Northland Both Barrels July 2019

Well it’s all over apart from upland game there have been some good reports lately for parrie hunting opportunities.

Parries can be hunted by the relatively inexperienced hunter as they can be fooled easier than mallards.

A small outlay can yield great results, do some homework on where the birds are congregating.

Use a camouflage net, wear suitable clothing and lay out a small collection of silhouettes is all you need.

If you aren’t confident in duck calling then there are calling devices or apps that can be downloaded on your phone.

A couple of hours are all you need during the weekend to get a good number of birds.

Important dates to put in you diary:

Northland special Paradise Shelduck open season will occur between the 22 Feb- 23 Feb 2020, Shooting hours from 0600 to 2000hrs
Pukeko and black swan from the 22 February to 1^st March

Please refer to the game bird hunting guide for more information.

NTHBB2 Northland has a good population of pukeko and can be hunted during the game season.

Population control is necessary as they are good breeders and can be quite destructive in large numbers.

Hunting pukekos is usually carried out by walking swampy margins near wetlands.

Canadian geese were taken off the game schedule in 2011.

It is now an unprotected species, the bird was first detected in our annual trend counts back in 1995.

The numbers are rapidly increasing and seem to be doubling every 10 years.

There are large numbers in the Far North, they are also increasing in the Pouto and Maungaturoto/Kaiwaka areas.

Canadian geese are weary and a good decoy/camouflage set up is required to get them in range.

We need you to send in your game bird returns for all NFGC owned wetlands, forestry blocks and DOC areas.

We are also compiling our hunter surveys, these surveys provide Northland Fish and Game with valuable information on harvest rates.

We use this information along with the trend counts to determine bag limits and season lengths.

Graham Gallaghan, Northland Fish & Game Officer