Fish & Game officers will count shovelers on as many as 260 sites around the country, mostly lowland lakes or wetlands the birds are known to frequent.
Banding has shown the birds are highly mobile and travel large distances. Birds originally banded near Invercargill some years ago were harvested all over the country, with one as far north as Kaitaia.
"Last year we counted more than 14,000 shoveler," Mr McDougall says, "the most at Lake Poukawa in Hawke's Bay where there's of the order of 3000 birds."
Fish & Game Officers around the country use pretty simple counting methods, going out in vehicles or even in boats and kayaks armed with binoculars to spot the birds.
"Shovelers like shallow ponds where there are lots of invertebrates to feed on, using their shovel-like bills to sift the aquatic insects from the water."
Mr Mc Dougall says that most Fish & Game regions have a daily bag limit of two or three birds per hunter and while they are plentiful in some areas, most hunters never get near their limit.
In the South Island, shoveler are a common sight in the Central South Island's coastal wetlands but they are also found in the Mackenzie Basin high country.
Field Officer Rhys Adams says Fish & Game monitoring shows that historically, shoveler populations are healthy and stable, so that the daily bag limit in the region of two birds per hunter per day is sustainable.
They are mainly harvested by the hunters who hunt in the coastal areas but shoveler move around and can pop up at any pond, he says.
He says the birds make up only a minor part of the annual game bird harvest.
"But they are highly prized because they are attractive, taste great and can be hard to hunt with the sometimes erratic way they fly."
The shoveler is a native but not endemic to New Zealand.
