Human Activity Influence and Diurnal and Nocturnal Foraging of Sanderlings (Calidris alba)

We studied the foraging behavior of Sanderlings (Calidris alba) in the winter of 1986, 1988 and 1990 in Florida to determine whether the presence of people influenced foraging behavior, and whether foraging behavior varied as a function of time of day. We used a focal animal sampling approach. For all three years, the models explaining the greatest variation in seconds per minute devoted to feeding included the number of people within 100 m of foraging Sanderlings. Although the number of people within 10 m of foraging Sanderlings during the day did not increase from 1986 to 1990, the number of people within 100 m rose dramatically, and foraging time per minute decreased. Sanderlings continued to feed through dusk into night and the time devoted to foraging and to aggression was greater at night, while the time devoted to avoiding people was less at night than during daylight or dusk.