Thread: Game bird diary for all

8 ducks today but frosty and foggy. Appears many less ducks this opening, zero geese seen but parries ok. Another frost and more fog tomorrow so we'll see. Thor did a retrieve of a double this arfo. Wish I had the camera as he swum back woth both mallards in his mouth. Nice one Thor

Probably only 10% of the ducks we'd normally see in the sky over Northern Southland. 22 mallards for the pond but that's well down on previous years.

Quiet opening for us today here in Eastern. We both got our 6 bird limits, but took most of the day. Normally limit out by 8:30. On a positive note, there was plenty of time to talk bullshit, and cook a mean feed. Going to go out most days next week, so should pick up a few good feeds.

Three guns on small pond. Finished day with ten mallards,one greylard and one parries.old dog is shattered and young dog happy. We lost 3birds in long grass n old dead horse.no matter how hard we all looked just can't locate them,will have burrowed in under something n putting out no scent for dogs. Happy day all around in great company.it was an absolute pleasure to introduce someone else to the sport.

Blanked today no birds came into the pond AM or PM,full sun all day no cloud or wind. Seen some trippy shit at dark and they weren"t satelites chasing each other,dunnno what the stars in the sky were doing but it looked like they were playing tag?
Saved the beersies till I got home and had a witness with me so i was not off my rocket.lol

Yep as soon as that fog lifted in meremere it was game over till later that evening

Six mallards come in this morning.bri in law gave them two barrel salute for zero result. I swung onto departing Greenhead and dropped him neatly out in the grass.

Shooting in the same spot I first went with my dad 63 yrs ago.....(Kaipara Harbour north of Helensville )
Had my 8 limit by 7.55am.....and 1 unlucky Canada goose that came too close.....then practiced calling for the rest of the day.....Must have called in over 60 birds. At one stage I had 18 on the mud in the decoys.
This morning I had my limit by 7.40am......

Got the go ahead to shoot on a swamp we've shot before but never opening. set up 2 blinds.
Had 7 guns. Blind A saw all the action on opening morning, Blind B managed to score 2 and got to watch all the ducks dive straight into blind A. It was entertaining though as most of the ducks got away.

Went to town for brunch and back to the swamp for the evening flight, down to 4 guns so blind B was retired and I finally got to do some shooting.

Returned this morning and had a few more come in. I left my gun empty and concentrated on the caller and the dog for most of it.

We collected around 35 - 40 birds over the 2 days. Young fella's got to shoot some, couple of novice shooters got a couple in the end and even the grumpy old buggers that set it all up were allowed to shoot a couple in the end.

Interesting how the younguns claim every bird they point at, and the grumpy's say 'well shot young fella' as they quietly slip another round into the mag.

Another frost and even heavier fog this morning, like till midday ffs! Anyway I decided to do a lot of calling blind and it worked somewhat. Finished the day with 4 mallard and 4 parries. Over the two days 16 in the bag and 3 lost. One mob of geese came over high, heading nth but I called them and 5 .inutes later they were high but in view. I was able to call them in but they flew a little high on the approach then virtually dive bombed into the goose decoys in back of pond, just out of ideal range so I didnt shoot . I then let dog go hoping he would circle fat enough back behid them in the carex . He did well but cut into them a little short and they flushed out to the side still out of range. Hope they come back in a few days time. Pretty quiet compared to previous years but count myself fortunate to still be able enough to do it. The cover in and around is heavy flooded carex and crack willow so ery hard for dog to get 100%. The lost 3 were winged but he's averaging 85% which is not too bad. Gave him a massage tonight and he's enjoying the fire wrapped in a swanny My 85 year old beretta with bismuth #4 does ok averaging 3-4 shots expended per bird. Misses are my fault, not the gun ha ha. Fog made for difficult snap shooting and my reaction times are not what they used to at 78. Eyeballs not so hot either

First time blanked on opening weekend. Dog loved watching the sky.

Bit of a dry opening weekend here in Manawatu. Was a bluebird with day not a cloud or breeze and hardly any ducks in my particular corner. I ended up spending the day repairing a dam which had been leaking and was dry as a bone this year. Kids shot a few plastic bottles and the most I saw were the 2 mallards we spooked and missed and the 2 parries which flew past close enough to almost whack them with the spade that I was using to back fill the dam. The shotgun was only 10ish meters away too

Good opening weekend in Otago on a back water off the Clutha, got our 2 man limit of mallards by 11:30 on Saturday and managed another 43 by lunch on Sunday. Calls got a workout but the birds responded well.