Professional Documents
Culture Documents
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VOL. XLV.] HELIGOLAND TRAPS. 389
the cover towards the trap mouth, and, particularly near and
under the trap, there should be no patches of very thick cover
from which birds cannot easily be driven. The bushes in the trap
mouth should not exceed five feet in height. If they are higher,
they necessitate a higher roof to the trap, thus adding expense
and to the danger of birds breaking back over the trappers' heads.
If the site allows of choice of orientation, the mouth should face
the local direction of movement of migrant birds at the season
which is likely to be most prolific.
(4) DESIGNGENERAL (See Figs* 1 and 2).
The dimensions of the trap will depend on the site, the number
of trappers that will normally be expected to work the trap, and
on the resources available for construction. A trap with a mouth
wider than 2530 feet is difficult to manage without several well-
drilled trappers who have had plenty of experience on the trap.
About five yards of frontage per trapper is as much as can efficiently
be managed. A long, narrow trap is, generally speaking, preferable
to a short widely splayed one, because in a narrow one, birds are
less likely to break back past the trappers.
At some sites, wing-walls of wire netting extending outwards
from the mouth of the trap are beneficial. They tend to prevent
birds by-passing the trap.
At the open end of the trap, and at suitable points further in,
baffles (D. in Figs. 1 and 2), both horizontal and vertical, should be
provided. These are strips of wire netting, 13 feet wide, fixed all
round the mouth of the trap, and similarly further in, and sloping
inwards at about 60 to the main wire netting of the trap so as to
make a " lobster-pot " effect. They prevent the escape of a large
proportion of birds that break back, and amply repay the trouble
and expense of fixing them.
A wire should be stretched horizontally across the mouth of the
trap and about a foot below the roof to act as a perch for flycatchers
(Muscicapa sp.).
The frames supporting the wire netting are like a series of soccer
goal posts of equal or slightly diminishing height, and of decreasing
width. The height at the mouth should not exceed 710 feet.
They should converge to a frame about 46 feet high and about
6 feet wide. The trap should present birds driven into it with a
" point of no return " beyond which the transparent back of the
collecting box appears the only or the obvious way of escape, and,
in any case, a preferable one to breaking back to the mouth. The
" point of no return " illusion is created by changes of direction
in the remainder of the trap both in horizontal sense and also in
the vertical sense, by making the remainder of the trap slope
upwards to the collecting box. Changes of direction have the
additional advantage of slowing birds down so that they do not
fly at full speed against the back of the collecting box. The birds
must, however, be led easily and naturally to the collecting box,
390 BRITISH BIRDS. [VOL. XLV.
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3S2 BRITISH BIRDS. [VOL. XLV.
upper ends of steep sided and narrow gullies, or ravines, have been
roofed with wire netting, and main doors, funnels and collecting
boxes fitted at the upper end.
(b) Double traps, with mouths facing in opposite directions, have
been made at Spurn and Fair Isle. That at Spurn was sited at
a point where an old chalk bank disappears into a large patch of
sea buck-thorn and elder. It was designed to catch such birds
as Wheatears (GEnanthe cenanthe) and Meadow-Pipits (Anthus
pratensis) with the mouth facing the bare chalk bank, and cover-
loving birds with the other. It was also designed to be convenient
for both migration movements, the directions of which are well
defined on a peninsula like Spurn. The two mouths shared a
common funnel at right angles to each, but this arrangement was
not altogether satisfactory. The change of direction was too sudden
for driven birds, and a great many made no attempt to enter the
collecting box. The double trap at Fair Isle (plate 82) is on a stone
wall and was originally two straight traps, butted back to back. The
mouths are rather wide and short. Birds entered the mouths
quite satisfactorily, but nearly all broke back past the driving
trappers. At both observatories each trap was later fitted with a
separate funnel, properly angled. The bad effect of the lack of any
" point of no return " illusion in the Fair Isle traps was most
marked, and the modifications resulted in greatly increased effect-
iveness.
(c) Portable Heligoland traps have been developed by several
ornithologists. All are designed to be carried in an ordinary
car, and to be capable of erection in a period of the order of one
hour. Mr. R. Chislett has a funnel made of light wood frames
covered with wire netting and makes a mouth of bamboos and
strawberry-netting. Colonel R. S. P. Bates uses triangular frames
of stiff wire with wire netting soldered to them. The frames
are bent through about a right angle about the central axis. Each
frame is fitted with a small collecting box thus making a simple
trap with no funnel and with a mouth of triangular section. Dr.
K. B. Rooke has made a portable trap specially designed for the
shore at Portland. The mouth is made up with guyed steel
uprights carrying string netting. This trap is larger than the
others described. The time of erection is of the order of one
day. One of the earliest was that of Herr A. Schifferli, of Sempach,
Switzerland. It can be erected on a foundation of stakes in a
reed-bed, or similarly on stakes to take birds from the top of a
high hedge. The mouth is made of iron frames, 2 metres by 1 metre,
covered with wire netting. The frames are joined by string " snake "
lashings. If a two-frame width or height is required, the frames
are joined by diagonal sticks, " snake " lashed to the netting. The
funnel consists of similar tapering frames joined by rings, so that
it will " matchbox " flat for packing. When erected, it is kept
square by lashing to the frames of the mouth, and to the collecting
394 BRITISH BIRDS. [VOL. XLV.
box. The collecting box is made of stiff wire with wire netting
soldered to it. It has a central shelf, a removable glass back in
slides, and a sliding door at the bottom.
Herr Schifferli's trap is shown in Fig. 4.
clear of the sides and bottom of the box, and should have strips
of rubber fixed to its edges to sweep the bottom and sides. The
piston should be kept in place by the fit of the handle in the tube
bearing. Such an arrangement reduces the chance of pinching
a bird's wing or leg by the action of the piston, (see Fig. 7).
FAIR ISLE.
THE DOUBLE DYKE TRAP.