Auckland / Waikato >Hunting News > May 2008

Early season round-up

Despite, or perhaps because of the Waikato drought, many hunters have done very well – if they have access to permanent water.  The important role of maize silage too cannot be overlooked and hundreds of mallards and parries can be seen in fields gleaning the leftovers from the recently harvested stubble.  High grain prices mean there should be even more maize next year. 

A number of those hunters in shallow wetlands without dug ponds will no doubt be cursing the lack of rain, until recently anyway. However, swamp levels are rising and those with water are getting sore fingers from all the plucking. The brisk winds around opening probably helped bring many of the birds out at sea inland too.  Many would say this is one of their best seasons yet and birds appear to be in good condition. 

Goose numbers too seem to be strong on those permanent water bodies and surprisingly few hunters have cottoned on to the bumper production of pheasants this year. Perhaps once they've given the ducks a good going over...  Mind you, now's the weather to follow up the upland game.
 
Don't forget to send in that band, even if the last one you got was banded just down the road.  It's all vital information to allow us to set and defend our season conditions which are a lot less complicated than many other regions with low hen limits, for instance. We prefer that our hunters “Go For Green” voluntarily and aim to “Let The Hens Pass” to help build the duck breeding population for next year.  Drakes are fatter anyway and it adds challenge to pick them out of a flock. 

While mallards are mostly fairly sedentary, this year many of them seem to have made longer journey's afield, perhaps in response to the drought.  We've just received one band from a mallard ringed by Australian authorities on Norfolk Island, some 1,200 km away, that came all the way to join us in Hamilton. This joins the 2 bands from mallards that flew the opposite way, to New Caledonia, 1,900 km away. I did offer to follow these bands up personally, à toute vitesse ! No takers, blast.  Other birds have flown throughout NZ, from Kaitaia to Otaki and perhaps back too ! 

Why not keep a simple diary of your outings ?  It's not only a memento that helps you learn from your successes and mistakes, but also, if you're randomly called by one of our phone interviewers for the Gamebird Phone Harvest Survey, you can rattle of all your recent tallies without having to scratch your head even once. 

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