TIME TO CONSIDER EXTENDING WATERFOWL SEASON TO TASTY PIGEON TUCKER
QUAIL season in South Australia finishes today.
All bird hunting seasons in Australia are closed tomorrow.
Does anyone see an opportunity for the NT and hunting tourism here?
Let’s have a hunting season on Bar Shouldered doves.
There are millions of them in the Top End and they inhabit our available hunting reserves.
The Bar Shouldered Dove, or Pandanus Pigeon as it is also known, has a range that extends from the Kimberley in WA, across the Top End, Gulf of Carpentaria, Cape York down through east/central Queensland and NSW almost to the Victorian border.
These, I suspect, tasty little birds even keep gentlemen’s hours, not flying until 7.30am.
A four week season in August would keep a lot of tourists here after the Festival of Clays and the Darwin Cup and lead up to the opening of the waterfowl hunting season.
It would also allow hunters scouting for magpie goose and duck flight lines at dawn the opportunity to bring home a feed of moorish pigeons for lunch.
A bag limit of 10 per day in my opinion would be sustainable and be enough incentive to get out there among the pandanus palms early in the morning.
It would also be a good chance to tune the retrievers and pointers up prior to goose hunting.
The hunting pressure would be minimal, but would fill the gap in the Australian bird hunting calendar.
The NT should be innovative and add a new game species that is abundant and cash in on the economics of hunting.
We need an enthusiastic university student to do a study on the viability and sustainability of a Bar Shouldered Dove hunting season.
Interested applicants should contact NT Field and Game on either of the email addresses below.
The NT Field and Game range is open for practice from 9am till noon this morning, while weekly Friday night practice continues at 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 pre purchase ammo and tokens.
The sales desk normally opens at 5pm. The next competition is the State of Origin 75T handicap event on May 21.
Join Field and Game, www.fga.net.au. Join SSAA, www.ssaa.org.au Join Australian Deer Association www.austdeer.asn.au Like NT Field and Game on Facebook. Email: ntfieldandgame@gmail.com or fnflodge1@bigpond.com.