Plenty of waterfowl sat on Lake Tuakitoto, Kaitangata for the first day of the New Zealand waterfowl shooting season on Saturday.
The cool, windy weather with scattered rain seemed ideal for ducks, despite the regular crescendoes of shotgun fire. PHOTOS: NICK BROOK
After watching from his ute for a while and listening for other shooters, Wayne Lee, of Milton, sets off in waders through thigh-deep swamp to find his own ambush spot on the edge of Lake Tuakitoto, Kaitangata, about 10am yesterday.
Dunedin builder Gary Durham sets out with tools and timber for the mai mai he and his people have used on Lake Tuakitoto, Kaitangata for about eight years. By 10am Saturday, the Clutha-born and bred shooter had a bag of about a dozen fat paradise ducks, and said he had discovered through trial, error and research that an important element to camouflage was to avoid blue, which was the most vivid colour ducks could see.
Dunedin electrical apprentice Hamish Wilson, 19, returns to family and friends at the Bonney’s mai mai after boating back to Tuakitoto lakeside, Kaitangata for supplies. "When you grow up duck-hunting you learn how to identify the birds by the way they fly as well as look. If all you can see is a black silhouette and it’s hard to tell, you just hold your fire," he said.
