Table 37. Height of nest sites above water - 1979 



During the study, islands were the preferred nest site habitat 

 for Canada geese, since all nests located were on islands. Very 

 little breeding season activity was observed on shoreline areas, 

 and when searches were conducted, no nests were ever located. 

 While much greater survey effort was expended on islands, it is 

 felt that a majority of nest sites (estimated minimum of 90%) were 

 located. This is based on thorough searches of preferred habitat 

 and comparisons of number of nests located with spring population 

 figures. 



Table 38 presents data on general vegetation types of nest 

 site islands. Willow was again the major island cover type of 

 41 (66%) of the 62 islands used as nest sites and accounts for 

 57% of the nests. Young cottonwood-willow was the second most 

 important type, accounting for 16% of the islands used and 26% of 

 the nests. This was similar to 1978 data. 



Multiple nesting, or nesting of more than one bird per island, 

 is common on the Missouri River. True colonial nesting occurs only 

 on one island, which has had between 11 and 12 nests over the last 

 4 years. In most situations where more than one nest per island 



79 



