Fish & Game officers are optimistic about pheasant numbers in its eastern region in the lead up to the game bird hunting season.

This confidence comes after a week spent counting pheasant calls deep in the Kaingaroa Forest.

Officers carried out the counts last month as part of their annual efforts to estimate pheasant populations and monitor any changes.

Fish & Game officer Eben Herbert says at this time of the year male pheasants call frequently, especially in the early morning, to mark their territory.
'We encountered an average of 72 cock pheasants daily over the 28 sites, with this year's surveys showing no significant change from this time last year.

'It indicates pheasants remain moderately abundant in pockets throughout the forest which is popular with hunters.”

He says there is a possibility of extending the monitoring to include what are known as flush counts – where dogs equipped with GPS tracking units are used to flush the birds from the undergrowth.

It's hoped this might help in determining how the ongoing call counts can be related to the pheasant population as a whole.

Eben says Fish & Game officers have also investigated waterfowl populations with brood counts carried out on a series of drains in the region.

He says the aim was to assess the birds' productivity across various drain types and also monitor the success of recent work to improve drain habitat.

The brood counts involve travelling along set routes and counting the various age classes of both the juvenile and adult birds in selected drains around the Bay of Plenty.

Eben says the juvenile counts were about 30 per cent down on last year's figures and 40 per cent below the average worked out from the last four years.

'However, recent reports suggest breeding may've occurred earlier this year – and it's possible that higher numbers of younger birds are actually second clutches.

'If so, and survival of the first clutch is good, we would then expect to see good numbers from this year's banding work undertaken in January and February.”

He says a common observation this year was the high water levels in the drains, and this may be good for general duckling productivity if it stays wet for the next month or so.

'The network of drains on the Bay of Plenty's coastal plains provide some of the most expansive and important waterfowl nesting and rearing habitat in the region.”

It's hoped the results from continuing brood counts will help Fish & Game ensure drains are managed so as to enhance their value for waterfowl, without impairing their normal drainage functions.

'We are also continuing with a planting project to create more overhead cover on drain margins.

'It's hoped that this will reduce the number of juvenile ducks taken by aerial predators such as Australasian Harriers.

'One of the few areas where productivity has remained stable was in a drain which was planted as part of the project earlier this year.”

The game bird hunting season begins on the first Saturday in May.