Background

The Forestry Department in Goa were kind enough to grant permission to hold two mist netting sessions at Nerul Hill during April 2002. The object of this was to demonstrate to local volunteers the practice of mist netting and to give them an opportunity to handle birds and examine them at close quarters. A total of four 18 metre mist nets were erected for approximately 2.5 hours per session, since it was intended to catch only a limited number of birds in order that each could be closely examined and techniques for ageing and sexing explained and demonstrated.

 Discussion

Although numbers of birds trapped were limited this allowed the volunteers time to examine each bird and to attempt to extract birds from the mist nets under close supervision. Each of the three volunteers while initially nervous, demonstrated clearly that they have the ability to safely mist net without supervision, although they would need considerable practice before this was viable.

Although it was not possible to ring any birds during these sessions, as it had not been possible to obtain Indian rings, the actual fitting of the ring is relatively straightforward and I would not anticipate that any of the volunteers who attended, would have any problems if this was demonstrated to them.

Mist netting is a bird sampling technique, which allows a unique insight in to the population of birds in an area. While it is possible to estimate the numbers of breeding adults by surveying an area, it is more difficult and time consuming to estimate the success of the breeding pairs. Catching and ringing the birds in an area allows the birds to be identified in future and gives an indication of both fledging rates and the post fledging survival rates of juveniles. It also allows site fidelity to be examined and can be used to monitor the success of management within an area. It also provides information on the survival of birds during the winter months.