The Paradise Duck

I'm going to stick to my usual 'facts and information' format rather than a 'how to hunt' series as I'm sure Paul Stenning, Hunter Morrow and others are able to enlighten everyone on the ins and outs of hunting birds a lot better than I can.

"Just go and sit in those rushes on the edge of that open area, keep still and wait. Something will come over just before dark. I’ll go downstream a few hundred metres and park up there."

These were the instructions from my good mate Aaron. We were out on a casual after-work hunt for ducks with the shotguns one evening and he was referring to a section of willow-lined, spring-fed stream that flowed down through scrubby riverbed country of the Wairau Valley in Marlborough.

Time ticked by very slowly from my hidden nook amongst the rushes. All was quiet in the skies,