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During this study, 2,889 nest visits were made to 578 nests (first, continuation, and renests) for an average of five observer disturbances per nest. Only one desertion during the study was believed to have resulted from my activities.

This is in contrast to findings of others where observer disturbance has been cited as a cause of nest abandonment by Canada geese (Branta canadensis): Martin (1964:48) who concluded that his investigation contributed to 40% of the total nest losses at Ogden Bay, Utah, Dow (1943:13) who attributed 23% of the nest destruction in his study at Honey Lake, California, to man's activities, and in a more recent study, Hanson and Eberhardt (1971:23), who found that the Hanford, Washington, Canada geese deserted those nests visited most often at a higher rate (12 of 16 nests) than those visited least (3 of 7 nests, P > 0.05). Conversely, Geis (1956:416), working with Canada geese in Montana, concluded that disturbance by the investigator was not believed to be an important cause of desertion. Similarly, Weigand et al. (1968:903), who made daily visits to nests of captive geese in Michigan, could assign no nest losses to human disturbance.