SHOOTING SEASON

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 May 1939, Page 4

SHOOTING SEASON

POOR OPENING RECORDED IN WAIRARAPA DUCKS BECOMING SCARCER. FEEDING GROUNDS BEING DRAINED. The opening of the shooting season on Wairarapa Lake on Saturday proved a very poor one. In the first place the conditions were not favourable, as the fine, still morning induced ducks to fly high. Although black swans were numerous, on the other hand ducks were scarce. “The next generation won’t know what a duck is,” said one sportsman of many years’ experience, when referring this morning to the fact that ducks were scarcer than ever. “There should be a close season for them,” he said. “The draining of swamps has destroyed their feeding grounds. Lagoons that formerly were frequented by ducks and swans have now been pumped dry.” He said he had never known ducks to be as scarce as they were this season. In the two opening days, in the Pirinoa district, where it is usual for limit bags to be secured, four guns accounted for five swans and one duck, while another two guns secured four swans and a single duck. A party of three, in a particularly favourable locality, fared better with a bag of 24 ducks and 15'swans, but, as a member of the party said, it was hard graft to secure that number. He had never seen the birds decoy so badly. One of his party never got a single duck down to his decoys and all the birds that he obtained were shot on the wing as they passed overhead. On the Western Lake side a somewhat siniilar state of affairs existed. A party of three was rewarded with two ducks and three swans, while another shooter returned with a solitary swan. Yesterday morning an interval of from 20 to 30 minutes was noticeable between the shots fired, a good indication of the scarcity of game.

Not many pukeko were shot in the Wairarapa Lake district. One party secured three or four, but as there was ample cover they proved rather difficult to shoot. Referring to the letter of a correspondent in the “Times-Age,” appealing to sportsmen to refrain from shooting young birds, a Masterton sportsman stated that he did not think any real sportsman would shoot young ducks or swans. For one thing, he said, young ducks took refuge in the thick raupo and other growth, while all sportsmen knew that it was no use shooting young swans, as there was nothing on them.