Mist nets on poles. (1 Viewer)

Sorry for putting this in this section but I thought that if I put it in the "Ringing" section, the answers may have been a little bias.
I'm trying to form my own opinion on the catching of birds by means of having a mist net on two poles laying on the ground and when the bird flies over it the two poles are quickly brought up and over forcing the bird to not only stop immidiately but to be propelled backwards and onto the ground. As I said, I have no opinion on this yet as I know no facts about it so does anyone know whether this is an accepted method of catching by the BTO and what if any damage or distress it may cause to the birds as opposed to just a static mist net?
An example of what I'm talking about can be found here....
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=4308286115533

Its called flicking and it poses no greater risk than a static mist net.

Thanks. One question though. If a static mist net catches birds then why would the flicked net have to be brought down to the ground with a bump? Why would simply standing it up not do the job.

Several species are tricky to catch with just a static net, the swifts in the video being a case in point. As Jane says, there is no more risk to the bird than normal mist netting.

Deseo said:

Thanks. One question though. If a static mist net catches birds then why would the flicked net have to be brought down to the ground with a bump? Why would simply standing it up not do the job.

Click to expand...

Swifts tend to 'bounce' out of a static upright net. In Borneo in the 1980s, we watched as various swifts/swiftlets evaded capture this way, The only one caught was a very ragged and sick bird that had a huge parasite load.

I guess that experienced ringers can explain the 'bump' aspect.
MJB

Thanks folks. As I said I'm not trying to pick fault, I'm just trying to get an opinion of it in my own mind. I am one of the type who wonders how many ringers want to do their bit for conservation and how many just want to trap and hold birds. This is the reason I have not taken up ringing even though I have thought about it often.
Are there are statistics to say what benefits (to the birds) have been gleaned from all of the 1,000,000 birds a year ringed. How much can we find out about Blackbirds and Robins etc, before we no longer need to find out any more?

I would expect that the most useful output from ringing is the age related totals combined with constant effort site totals from common species. They are quite the most sensitive and earliest indication that something is amiss. One of the reason the House Sparrow crash was missed was because they were not being ringed.