Thread: Game bird diary for all

A better pic of the retrieve.

Quick early morning run out on the Kaipara today. 8 Mallards/greys and one swan. Pulled the pin at 10am as the wind was starting to get up and the tide was dropping.

And the first banded bird for the season...........

Picked up two tonight at home. The drake must have been close as I shot his head clean off. Made a mess but plucked him anyway

heading out on the prowl to lake ellesmere shortly .forecast is for a shagnasty wee southerly mid morning and from our obs in the proposed area those feathered buggers get on the wing very quickly,often in large mobs.
mates boat motor is fixed so this could be a little ripper trip.

Big pond had a break for 4 days as stock were in paddocks.

Few parries squawking on the hills,Bo got a retreive when they came over pond.

Light fog here this morning. Ducks were slow to appear. Shot a goose out of a pair about 7.30am and after that things slowly picked up until the fog dissapeared about 10.30am. Carried out three each of canadas and mallards and parries so pup and I pretty happy.

Originally Posted by kotuku

heading out on the prowl to lake ellesmere shortly .forecast is for a shagnasty wee southerly mid morning and from our obs in the proposed area those feathered buggers get on the wing very quickly,often in large mobs.
mates boat motor is fixed so this could be a little ripper trip.

Oke dokey ive returned to the keyboard after sorting wee gear for miles -draped over my late dads trailer makes garage look like a shanghai laundry.
bloody great outing -no ducks but ive fired 4 shots(PPs ...P.poor shooting !!)
settled into mai mai around 0945 -quite a few shots going off around ellesemere with occasional flights of ducks well out of range overhead.
about30min later Ilooked south and wow weird ..Acloud formation like a tube of wool was headed our way.sure enough the wind got up ,but this bloody thing swung through 90'and headed for the port hills!we we both gobsmacked at natures display!
In the 15=yrs ive visted that lake i have never ever seen a cloud formation like this.
shortly after ans with sights and sounds of other shooters heading home -the southerly introduced herself !!!!!!!!
Oh Boy-from ripples to 2' waves decoys being dragged away by wind of 20kmh or more ,and heels bells "we wanna feel like flyin"
at one point we had teal bombarding us from all points of the compass.
heres the highlight of my day _its bloody true i kid you not .
mate was out stopping decoys going AWOL-me on sentry ;thinks poor bugger a brews called for -after watching a mob of mallards zoom over him (but out of range)I set to
make me cuupa T put it on maimai ledge ,start making R a strong coffee....hold onwhats that
SPIN around an bugger me about 15m away at eye level is one bloody cheeky mallard drake ..heading for me cuppa i reckon
Oh fuck me no you dont
I scramble for the baikal ,he cut in all afterburners in a vertical climb which should have had his beak poking out his arsre and ..he won the race!!!!!! the bloody look of suprise on that ducks face is embedded in my memory-who says duckshootin aint fun!! Im still giggling.

now to get serious
In the latter stages we had a mob of about 20 or so Teal literally bombard us.-their flight antic would have made the former RNZAF Kiwi Red skyhawk aerobatic team sit up and look,for a lot of approaches to our decoys Im bloody sure were borrowed from them!
we had mob approaches -flights of three ,flights of four and one very very quick but precise acrobatic pair all coming in NNE but flaring at the edge of the decoy line. this display went on for over 30min. those two birds were breath taking .theyd climb way above the rest and hurtle down literally 2'above the water heading at us full tilt then flaring away
my question -Is this typical Teal behaviour in stormy southerly weather?.A lot of these wee buggers on acheiving some height were despite their best efforts literally standing still in the teeth of the southerly.
for a bird so small flying in shitty weather Im totally in awe of them .
can anyone give me some clues to this behaviour??-does weather change stimulate their energy levels -are they agitated??
what i will say is its similar to behaviours one (in our game) sees in persons with severe mood elevation-relentless activity -no rest constantly driven -no apparent sense or purpose to the activity.
I await your answers .
would i do today again
yep in a heartbeat-a day out with a good mates ,amazing scenery ,and wild fowl -Ya cant beat it!

my question is...why did they flare and not commit to landing??? we had black teal/scaup land and swin amoung our decoys a couple or three times opening weekend. they did a fly by with spoonie in tow,who got two barrel salute and kept going...shouldve been a 7 barrel salute but the others were being ID cautious...

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

my question is...why did they flare and not commit to landing??? we had black teal/scaup land and swin amoung our decoys a couple or three times opening weekend. they did a fly by with spoonie in tow,who got two barrel salute and kept going...shouldve been a 7 barrel salute but the others were being ID cautious...

got me buggered too mickey .years ago also at ellesmere i had(and again this is 100%true)a mob of teal land amongst my decoys and one stroppy wee bugga decide to do a review of the fleet!(maybe a reincarnation of the Queen mother)FFS I couldnt believe my eyes when the bloody thing climbed on one of my goose floaters and gave it a ream out .ever pissed yaself in waders!!Again the memory reduces my to fits of laughter -the buggers knee high to a grasshopper but game as Ned Kelly.
This to me is something people overlook today too busy running around "doing our thing"aka living up to other bastards expectations rather than taking timelike we do to gfo do a little harvesting but also enjoy ma natures free and eternal comedy act!
I can wake up feeling like hell on wheels-go out for a day on ducks and i inevitably return laughing my tits off -its either something Ive seen or done or even better where the ducks put one over me!

Never seen so many teal where.i Shoot as this opening morning,gong to target the geese tomorrow with a bunch of decoys and the camo boat with new motor setup,loookin forward to it just need a good wind to kick in.

Went out this morning and got nothing. Went out tonight and got a a dozen. All mallards. Go figure

Just out there doing it again.Two pooks early in the day but nothing tonight.

I DO love the simplicity of your decoy set up.....guess if it works why bother changing it......you COULD try a V of #8 wire about 2 metres long so dekes would be in a triangle....or not LOL.

me Id pinch that lab in a heartbeat !every photo makes me want another dog like my late great mate JJ-exquisite bloodline "by Roaming Catholic x Opportunity with a touch of D8 dozer thrown In"

He loved water and GSPF! because hed never been trained to rettrieve whereas GSPFs mighty Elvis and Red had I never had him on hand if we were shooting .feeding maimais laying dekes etc he loved comin out to the lake .


He also had a penchant for sneakin outta my workshop qwith the largest lump of timber hed find in his moosh-"oops fuck it dont fit through the door was often the look i got before hed bugger off to destroy yet another coke bottle.

A friend of mine who had some dog experience reckoned he had retriever/xhuntaway blood lines -possibly even a bit of german shepherd somewhere in the mix!

the couple of times He did lock horns with sons staffy "Munter" were truly bloody scary .I broke a hammer handle as i tried to get him off and also my big toe on his rib cage but it took sons mate whose a proverbial man mountain to choke the staffy to release his grip.
alas i lost him to the big CA at 10yrs old
and "mr muntowsky"
the staffy and me -we's da boys these days .which alas i feel aint gonna go much longer,.

seriously guys -if anyone out there has a lab or lab x wanting a good home Let us know we are in the market GSPF especially -his forte is training gundogs and we need one now!

Today's effort bloody piss poor but still good fun