Just to keep you guys focused!

[Paul "from NZ" Stenning]

Getting to that time when all you northern hemishere hunters start getting all worked up, so here is a little reminder what it is all about! A pic of this mornings hunt, We had great fun...a few laughs.. a few missed shots...some great decoying to my GHG decoys....some good retrieves by the dogs and the 20 odd mallards we shot were just a bonus.

http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/53/flaxpond006fy9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Stay focused guys... your Avery products will arrive and you will have a great time using them!

[David Rearick]

Nice. Can't wait for our season to start!

[Kevin Carter]

Thanks for the pic Paul, I'm ready for our season to roll around.

[iawaterfowler88]

nice work paul! My question is that Ive noticed that your mallard drakes that you have been killing all have brown on their head...does your mallards over there ever come into full color like they do over here?

[Paul "from NZ" Stenning]

Good observation there Christian

Our Mallards have crossed with the native grey duck (like your black) so most appear to be Mallards but are actually hybrids. The hens are also slighty different in color to your Mallards with ours generally being darker in color with blue/green beaks. Hunters in NZ use 4 hen decoys to every drake decoy because of the hybrid colors of our drakes.

[Daryl Neal]

Once again nice pictures...you have definitely had a great season.

[grmaphia]

I am sooooooo jealous!!

Nice job!

[Rusty Hallock]

Paul,



Very nice.

[HeatherReddemann]

Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Wayne Radcliffe]

Paul, Are your Native Grey Ducks in trouble with this cross breeding?

[Curt Wilson]

Nice pictures Paul. That is an unusual set up with hens 4 to 1 over the drakes in the spread. Some guys do that during the earliest seasons here, but it is because most of the drakes don't have all of their color yet. Thanks for the pictures; they always keep us pumped up for the season to start here.

[Paul "from NZ" Stenning]

Our native grey is under greater threat from land development than from cross breeding with Mallards. The grey has not adapted at all to the changes in land use that we have had In NZ over the last century. The Mallard has really been a savour as it does extremly well in NZ.

[Greg Duley]

Paul is right when he states there is interbreeding between the native greys and mallards. The effect on the coloration of our mallards varies depending what part of the country you're in. Some areas that had a large grey duck population to start with show hybrids now with more mixed coloration. Other areas, as in Hawkes Bay for example, where the mallard took over very quickly from a low grey duck population, show more typical mallard coloration. They prefer different habitats, and regions like the West Coast of the South Island with large, remote and geographically seperated areas are a grey duck stronghold.
The grey duck will eventually be bred to extinction in NZ by the mallard, which is good or bad depending on what camp you're in. From most hunters perspective, mallards are the better gamebird, so don't sweat it. There are still multitudes of grey duck in Australia where there are no mallards to interbreed with to keep the conservationists happy. Fish&Game NZ which is the organisation that manages waterfowl and waterfowl hunting (of which both Paul and I are councillors), plays down this issue as there's nothing practical that could be done, so we let sleeping dogs lie and don't stir up the anti's.
Below are some mallard photos, the live drake on a log I took this morning while scouting for geese ( I found a few too, looks good for tomorrow! see photo, behind cattle)
The mallard bag shows coloration typical for our area, and I'd have thought similar in the most part to your North American birds? The hen on the extreme left has an orange beak, unfortunately out of frame. As Paul says, some hens will have blue/green beaks, percentage will depend on your area.

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h222/GregDuley/Mallards/IMG_8864.jpg

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h222/GregDuley/Mallards/IMG_1432.jpg

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h222/GregDuley/Mallards/IMG_1434.jpg

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h222/GregDuley/Mallards/IMG_4174.jpg

[Paul "from NZ" Stenning]

Greg
Looks good for you for the morning! How far will they be staging from?

[Craig Boyd]

Awesome pic man! Can't wait until the season arrives!

