3.5 Activities and disturbance

3.5 Activities and disturbance

The presence or absence of disturbance, activities and birds of prey was recorded during the 110 daily censuses conducted in the spring and autumn. There were no activities or disturbance recorded on most of the surveys (60%). Activities were recorded on 44 surveys (40%), and on 19 surveys (17%) the activity prompted the geese to fly away.

Farming activity was the most frequently observed activity in (or in the vicinity of) the survey area, followed by light aircraft, humans (on foot or on a bike) and birds of prey (Fig. 3-17).

The only bird of prey recorded during goose censuses was White-tailed Eagle Haliaeetus albicilla. In less than half of cases, the presence of farm vehicles, aircraft or humans caused the birds to relocate, but all of the times that one or more White-tailed Eagles were observed, all of the birds on the farm temporarily relocated to Lake Vatnshamravatn. There were two occasions during the autumn staging period when all of the birds flushed to Lake Vatnshamravatn, but the stimulus was not detected.

Figure 3-17. Frequency of activities occuring during daily goose censuses during spring and autumn 2017, including the number of times that disturbance (i.e. when the activities caused the birds to relocate within the farm or leave the site) was caused.