The final week

Opening seems like yesterday... and once again our A/W season has come to an end. I needed to visit our ponds one last time and so made my way in holiday traffic down. The trip takes 90 minutes normally but was well over 2 hours this time. I met Andy who had his boat on the back of his truck... Andy had run into a real cock who decided to park his truck in the turnaround area at the boat ramp. Guys who do this normally come back to find their car well mudded, but this guy had parked beside his son Mr Cock Jr [also parked stupidly] and in the process had ground his wagon down the side of his boy's... so maybe there is some divine justice.  

We arrived at the hut where dad and Larry were ensconced and sat down in front of a nice warm fire, and it was good to be home again. 

We awoke at 5.15 and Andy and I sorted coffee and breakfast, then we got out to the ponds. I had only the morning to hunt, before needing to head home. With enough hunters around to keep the birds moving, Andy and I had a good little shoot. It wasn't perfect by any means; I had a misfire with a spoonie drake in the sights - he was flying with 2 hens, one of which Andy knocked down, and we missed a few but I was happy with my bag of 5 mallards, especially as the final bird, a big beautiful drake who decided to do a slow fly-by, carried a band. *Bling*.

Camera got fogged, made the shots more interesting






A fogged camera can't explain this though... 



*Bling*




The drive home was uneventful, except that the next morning's goose hunt had been called off due to lack of birds in attendance. That gave me the opportunity of a sleep-in, before  heading up to Northland for a duck hunt. We gathered at the pond 2pm and set the decoys. The first bird visited before we were ready and soon we were on the board. The gaps between birds were filled with excellent jokes [mine], funny stories [also mine] and soon I was threatened with eviction. We also ate a quarter full ice-cream tub of goose jerky... yummmmmm







The wind was making it difficult for the birds to take their normal approach and so many flared out before committing; even so the shooting was pretty good from the lads. We called it when it got dark and then released the hounds for the pick-up before retiring to a barbecue of duck sausages,  and a few coldies.



So with that, another duck season has swiftly passed in our region. we still have another month in Northland, so hopefully a fee more hunts can be undertaken before June ends.