Media release from North Canterbury Fish & Game

Good numbers for paradise shelduck season

For those keen to get out for a hunt before the main open season, paradise shelduck may be hunted from now until the 23rd of March in the western part of the North Canterbury Region.

Fish & Game Officer Dirk Barr said the season is looking like it will be a good one with excellent numbers of birds recorded in aerial counts in late January.

During these counts Mr Barr observed a dramatic increase on last seasons tally: 18,240 paradise shelduck in the region, up from 11,456 in 2013. The increase is likely to be related to favourable climatic conditions and receding lake levels at Ellesmere during moulting. This provided good habitat for brooding.

Although the majority of the population was located on Lake Ellesmere (Te Waihora), which is still closed until the 4th of May, good numbers were seen in the western area known as Area B (everything west of SH1 from the Rakaia River in the south to Woodend Beach Road in the North).

This paradise shelduck season closes on the 23rd of March but reopens on the 4th of May 2014. The daily bag limit is 20 birds.

ENDS

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