A bright full moon hung over Lake Tuakitoto as the first day of duck-shooting season drew hunters quietly into position this morning.<\/p>\n
At 5.10am, the lakeside was already active, with utes and trailers parked beside the wetland near Kaitangata.<\/p>\n
The air was cold but not frosty, and the still conditions carried the sound of abundant birdlife through the dark across the silvery surface.<\/p>\n
Eight more vehicles arrived between 6am and 6.44am and groups began launching dinghies before first light, among them 21-year-old Sam Bonney carrying a Beretta A400 shotgun with recoil-reducing Kick-Off stock.\u00a0<\/p>\n
More than a dozen men, ladies and dogs had gathered from Dunedin and around the Clutha District.<\/p>\n
The presence of some, like the Bonneys, have been part of Tuakitoto’s cycle for generations.<\/p>\n
At 6.44am, the first shots rang out and within minutes choruses of gunfire thundered through the sharp silhouettes of dawn.<\/p>\n
Though the sun did not clear the hills till after 8am, it was broad daylight by about 7.20am and a breeze threatened before giving up the ghost to calm, crystal clear sunlight and rising temperatures.<\/p>\n
By 9am, shooting had become more sporadic as many birds sought refuge on calm sea waters off the nearby coast.<\/p>\n
Larger waterfowl such as swans and geese remained settled on the lake, evidently aware they were safe if they didn’t fly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A bright full moon hung over Lake Tuakitoto as the first day of duck-shooting season drew hunters quietly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-408131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}