[Greg Duley]

Greg
Looks good for you for the morning! How far will they be staging from?
About 3/4 of a mile, maybe a bit more. Hopefully the N/W will turn up so they won't hear the shooting.

[Paul "from NZ" Stenning]

Greg
Hope you get that wind! Look forward to seeing the pics of the hunt!
We have wind forcast for Sunday and I had intended to hunt ducks as it is the last day, but with no moon I might just have to do a goose hunt...we will see???

[Josh Carda]

awesome man cant wait for goose season

[Cory Johnson]

Kool Pics! Thats alot of geese!

[Christian Curtis]

It won't be long now and we'll get to post some pics!!!

[iawaterfowler88]

Greg- Thanks for the indepth! That mallard on top definitely looks like our mallards here. Just always noticed that your greenheads always seemed to have more brown on their heads than ours do during the late season. Looks like you guys are gonna Wack em' in the morning for sure! Good luck and make sure you post pics!

Paul- Thats pretty cool. Personally I'd love (as well as most of the guys here) to have the oppertunity to shoot in NZ. But being realistic, I know I probably will never get that oppertunity. During our early season we use mostly all mallard hens, with teal decoys, and the GHG hen Pintails to add even more brown because the pintail drakes really dont have much color yet (this yeah I'll have to use a few more drakes because I wont have the #'s of deks available to me up at college). As the season moves into regular season though our drake numbers start going up, and eventually we phase the teal out of the spread. I might not this year though because its a doz more bodies on the water, and I'm not going to have a ton of decoys in college with me...but there will be times that we will run only 2 doz tops. 1 Doz GHG Mallards, 1/2 Doz pintails, and 1/2 doz gaddies we have killed tons of ducks over a spread like this while guys with 4-6 doz out wont kill a bird. Also I'll be running a 1/2 doz FB mallards this year. Good luck with the rest of your season man!

[Stephen Pitt]

Great hunt.

[Chris Smith]

Nice pics... Come on September!

[Nick James]

Thats like holding a slice of pizza in front of me and not letting me eat it!
Not a word Rambo, not a word! lol


Getting to that time when all you northern hemishere hunters start getting all worked up, so here is a little reminder what it is all about! A pic of this mornings hunt, We had great fun...a few laughs.. a few missed shots...some great decoying to my GHG decoys....some good retrieves by the dogs and the 20 odd mallards we shot were just a bonus.

http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/53/flaxpond006fy9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Stay focused guys... your Avery products will arrive and you will have a great time using them!

[John Traiforos]

Right on buddy, you're definitely keeping us fired up for the season start up!!!

[Stephen Schwartz]

Great pics!! Cool info about the hybrids too!!!


Definitely look likeyou got your spot for the morning hunt pegged.....

[Sean Evans]

Very Nice!!

[DARRYL DUNN]

The juices are flowing !!

Nice picture Paul.

[Hunter Johnson]

Paul, looks like a great hunt! Man, you making us suffer!! Here in the Mississippi Flyway we are fighting the heat and mosquitos! Lets all be sure to send Paul some pics in Dec or Jan.

Hunter Johnson
Avery Pro-Staff

[Jeremy Kriese]

Awsome pics! You are makeing me go insane waiting for our season to open!

[James Staten]

O.k. I am over jealous its hot and muggy here in Ar, and looks like you are putting it on em. Great pics only thing make em better is if all of us here in the states were there helping you get em. Wont be long now. First Sep teal, then Oct geese then Nov bring it on!!

River Reaper

[Shane Zavodnik]

Paul and Greg,
awsome pics and thanks for sharing!! Early goos eis just around the corner and i can't wait!!

[chad belding]

Paul, you need to stop doing this man! I am chomping at the bit to get in the blind. Do you have any Avery hats or skull caps? If not, let us know so we can ship some over to you for your upcoming hunts and photos. Keep up the great work and we are happy to have you on Team Avery.

Good Hunting!

Chad Belding
Avery Outdoors