When anticipation turns to excitement!

We were all ready in our blinds waiting for the sun to rise. We hoped that it would bring with it flights of geese, and it did...they were just all heading to the crop fields! After some great bags all ready this year, where everything went right, it was time to really hunt some birds! We had the flag working over time, and Dave and I really worked the callers hard on any birds that were close enough to hear it..and even on some that weren't, in that forlorn hope to swing birds off their natural flight path, and to stop following all their friends to the fields of crop.

We did manage to bring a few around after what felt like years on the callers. Every goose hunter knows how hard it is to turn birds away from where they want to go, but none the less, we were on the board, it wasn't easy, and it was great really working the birds into the spread. More importantly, it was Dan's first goose with me, so all in all, we were all pretty happy.

We got a lot happier when Mr Farmer came down to see us as we were packing up.


"I've heard from my neighbour, your good to go, he says to go hammer 'em".

We passed on our thanks, cleaned our birds, loaded the trailer, and we were gone. We knew the birds fed there in both the mornings and evenings, so we wanted to be set up well before they arrived that afternoon. With a dust cloud trailing fast behind us, we headed back east.

As always seems to be the case, no matter how early you set up for an afternoon hunt, one goose (if your lucky) always arrives early! we missed the one, but we were set up in plenty of time to get the mob of 7 that came in minutes later. With the majority of the early risers on the deck, we then had a wait of about an hour, before we reckoned the fun would start.

Two hours later, and the birds were late! We were kept entertained by good flights of Paradise Shelduck, but where were the geese?! We had watched them the evening before, and normally you can set your watch by them. Not today. We needn't have worried. It wasn't long before we had geese coming in from all directions, we didn't know where to look. A good number of birds were roosting quite close to us, and the shooting put them off, but thankfully, either they came back, or birds came in off another roost to give us a great evening shoot on the stubble.

Dave, Dan and Paul with a great mixed bag on the stubble

A day of anticipation

We were on a huge buzz.
The previous days hunt on Canada geese was one for the books, and now we were heading from the coastline of Canterbury, to the Canterbury High Country. Along for the trip were Dave and Paul from the previous day, and coming along on his first hunt with me, Dan, and old mate from Rugby.

Heading to the new farm is a journey, in every sense of the word.

Passing through flat fields, before the rolling foot hills, following raging braided rivers, before arriving in the Canterbury High Country - home to Himalayan Tahr, Chamoi, Red Deer and...Game Birds . Today, no rifles were packed in, but we had a trailer loaded with blinds, Goose and Parrie decoys, and a tonne of food - who new how long we were going to be up here! its such a huge place, who knows what you can find? It was time to start looking!

Before we had even arrived at the farm we were to shoot, we passed a field of crops on a neighbouring property that just screamed GEESE. I sat up in my seat a little stranger and asked Paul to stop. I scanned the paddock for birds...nothing. Jumping back in, we were almost passed the last of the crop paddocks when we glanced right and saw a paddock full of geese!

The small mob at the top of the valley

I quickly doubled back to the farm house and found no one home. I left a note, left a message, sent an email, I did everything but dispatch a carrier pigeon to find them, and if I had one I would have. Leaving that hunt to work itself out, we headed further into the hills. Arriving right on time, we did a quick scout,  but after seeing a good number of birds further down the valley, we weren't expecting to see much up here. Sure enough, we did find geese, by but Mr farmer told me they had "dropped in numbers" just the last day or two".

I told him what we had found down the valley, and he agreed to try and track his neighbours down for us while we had a go at what remained on his place. After that, we set the decoys up ready for a morning hunt, then went to our favourite scouting spot, had a cold beer and thought about the mornings hunt, and if we would be lucky enough to gain access to the other farm while we were there.

Possibly the best place to scout birds from...anywhere in the world. Paul, Dan, Myself and Dave enjoying a cold beer after a day on the road, and behind the binoculars and spotting scope

The Value of scouting.

I love February

It's my birthday month, which now that I'm turning 30, actually means I hate that aspect of it, but what I really love about it is that it's time to oil the Beretta, get the decoys out of the container, grass the layout blind, and hit the game birds!

This years first hunt turned out to be an absolute cracker. Luckily, Paul and I had been keeping an eye on some fields that had produced great numbers of geese for us in the past, and sure enough, things were looking good again this year. Large numbers of honkers were present, all feeding happily and being right at the start of the season, the juvenile birds were as silly as they were going to get. The farmer was more than happy for us to have a crack and he agreed to leave them undisturbed prior to our hunt. The last thing a good goose hunt needs is weary birds that have been shot at, chased by cars and dogs, or otherwise disturbed prior to the hunt.

Relentless scouting for birds pre-season is worth every second

Looking at the forecast, we picked a day that would give us the best chance at success, with a stiff wind forecast, then started the waiting game - would the geese still be there when the weather came good? Its the goose hunters dilemma, but after years hunting them its always a risk worth taking.

I jumped on the phone to James, a great mate of mine who lives in the North Island. He knows there is only one reason I would be calling him at this time of year - those magic words "I've got a few days hunting coming up, are you in?". He was on a plane 3 hours later.

Just after getting off the phone to James, Carl called. He had been keeping an eye on another of my property's, and he had seen enough that morning, to warrant giving the farmer a call. Access Granted.
No one was happier that James had booked an early flight, than James, as while the weather that day wasn't great for geese, it was perfect for the ducks!

Carl, Paul and I spend the next few hours shuffling decoys and gear around Canterbury, as it was going to be impossible to move all the gear needed for two hunts, against two different species of birds, in two locations, over two days, all at once. Goose decoys were taken by the trailer load down to the fields in preparation for the day after, then it was off to the airport to pick up James.

Reconnaissance, was now turning to hunting.

Unusually for ducks, the female paradise shelduck (Native to New Zealand) is more eye-catching than the male; females have a pure white head and chestnut-coloured body, while males have a dark grey body and black head.