Duck numbers ‘pretty healthy’ despite cyclone

Fish and Game has finished its summer waterfowl monitoring on the East Coast and the populations of ducks and swans have come through Cyclone Gabrielle better than expected. Up to 2000 ducks were leg-banded as part of the monitoring programme. Gisborne man Hammond Lakisa is pictured extracting a mallard duck from the trap for banding. Picture supplied

Eastern Fish and Game dealt with up to 2000 mallard and grey ducks during their banding and population monitoring programme in Tairāwhiti over summer.

The observations from that process were that waterfowl populations in this region were “reasonably healthy” despite the impact of Cyclone Gabrielle.

The summer monitoring of waterfowl populations on the East Coast has just finished.

As well as the banding programme, during which 1500 to 2000 ducks were handled, Fish and Game staff also did aerial counts of black swan and paradise shelduck over the summer months when the birds congregated to moult their flight feathers.

Senior fish and game officer Matthew McDougall said they had been concerned that Cyclone Gabrielle may have decimated the paradise and black swan populations on the East Coast.

“After Cyclone Bola in 1988 the paradise population plummeted and took a long time to recover.

“Apparently, Cyclone Gabrielle was more intense than Bola, so we were very worried.

“Aerial counts showed the populations were down in places. However, overall, paradise shelduck and black swan seem to have fared remarkably well,” he said.

Staff have been trapping mallard and grey duck in the Eastern Region since 1997.

“The birds are trapped, aged and sexed, and an individually numbered band is attached to their leg,” Mr McDougall said.

“During trapping we recapture previously banded birds, plus when hunters shoot a banded bird and report it, we can assess annual survival.”

Band data is used to estimate population size, assess climate impacts and harvest management, and predict the up-and-coming game bird season population size.

“We have had some pretty interesting recoveries, too, with birds recovered just out of Invercargill and Northland.

But the most interesting were three mallard ducks banded in the Waikato and recovered in New Caledonia.

“An earlier study saw a grey duck fly from Nelson to Adelaide,” he said.

This year, Gisborne Ecoworks staff helped Fish and Game staff with the banding and got some additional experience banding ducks.

“Hunters who haven’t got around to reporting bands can go to the Fish and Game website or alternatively phone 0800 BIRD BAND (0800-247322).”