Capture of breeding and wintering shorebirds with leg-hold noose-mats

The importance of site to mate choice: Mate and site fidelity in Piping Plovers

“…Piping Plovers, Snowy Plovers) have been captured with noose mats during the winter or near nests (Mehl et al 2003). These consist of numerous small monofilament nooses attached to a surface.…”

“…Nooses that stand about mid to upper chest on the bird work best, as smaller nooses result in birds walking over the line without entanglement. (See Appendix 2 or Mehl et al 2003 for instructions on tying nooses). Leaving a small 3-5 mm tab of monofilament at the slip knot of the noose (the 'tail' in Appendix 2) allows an easy method of disentangling the birds by pulling on this tab to loosen the slip knot.…”

“…The traps are time-consuming to construct and re-set, but very effective in some situations (no vegetation, predictable areas where the birds walk). More detailed instructions on making and using noose carpets are described in Section 7.1.6, Appendix 2, and Mehl et al 2003.…”

High fidelity to wintering, stop-over and breeding sites shown by a Long-billed CurlewNumenius americanustracked with satellite telemetry on migratory flights across North America

“…We captured five wintering Long-billed Curlews (four males and one female) using leg-hold noose mats (Bub 1991, Mehl et al 2003 in mid-October 2009. The sex of each bird was determined in the field by the length of its bill (Dugger & Dugger 2002) and was subsequently confirmed by molecular analysis of DNA.…”

A Modified Leg-noose Trap for Crab-plovers (Dromas ardeola) at Burrow Nests

“…Leg-noose traps are inexpensive, lightweight trapping devices shaped in accordance with the peculiarities of each species (Bub 1991, Winchell and Turman 1992, Mehl et al 2003, Hall and Cavitt 2012. We modified the basic design of the traps, in order to improve capture success and to minimize any harm to the birds.…”