that the 
