Central South Island > Hunting News July 2008

No food, no ducks.

Graeme Hughes

As the season progresses, time and time again we are told “There’s no ducks around”. Then we’re asked “Where have they gone?”

Fish and Game staff are not gifted with ESP, none that I know off at least, and like other hunters they have to get out in the field and locate feeding populations. Location of mallards is linked to their location of food. As the winter progresses the food of ducks decreases and they have move about to stay fed.

Usually the hunter has two choices, hunt ducks where they feed or hunt them where they rest. Winter feeding of domestic stock is often an attraction for hungry mallards. Hunting in these locations, in close proximity to stock, is not always popular with the landowner for obvious reasons. However the ducks, probably in fear of being trampled by hundreds of cloven hooves are content to glean what they can when stock have moved off. Even a day or so later there can be hunting opportunities on old feed lines as feeding out is done elsewhere on the property.

The common practice of removing hedges and trees has left the hunter in a position where concealment using naturally occurring cover is not available. There is very little concealment behind a wire fence. The hunter has to create some form of camouflage, perhaps under hay or straw not eaten by stock or by using artificial cover such as nets or “lay down blinds”. So, while the ducks on Farmer Browns paddocks are in huntable numbers, the task at hand is quite a challenge.

In most situations mallards will feed and then return to permanent water where they drink preen and sleep. To conserve energy this may not be too far from the feeding areas. This is especially true when ducks are feeding amongst the stubbles of a harvested grain field. These waters are prime hunting areas.

On the expansive Waitaki River during pre hunt reconnoitres if fortunate to discover one of these pre-feeding staging areas one can usually guarantee a good hunt will follow. These areas differ from the usual inaccessible “duck camp” found along the braided riverbed. Ducks may gather here, flying in from the safety of the big river just before flying out to feed. Some mallards will stay throughout the day if undisturbed. The availability of quality food close to their riverbed habitat appears to override their normal pattern of seeking the safety of mid river shingle bars and islands. More often than not loafing waters close to much sought after feeding areas are deep, slow side streams. These areas are usually easily accessible but unfortunately only temporary.

Afew weeks ago one such area was spotted from the top of 885 meter high Station Peak. A lofty “hill” overlooking the Waitaki River we often use this lookout to find close to home “duck camps”. With a 25 power spotting scope the populations of mallards and geese were obvious even at long distance due to the large number of birds on this part of the river. Further investigation “on the flat” revealed close to 350 mallards on a deep slow flow and on a gravel beach 750 metres upstream 180 geese kept company by a large group of shelduck. It didn’t take long to find out why they were here, food of course; this loafing water was within a short distance of a late harvested barley crop.

The low light of early evening stirred the birds into feeding mode and the air was filled with sound of wings and calls of the different species migrating out to feed. Geese drifted down stream talking loudly to join the mallards lifting of before the quiet water reached the turbulent main stem which churned past at high velocity. Anticipation and imagination worked overtime as I retreated from my vantage point unseen.

The first available opportunity to hunt the area was not until 7 days later. There was a risk that the birds would be sighted and shot by other hunters, but more importantly with the large number of bills seeking out the few grains left by sheep turned in after harvest, it would not take too long before available food would be totally consumed. Either way the backwater residents would vacate the slow water and take up mid river residence. A covert visit prior to our proposed morning shoot showed that there was a lesser number of ducks at rest compared to what had been seen earlier which indicated to me that the food source was becoming depleted.

Access by dinghy, the easiest way to transport 60 odd decoys, guns and gear was completed as the sky began to colour. As the last decoys hit the water we had already dispersed several early incomers, their strident calls signalling to any of their kind that all was not well.

The shoot was one of those rare events where we both shot well and all went near enough to plan. The duck population was significantly reduced but as a bonus we called returning geese over our mallard decoys to take six of the seven which drifted too close.

The unexpected hiccough occurred at about duck number 40. The dog, an essential member of any big river duck hunt, had lost its earlier enthusiasm and if a mallard splashed down too far out she decided it was not worth the energy to swim that distance. No amount of encouragement, or threats, would convince her to retrieve any bird other than those we could have waded to. After watching another mallard slowly drifting out to the fast water with mounting frustration the dinghy was dragged from its concealed position and it became the essential member of the big river duck hunt.

With ducks still in the air but a mounting pile amongst the gorse we pulled the decoys and counted our bag into the dinghy. 56 counting the several which plummeted into nearby gorse and blackberry and those which our tired retriever refused to fetch. With 6 geese added it was a respectable harvest for a hunt requiring minimal effort and travel time of at least 10 minutes.

With a promise of another hunt the following weekend an evening check the night before was quite different to the pre shoot observations a week earlier. No sound of excited mallard, shelduck or goose . No sound of wings. All was quiet. The stubble field had been expertly cleaned of the last grain. The attraction to the slow water swim was over. With the winter season well underway it would be highly unlikely we would find another grain field attracting waterfowl. We would have to look further afield for future hunts, downstream where the lure of supplementary feeding will concentrate the duck populations into large camps mid stream. A recent flight down the Waitaki River showed that as the valley widened the numbers of duck camps and the numbers of ducks in those camps increased. Common sense really, more flat land, more animals to be fed more opportunities for ducks.

With future predictions of high prices for grain there is an increased interest in growing grain. How many hectares will be converted from pasture to grain is unknown but any increase will benefit waterfowl and waterfowl hunters. In the Hakataramea Valley 30 years ago, grain and peas were grown in profusion. The duck population prospered and remained close to the food source. Acclimatisation Society staff with a fleet of scare guns were kept busy dissuading waterfowl from crops ready for harvest. If the weather turned bad at harvest time it was a major headache for the grain grower, including the Society’s field officers, but a windfall for ducks. As a direct result local hunters experienced some wonderful shooting during the grain growing years.

In the Haka Valley many of the grain fields of yesteryear are now green feed and green grass and as a result the mallard population has plunged. While much of the Waitaki Valley and plains has also experienced extreme changes in land use, the isolation and security provided by the wide and braided Waitaki River will always provide habitat for the adaptable mallard. Hunting big rivers is never easy but hunting in the right place helps. Put simply; no food, no ducks.

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