New horizons

Left pretty early Saturday morning to head down to Craig's place - mission to get out in a west coast harbour and have a look for ducks or geese. When I arrived, we decided to head out the door for a pheasant first, so we grabbed Max the dog and headed off. On the way we ran into Craig's dad who had seen 3 roosters earlier, so we took his directions and soon had parked and were working a bushy ledge over a deep basin. The weather was pretty bleak, a cold sou wester with intermittent rain. Max wasn't really into it but eventually put out a bird which Craig took nicely. Round about here I should say that I didn't really come prepared for pheasants; so was walking around with my Xtrema and Hevi Metal waterfowl rounds. We worked a couple of gulleys before heading back to the car. On the way, a pair of paradise ducks came in over a ridge. I led the first bird and pulled; both fell from the sky.... hello, I had quite forgotten that for steel shot I'd left the improved cylinder in. Max retrieved the birds and we hung them in the shade. We worked the other side of the farm, missing a few, getting a few and by lunchtime had returned with 2 more cock birds in the bag. Our morning's bag also included a large hare that Craig shot. I snapped a few pictures and then we headed back to the house for lunch and to prepare for the sea ducks.

Ring necks and a male and female paradise duck (female has white head)

It was then that Craig admitted having shot a 'white pheasant'- tradition demands that this costs the shooter a bottle of Scotch to be given to the keeper, however as Craig raises our birds he'd be drinking to himself!

White wings







Busted, Craig!



White tail feathers

We prepared ourselves with warm gear and set off for Kawhia harbour. Personally I'd never been there before and my god, what an amazing place. I was quickly glad for having brought the fish finder, as the harbour is a maze of sand banks and channels and after a while made for an island and landed to see if we could find signs of waterfowl. Craig 'discovered' a low marsh with a channel and a basin of rush, it looked extremely ducky, but no birds were home. We snuck up and jumped some swan but didn't shoot, then sat on the beach and glassed but nope, still no signs of birds. Sitting out there on new territory felt damn good - I enjoy finding new places.

We wandered back to the boat which was sitting just off a sand bank - the tide was receding rapidly and getting stranded wouldn't be a happy experience. We motored down a long bank towards the harbour entrance then turned up another channel and came alongside a long sand bank covered in bird life. I set the decoys then put up the blind and sat and watched.

Hundreds of Oyster catchers got up and flew. We saw Royal Spoonbills, gannets, and a myriad of other species but nary a duck. Being quite a large harbour, I suspect that its going to take quite some exploring to find the ducks & geese... best get started!

We arrived back well after dark, cold and a bit wet and went across to his brother Mike's place for a meal of venison and spuds - good stuff after a long day's hunting.

This has been a primo season.