Successful trial of mist nets and whoosh nets to catch non-breeding European Shags Gulosus aristotelis at a daytime roost

Abstract

SUMMARY: During field studies, seabirds are typically caught in the breeding season because they are attached to a nesting site, which allows much closer approach by researchers. This contributes to seasonal and age-class bias in bio-logging studies because only breeding birds are caught. Some species such as the European Shag Gulosus aristotelis present opportunities to capture them outside of the breeding season. We trialed the use of mist and whoosh nets to capture European Shags in Shetland, UK, in September 2021. A total of 16 individuals were caught using both methods, although the whoosh net was more efficient than the mist net. We showed that the capture of non-breeding European Shags is possible outside the breeding season and that such studies could provide valuable data from understudied age classes and seasons.