Duck for shooters

Press, 12 May 1981, Page 2

Duck for shooters

“Not \ enough wind, not / enough rain, not enough sleet” was how the secretary of the North Canterbury Acclimatisation Society (Mr B. Webb) yesterday described the first month of the duck shooting season. \ The season started on May 11 and, apart from the open- j ing week-end, the weather 3 has been warm and dry > since. “This is getting to be the J driest and most unusual sea- 5 son for at least 10 years,”/ said Mr Webb. A lack of bad weather has i meant that the duck population has remained settled. “The birds are there,” said Mr Webb. “All it needs is wind and rain to stir them nn.

Most shooters filled their’ bags over the opening weekend when the weather was ideally terrible, but since then bags of two or three had been regarded as good, and many hunters had scored , the proverbial duck. -,.*, y U There were large numbers S of ducks around, but the ? bodies of water which were f, attracting them were few I and far between because of ) the dry weather. P “There bave even' been j large flocks sighted at sea,X . said Mr Webb. In spite of the poor condi- 5 tions there.were as many ) shooters out’this year as in previous seasons. Mr Webb said that there

r ' would not be a duck population problem this winter. The dry breeding season had meant that ducks had raised only one brood of ducklings this year instead of the two or three they had been raising in previous years. “Farmers will probably complain that there are too many but. from our point of view the numbers are about . right,” said Mr Webb.. § The season will end on j June 28 and shooters will be > hoping for some good bad weather before then. W“What we really need is a week of strong south-east winds with rain,” said Mr Webb.