Human Disturbances to Waterfowl
Annotated Bibliography
Disturbances to waterfowl on Houghton Lake during early fall and hunting season of 1972 occurred from at least six different sources including boating, fishing, hunting, this study, aircraft, and a bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus). At least 85% of the disturbances involved boats and 53% of the disturbances directly involved hunting activities. The hunting season disturbances affect more ducks than pre-season disturbances primarily because there were more ducks on the lake during the hunting season than before it. During the hunting season of 1972, we estimated that 408,000 waterfowl were involved in disturbances that occurred on the lake. Obviously, individual birds were disturbed more than once per day. When the number of birds disturbed is compared with the duck-use days for the season (408,000/268,000), it can be seen that each duck and American coot (Fulica americana) was disturbed about 1½ times per day on the average. Weekend disturbance rates were about 1½ times greater than those during the week. In spite of the disturbances which occurred, ducks were never seen to leave the lake in 1972 as a result of harassment.
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