Human Disturbances to Waterfowl
Annotated Bibliography
This paper deals with Jamaica Bay Refuge, which is administered by the National Park Service as part of the Gateway National Seashore. References often are made to human disturbance to loons, gulls, cormorants, and herons, all of which we excluded from coverage. Disturbances were tallied for people walking, worm diggers, horseback riders, joggers, men working, and aircraft. Ducks and brant (Branta bernicla) usually went to the water when disturbed on land, and often were not disturbed when on the water. Further, they were intermediate in response to disturbance, in that they do not immediately return to the area from where they were displaced. Birds generally did not respond to subsonic jets, but they always responded to the supersonic transport jets whenever it passed directly overhead. Birds respond to the supersonic noise by flushing although many returned to where they had been.
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