Last Chance for Crack at Game Birds

Game bird hunters are being urged to make the most of this weekend, as the season draws to a close (Sunday, July 3, 2011).

It’s been a tough season for hunters with lots of rain "leaving an exceptional amount of water lying around and making conditions hard,” says Senior Fish & Game Officer Matt Mc Dougall.

He says if things have a chance to dry out, the tail end of the season could still produce some good bags.

Matt Mc Dougall says the opening weekend in May was pretty average going by hunter surveys - not surprising given the amount of rain that fell to leave birds widely scattered, taking advantage of flooded paddocks and other areas.

He says it appears there have been fewer ducks (including mallard and grey) than anticipated from surveys carried out before the start of the season, which could have been shorter.

But on a positive note, next game bird season is looking good as the result of an unusually early start to breeding. “It’s been a two-edged sword - the hunting hasn’t been especially good, but with the warm conditions birds are already breeding.”

Matt Mc Dougall says that hunters can extract plenty more value from their licences as they switch to shooting upland game birds – pheasants and quail – until August 28th.

Other species which also be hunted until that date include pukeko and black swans.

Fish & Game officers have renewed an appeal for hunters to contact them with information if they harvest a bird with a band, or one of the radio transmitters which were fitted to about 50 birds.

The birds are being tracked as part of a study aimed at gathering information on range, mortality and harvest rates.

Matt Mc Dougall says that three transmitters have been recovered so far and the remaining birds are still being tracked.