Shamelessly stolen from mastodon post about protection efforts in Czech Republic.
this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2024
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For owls that are superb.
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How do you catch an owl like that? Just reach up into a tree and grab one? Seems risky…
Politely ask them to come down for identification and show them your forest ranger badge.
Usually they'll catch birds for surveys with thin mist nets. But idk how to catch owls unless they caught him at nighttime haha
Ahhhh okay. So I take it they watch the nets quietly nearby so they can grab the birds before they struggle too much and injure themselves? So for owls you just need a lot of coffee!
Yes, they are checked very frequently. There is a ton of licensing and permitting required, so the researchers wish to steer clear of trouble. Mist nets are very regulated, as they are used for poaching as well.
They are sized for different animals, and the birds will be lured with a call into the net, where they bounce off and get caught in a pocket. They're then retrieved and taken to a station to be measured and banded.
You can see my previous write up here, or there is this page all about mist nets.