Introduction
When is New Zealand duck shooting? The New Zealand duck shooting season commenced 1 May 2005 and continues until approximately July 2005.
Use of lead shot and not having a game licence will lead to some prosecutions in South Canterbury following the opening weekend of the New Zealand nz duck shooting season.
Central Couth Island Fish and Game officer Graeme McClintock said it was a successful opening weekend with some hunters managing to bag the limit.
He said the most successful hunters had been along the coast line.
"It wasn't the best weather for opening morning but the coastal hunters definitely faired well.
"The limit is 50 birds a day, that's for mallards, and there were reports of that being reached. If they bagged that many each they did pretty well.
"Then on Sunday we had another southerly come along and the ducks moved further inland, so it was a good opening weekend for all."
But Mr McClintock said a number of people had carried on using the outlawed lead shot instead of steel shot, despite plenty of warning.
"Most people were pretty good and have got used to the steel shot now, but there are always a few who just carry on.
"Most of those were in central and the Mackenzie country, and those people will be prosecuted.
"It's a new rule so we are unsure how the judge will handle it at this stage.
"Notices of offence were also issued to people who were shooting without a licence. They will be prosecuted too and could be fined up to $500.
"We had 25 rangers out between Ashburton and Oamaru."
Mr McClintock said the duck season ran until July 31.
"Opening weekend is always popular. Everybody goes out.
"But I want to remind people there is a lot of the New Zealand duck shooting season left and if they get out there are a lot of ducks in the area.
"Over the summer we saw large numbers of ducks on ponds and lakes and the farmers have also reported large numbers on their crops."
Mr McClintock said when the rough weather came along and the ducks moved inland from the sea, was the best time for hunting.
He said it was also the season for quail and chukar and that remained open until August 28.
He said chukar lived in the Mackenzie country among the tussock.
What is New Zealand duck shooting?
New Zealand duck shooting also offer the opportunity to hunt ducks. The season opens on the first Saturday i and continues until the end of July. Main species Paradise, Duck, Mallard, and grey duck.
Mallard Duck: The mallard is the most common duck in New Zealand duck shooting. Today there are about 4.5 million mallards, so many that they are sometimes a nuisance. The mallard is the mainstay of the duck hunter’s bag.
Grey Duck: The native grey duck was once hunters’ main quarry New Zealand duck shooting. However, draining wetlands caused loss of habitat, resulting in closed hunting seasons for grey duck. The newly established and much more adaptable mallard kept the game seasons open, thus maintaining the flow of hunter licence money that helped turn the tide against wetland destruction. In areas where there are still large natural wetlands the grey duck continues to hold it’s own.
Shoveler Duck: The “spoonie” has comb-like openings in the side of its spoon shaped bill that let it sift fine insect life from the surface of biologically rich wetlands. The shoveler was uncommon last century but there are now around 150,000 in New Zealand duck shooting. Because of it’s specialised habits, it is unlikely to ever be very common, but birds have moved into wetlands designed for them by Fish & Game NZ.
Paradise duck. The paradise duck is New Zealand’s only shelduck, which means it is a rather gooselike duck. “Parries” are another conservation success story. When the country was first settled, paradise duck were rare. The conversion of bush to pasture, and the creation of many stock ponds, (thousands of which were subsidised by hunters’ licence fees), has caused numbers to explode. In fact, special paradise duck hunting seasons are necessary to stop large mobs damaging farm paddocks with their grazing New Zealand duck shooting.
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