Methods to capture adult Upland Sandpipers Bartramia longicauda during brood rearing

The Upland Sandpiper is one of many shorebird species that can be captured through their heightened response to recorded chick calls. Here we describe methods to catch adult Upland Sandpipers during brood rearing using mist nets and recorded chick vocalizations. We found this technique especially useful when studying the species in its northern breeding range, where continuous daylight during the breeding season prevents the use of night-lighting. This method is also useful when time or capacity does not allow nest searching and subsequent captures of incubating adults. However, it requires successful nests, and therefore only samples a subset of the breeding birds in the landscape (i.e., the birds that did not fail during incubation). We had no known cases of injury, mortality, or brood abandonment when using this technique.