Thread: Game bird diary for all

as nz law stands about private land yes , i dont go along with the private land model personally but thats not a forum conversation . yes , farmers could be paid to be more bird hunter friendly !!

habitat preservation is the key to upland gamebird survival,shelter, food ,water for 12 months of the year, it won't work if its only for 10months. landowners should be given an information pack on the what to do,vegetation plantings etc. a good percentage of owners i think would be interested,subject to cost and labour restraints, after all enhancement does have property value benefits as well as a host of other pluses. this probably has been tried before albeit on a limited scale.what needs to happen is a movement ie.game bird new zealand???? etc.....

So then as Snuffit says above, if we as hunters want or expect more, then we need to be doing more. That may range from providing farmers with the incentive to retain hedges and drains, swampy edges and other marginal areas which could quite legitimately be turned into more productive (for the farmer) land.

A slight tangent, but there was an interesting discussion last weekend at the A/W F&G meeting.....we know that for the last 10-20 years, F&G have rested on the laurels of the predecessor Acclimitisation Societies and contributed very little to the improvement of the gamebird species under their management. Now, with the declining Mallard population, there has been a ground-swell of support for proper research to understand why this has occured and to determine how to halt and ultimately reverse this decline. So we've seen $300K in cash and a further $300K in staff time committed to this research program to be spent over 3 years.

But lets put that $600K in context....in that same time period, F&G would have taken approximately $10M in gamebird licence sales.....in other words, F&G is investing a whopping 6% of their total revenue in an issue which could ultimately see 'Fish & Game' be renamed to 'Fish'...............

Plenty of farmers are retiring land, doing riparian planting, conserving tracts of native bush etc at their expense. Not necessarily to provide gamebird habitat but to protect waterways etc. The agricultural sector may well be making a profit off their land but how else is the burgeoning human population to be fed? Urban sprawl and the pollution that goes with it is as much if not more to blame for reductions in gamebird populations. Sub divisions and lifestyle blocks have chewed into what was once a rich gamebird area around our district for example.

is it a matter of voting out certain members and replacing them with others ??

But why is it always a 'farmer/landower' thing...what of the hundreds of miles of public land along our waterways for which we have F & G access?

Originally Posted by gqhoon

A slight tangent, but there was an interesting discussion last weekend at the A/W F&G meeting.....we know that for the last 10-20 years, F&G have rested on the laurels of the predecessor Acclimitisation Societies and contributed very little to the improvement of the gamebird species under their management. Now, with the declining Mallard population, there has been a ground-swell of support for proper research to understand why this has occured and to determine how to halt and ultimately reverse this decline. So we've seen $300K in cash and a further $300K in staff time committed to this research program to be spent over 3 years.

But lets put that $600K in context....in that same time period, F&G would have taken approximately $10M in gamebird licence sales.....in other words, F&G is investing a whopping 6% of their total revenue in an issue which could ultimately see 'Fish & Game' be renamed to 'Fish'...............

Not to get into details but are we talking about $10m Revenue per annum???
While the reinvestment was $600k over 3 years???
If so, that puts us well below 6%.

Sort of winds me up when you hear these thing, especially when I end up buying a gamebird licence, plus a fresh water fishing licence... What goes for what really???

I've bought a fishing licence every year since old enough and a gamebird licence also. F&G have drunk some coin off me and I have never seen a ranger and the river I fish mainly is not stocked by F&G and the birds I shoot are on private land mainly mallards and parries.

oi, game bird diary you lot, take your politicking and bugger off to a new thread.

Originally Posted by hamstring

oi, game bird diary you lot, take your politicking and bugger off to a new thread.

Might just do that and add to the fishing thread I never mentioned 'polidicks' ticks

Heard this fella crowing away in the back paddock
While dropping the gearbox out of the hiluxury.
Was sick of floundering round under the car so
Grabbed The gun and released a hound .
5mins later bang! Dog on point.
When I get there the rooster jumps 5 metres
Off to the left and deftly put the hedge between
Him and me.
I saw where he pitched In though and the end
Result was another cracking point followed by
One dead pheasant.
It ain't such a bad place to live really.

Hope to have similar luck tomorrow on a Hawkes Bay Rooster or 2

It was a privilege and a pleasure to shoot over Oscar and get his first pheasant.
Seen 2 cock birds and 3 hens.
Been an awesome trip north with an awesome host.

nice, did he go 30 bars?