4. Causes of Recreational Disturbance
4.1 Human activities can disturb birds from behaving naturally. Any alteration to a bird’s natural behaviour is considered disturbance, ranging from stopping feeding to observe a perceived threat, taking a major flight to actively avoid the threat of disturbance or nest abandonment. Often people cause bird disturbance unintentionally or remain unaware it has occurred.
4.2 Any activity at the coast has the potential to cause bird disturbance. The Partnership aims to focus efforts on those activities that are causing the most disturbance in the Solent region. See Section 5 – Five Year Plan Delivery Strands – for more details on how this will continue to be done.
