Summary of environmental impacts associated with bird watching in

Recreation : Guidelines : Bird Watching : Summary

Summary of environmental impacts

Impacts associated with bird watching will be similar to those relating to walking and hiking.

The impacts of trampling will vary according to the nature of the site, the soil which constitutes the feature, and the levels and types of bird watching activities.

Although impacts from trampling and informal car parking are particularly acute in and around estuarine sand dunes, these areas are not usually frequented by large numbers of bird watchers and therefore their impact is likely to be minimal.

Bird watching activities can cause disturbance to both plants and animals within mSAC sites. This can be as a result of physical damage or the mere presence of participants in close proximity to wildlife. The use of boats by bird watchers also has implications for wildlife disturbance and erosion or turbidity of the feature. Where bird watching sites coincide with seal haul out areas there can be localised disturbance at certain times. However, bird watchers will generally be very careful to avoid disturbance and therefore their impact is likely to be minimal in other areas.

Issue		mSAC Features
	Sand dunes	Saltmarsh	Mud and sand flats not covered by sea water at low tide	Sandbanks which are slightly covered by sea water at all times	large shallow inlets and bays	Reefs	Lagoons	Submerged or partly submerged sea caves	Grey seal	Common seal	Bottlenose dolphin
Trampling	l	w	m		w	m ¹	m
Erosion	l	l	w		w	m	m
Physical Infrastructure	l ²				l ²				m	m
Litter/waste	m	m	m		m				m	m	m
Plant and wildlife disturbance	l	w		m	m	w *	m		w *	w *
Fire risk	l								m	m

Key to impacts

Blank Square - not applicable

m - minimal

w - observable, likely to be location specific

w * - observable at certain times, minimal at other times

l - appreciable

Notes

rocky shores
unmanaged parking

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