News Hounds Ady & Flo www.sunlive.co.nz

I'm gradually getting the hang of this retrieving thing, after another exciting outing into the wilds with the boss and Uncle.

The penny has finally dropped that all this stick fetching I've been doing is actually practice for my real calling – duck recovery. It took a few practice runs until one evening, watching some of the seasoned professionals, I'm finally getting my teeth into some floating feathers and bringing home dinner.

A bit of a bonus this week was a bird with bling. One of these ducks had a bracelet around its ankle. Not sure if it was breaching home detention or had been watching too much of the reality TV series ‘Pimp my Mallard' but this old geezer was well equipped.

I checked for piercings and tats too, in case he was seriously into body art, but the only piercings were the ones caused by high speed steel from the 12 gauge.

The good people at Fish & Game had fitted the birdie bling, putting bands on some ducks to trace their movements, from tagging to harvest. It was exciting to hear more about our bird and it's good to help in management of the duck resource.

In the meantime Mr Mallard was to join us for dinner - dressed for the occasion.

Then we get news from Fish & Game that bird 27-51465 is a pretty old duck. And we're not talking about the mother-in-law. Our bird is the earliest tagged mallard ever returned!

So now the boss, who gets a hard time from his mates about only being able to shoot the young and stupid, can claim to be able to nail the old and wily!

We're just not sure if a bird banded 11 years ago will be particularly tender. The cook might be better sticking with the young and stupid!