Duck shooting season to blast off

Gun barrels could be smoking hot and freezers packed with plucked birds after the hunting season begins on Saturday.
Northland Fish and Game regional manager Rudi Hoetjes said a wonderful breeding season had produced better prospects for hunters than last year.
"Rain came at the right time during the summer to maintain growth on crops and pasture, and if the feed's here the birds are here," he said.
Mr Hoetjes said hunters could expect an abundance of ducks on farms where maize silage had been harvested "as birds swoop in for their fill of maize left on the ground". Paradise shelduck populations in Northland had increased slightly since last season, prompting Fish and Game to raise the Northland bag from 20 birds a day last season to 25 a day during May, June and July this year.
"Canada geese and black swan numbers have remained about the same as previous years, but the bags have been adjusted so there's a common daily bag throughout the upper North Island," Mr Hoetjes said.
The daily bag limit for black swan is 15 and for Canada geese it is 20. Mr Hoetjes said a high survival rate of birds through the winter helped produce more pheasant and quail adult breeding birds, and a higher number of chicks had come through into the 2011 game season. He appealed to hunters to contact him if they shot a banded pheasant.
Hunters will have access to more Northland forests this season, but their dogs must have completed a Department of Conservation kiwi aversion course.
Mr Hoetjes said alcohol and firearms didn't mix, and he warned that patrols by police and honorary rangers would check on compliance.
The Northland Fish and Game region extends from a line midway to a point between the North Head and South Head of the Kaipara Harbour, then running due east to a point just North of Wellsford and then a line running northeast to Mangawhai Heads. The area offers a diverse range of hunting opportunities and encompasses 10 different gamebird species. To hunt on any private lands hunters must approach the landowners directly. If shooters wish to hunt on public land they need to get a permit from the Northland Fish and Game Council.
It is an offence to hunt or kill game unless the person who does so holds a current game licence, except in some circumstances where that person is a resident occupier as defined in the Wildlife Act.