SHOOTING SEASON

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 98, 28 April 1939, Page 17

SHOOTING SEASON

NEW OPENING DATE

MANY DUCKS SEEN

SPORT PROMISES WELL

The innovation of starting the shooting season on the first Saturday in May comes in this year, and no doubt many sportsmen who do not read their papers will be caught napping. Under the old opening date, May 1, every seven years the guns began to bang early on Sunday morning, and there was an outcry from many. This is now obviated. Judging by reports from both the Wairarapa and the Manawatu, sport should be good on the opening day.. Ducks particularly are said to be numerous. This may be the effect of the closed season two years ago, j or it may be that the birds have learnt to forsake every place except sanctuaries when the guns cut loose on the first day. Last season they apparently made for the open sea, but that was unusually warm, perfect weather, and the sea was calm. It was said that the water was black with them offshore along the west coast. It may be a premonition on the part of the ducks, but reports from sanctuaries in the Manawatu show that they contained an unusual number of these birds very recently. Hokowhitu arid Awapuni were well covered witn duck. At Tanner's 300 were counted. There were nineteen nests amongst the Japanese irises there last year, and though no shooting is permitted, the birds spread well round the othor lagoons. At Barber's some 400 were counted. At Callensen's at Korere three men counted over 700, grey and mallard, in distinct colonies. Duck were in plenty at Hunia, and in many other spots were seen to be plentiful. Mallard seem to have done particularly well in the district. MALLARD INCREASING. Mallard, says the sportsmen, are not so shy as the grey duck. They do not rise from coy :r as readily, in fact, amongst raupo and similar waterside and marsh cover, they have to be put up with a dog. Grey duck are more nervous and take wing even when in fair cover. It is the opinion of many sportsmen that mallard provide better shooting than grey duck. The fact that they take cover, and sit tight, allows of the best type of shooting, where the working of the dog gives an added pleasure lo the bag. Grey duck are shy of human habitation, but mallard apparently are not so wild in this respect. There is much talk of the mallard inter-breed-ing with grey duck, but it was the opinion of one sportsman that most of the crossbreds seen were more likely from birds kept by farmers amongst their own ducks. ,It was the general opinion that in time, if mallard increased as they are doing, they would seriously compete with grey duck for what feeding grounds are left but, if they ousted grey duck, they would prove well suited to a more closely populated countryside, where the grey duck would not stay. It is said that mallard will not come down to artificial decoys though grey duck will. SPORTSMEN'S "POSSIES." Duck and swan,* were plantiful un Lake Wairarapa a week ago, particularly in the Western Lake, and in the Martinborough district. Annually it is becoming harder for sportsmen who have not secured a grip on some favoured position by the usage of years to get a look in for a mai-mai position. Mai-mais are being built all over the lakes and lagoons of the Manawatu and Wairarapa. Eleven were seen in one locality, and there are others I still to go up. Spots, such as a hill I saddle between lakes, where the birds ■ fly back and forth when the shooting starts, are hard to find, but what there are have all been marked down. There is every indication that the breeding birds produced and liberated by the Wellington Acclimatisation Society, have done very well. In the Manawatu four pheasants were seen in one short motor drive, from the road, and clutches of chickens have been seen in the country from both coasts inland. Another hopeful sign is that anglers in their travels along 1 the rivers have seen more birds than usual. Pheasants were, in fact, seen where none had been known of for many years. QUAIL IN WADESTOWN. Quail, like grey duck, do not like thickly-populated areas, though they have an uncanny knowledge of where they are safe. There is a big covey practically in Wadestown, but its chosen ground is so steep and inaccessible that it is quite impossible to shoot over. It is the backblocks in which the greater number of quail are found as a rule, on flat ground near foothills, but coveys have been seen in many places along the coasts where the country is rough and little visited by man. Hares are said to be very numerous this year, and this is supported by the numbers seen lying on roads where motor-cars have killed them. Seven were seen on one stretch of road north of Sanson. While most sportsmen have been able to secure the ammunition they favour, several nstances are mentioned where they had to take something else, and there is a general complaint of the rising cost of cartridges.