Fish and Game's eastern region staff are promising plenty of young ducks for hunters as the game bird season approaches in May.

Senior officer Mathew McDougall says findings from recent operations to trap and band mallard and grey ducks suggest there are plenty of young ducks around.

During the operation, a thousand ducks were banded at sites along the Bay of Plenty and the East Coast, with information collected on the age and sex of the birds.

This information is used to help plan hunting limits and work out population trends.

Mathew says most of the birds trapped were juveniles.

'This is good news for the game bird harvest in that these young birds, who haven't learnt the lessons of older and wiser birds, are the ones which often end up in the firing line.”

Despite the large amount of young ducks caught and banded, the exercise failed to turn up many adult mallard and grey ducks.

'It's a bit of an enigma – the trap sample usually gives us an indication of the population at large, but this year we caught few adults.

'In some parts of the region we struggled to catch any birds.”

Mathew says more research is required to pin down what's happening with these species.

He says there are several possible explanations.

'One is the adults were still moulting their flight feathers and simply not inhabiting the wetlands we were trapping.

'Another possibility is that with all the rain we've had over the summer, the adults don't need a free feed and kept away from the traps.”

Mathew says they won't know the answer until well after the season has finished and they can estimate the survival rates from the bands which hunters return, and compare the returns with previous years.

He says there are concerns that Reporoa and Gisborne populations may be depressed.

Mathew says taking into account this research, staff feel a conservative approach is warranted in setting regulations for the coming season.

Fish and Game is considering a six week season with a 10 bird limit.