Thread: Game bird diary for all

Originally Posted by kotuku

heading out on the prowl to lake ellesmere shortly .forecast is for a shagnasty wee southerly mid morning and from our obs in the proposed area those feathered buggers get on the wing very quickly,often in large mobs.
mates boat motor is fixed so this could be a little ripper trip.

Oke dokey ive returned to the keyboard after sorting wee gear for miles -draped over my late dads trailer makes garage look like a shanghai laundry.
bloody great outing -no ducks but ive fired 4 shots(PPs ...P.poor shooting !!)
settled into mai mai around 0945 -quite a few shots going off around ellesemere with occasional flights of ducks well out of range overhead.
about30min later Ilooked south and wow weird ..Acloud formation like a tube of wool was headed our way.sure enough the wind got up ,but this bloody thing swung through 90'and headed for the port hills!we we both gobsmacked at natures display!
In the 15=yrs ive visted that lake i have never ever seen a cloud formation like this.
shortly after ans with sights and sounds of other shooters heading home -the southerly introduced herself !!!!!!!!
Oh Boy-from ripples to 2' waves decoys being dragged away by wind of 20kmh or more ,and heels bells "we wanna feel like flyin"
at one point we had teal bombarding us from all points of the compass.
heres the highlight of my day _its bloody true i kid you not .
mate was out stopping decoys going AWOL-me on sentry ;thinks poor bugger a brews called for -after watching a mob of mallards zoom over him (but out of range)I set to
make me cuupa T put it on maimai ledge ,start making R a strong coffee....hold onwhats that
SPIN around an bugger me about 15m away at eye level is one bloody cheeky mallard drake ..heading for me cuppa i reckon
Oh fuck me no you dont
I scramble for the baikal ,he cut in all afterburners in a vertical climb which should have had his beak poking out his arsre and ..he won the race!!!!!! the bloody look of suprise on that ducks face is embedded in my memory-who says duckshootin aint fun!! Im still giggling.

now to get serious
In the latter stages we had a mob of about 20 or so Teal literally bombard us.-their flight antic would have made the former RNZAF Kiwi Red skyhawk aerobatic team sit up and look,for a lot of approaches to our decoys Im bloody sure were borrowed from them!
we had mob approaches -flights of three ,flights of four and one very very quick but precise acrobatic pair all coming in NNE but flaring at the edge of the decoy line. this display went on for over 30min. those two birds were breath taking .theyd climb way above the rest and hurtle down literally 2'above the water heading at us full tilt then flaring away
my question -Is this typical Teal behaviour in stormy southerly weather?.A lot of these wee buggers on acheiving some height were despite their best efforts literally standing still in the teeth of the southerly.
for a bird so small flying in shitty weather Im totally in awe of them .
can anyone give me some clues to this behaviour??-does weather change stimulate their energy levels -are they agitated??
what i will say is its similar to behaviours one (in our game) sees in persons with severe mood elevation-relentless activity -no rest constantly driven -no apparent sense or purpose to the activity.
I await your answers .
would i do today again
yep in a heartbeat-a day out with a good mates ,amazing scenery ,and wild fowl -Ya cant beat it!