SEND IN YOUR HUNTING TALLY SO PARKS AND WILDLIFE CAN PLAN FOR NEXT YEAR

It has been a few weeks now since the NT Waterfowl hunting season closed.

Before your memory of those great mornings in the swamp start to fade, you should put down your bird tallies and send the results to NT Parks and Wildlife.

This hunter survey of the 2016 harvest is crucial when the scientist deliberates on the duration and bag limits to be imposed on the 2017 hunting season.

Parks, in conjunction with NT Field and Game, will hopefully again be the eye in the sky doing aerial surveys of the breeding conditions to estimate the potential population and abundance of magpie geese.

The Wet season has given me plenty to be optimistic about, with great rainfall figures from November through to date.

The survey can be done on the form provided with your waterfowl hunting permit or, for the tech savvy, on the NT Hunting Mate mobile phone app.

This is revolutionary and will appeal to the younger hunters. No need to write it all down, find an envelope and stamp, and trudge off to the post office. Let your fingers do the walking and phone in your hunting results.

Remember to keep the data as accurate as you can and don’t embellish upon your hunting skills.

Even if you didn’t hunt or score a bird after getting your permit, please still send your non result in. It is extremely valuable in flattening the figures when they are extrapolated.

If you have lost the form, a replacement can be found at the NT Parks and Wildlife Commission website.

If your hunting consisted of pest control with NT Field and Game do not include those birds. They are counted under a different system and the farmers supply that data to Parks and Wildlife.

We don’t want to double up on those figures.

Sporting clay target practice is back on Fridays at the NT Field and Game range, Micket Creek Shooting Complex, Brandt Rd, Knuckey Lagoon.

There are now two grounds with the token system in operation.

The ranges will be open from 3pm on Fridays for those who plan ahead and prepurchase ammo and tokens.

The sales desk normally opens at 5pm. The next competition is a 50-target event starting at 8am on Sunday, February 19.