Category: Dove Hunting

The dove hunting reports coming in from around the state of Texas are mixed. Weather has ranged from cool to hot recently, and the dove hunting in Texas has been the same. Whitewings continue to dominate San Antonio fields of corn and milo in the afternoon as hunters have shot near-limits around tree lines. High-flyers have trickled from South Zone fields near Uvalde. The area around Katy, Hockley and Brookshire fields have been fair at best, and hunter participation has been low this season. What can you expect? Low bird numbers equates to low hunter turnout.

The Waller area hunters saw better shooting this weekend as nearby South Zone fields were hunted, pushing mourning doves north to Central Texas fields. More whitewing showed around Sealy and Columbus over the weekend. On up the coast, Dayton and Beaumont fields have given up half-limits of both whitewing and mourning doves. Some also reported good shoots on public dove hunting lands. The hunting season runs through October 23 and prospects are fair to good right now. Look for food and water.

The best hunting in the South Zone came from traditional South Texas haunts in the Rio Grande Valley where whitewings have been good around milo, corn and wild sunflowers. Devine, Big Foot, Three Rivers, Fashing and George West enjoyed limit shoots too. Dove hunters along the northern boundaries of the South Zone reported losing most of their birds just before the opener as high winds and rain blew through Wharton and Matagorda county fields, sending the bulk of the whitewing population to other areas.

The dove opener there was a lackluster one, but doves began moving back in by the end of the weekend. Mourning doves were solid near Palacios, Beasley, Lissie and Eagle Lake, but El Campo had mixed reports with most hunters leaving with far less than limits. The dove season runs through October 30 in the South Zone and the dove hunting outlook is fair to good depending on location.

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Most hunters look forward to September simply because the first day of the month has traditionally been the dove hunting season opener. That held true again this year, but hunters across the state found mixed results. Despite dry conditions, hundreds of thousands of Texans headed to the field for the opening weekend of dove season, which started last Thursday in the Central and North Zones.

Texas’ North Zone dove hunting was decent, but many properties lacked the water necessary to hold birds. Plowed corn fields along the Red River in Lamar County have held scattered shoots of mourning doves. The recent front did bring new birds to the area, but watering holes are scarce at best. The best dove hunts in the High Plains have been in harvested corn and milo fields in the morning.

Most playa lakes in the Texas Panhandle are dry so feed lot ponds have been better dove hunting areas in the afternoon. Sunflowers and plowed ground have held most of the doves in the Abilene area, and any watering holes has been a magnet in the afternoon. The season runs through October 23 and the near-term hunting prospects are fair.

The Central Zone dove hunting held up better. Steady shooting could be heard around San Antonio with resident white-winged doves keeping gun barrels warm over cut corn fields. Hunters there have taken limits in dove lease fields with water sources, but those are few and far between. Uvalde, Sabinal, Hondo and Del Rio hunters saw good dove shoots over the weekend, but resident birds are becoming wiser by the day.

Further East, dove hunters have taken half-limits an public dove hunting lands around Beaumont, Dayton, Liberty, Nome and Winnie, mostly due to high winds and rain associated with the tropical storm. Better shoots have come from around Sealy and Columbus, but hunters there have had to deal with extreme north winds from the storm and the cool front that passed through the region on Labor Day. The front also brought new doves to the region. The Central Zone dove hunting season runs through October 23 and prospects look fair to good for hunters headed to the field over the next few days.

Banding is an major part of the management of all migratory game birds in North America. To a waterfowl hunter, a duck or goose band is a treasured acquisition. In fact, these aluminum rings become testaments of the hunter’s skill, luck or at least a log of hours spent in the field. But dove hunters need to keep and eye out for these leg bands, too. Heading into the summer, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) will be trapping and attaching tiny metal leg bands on several thousand mourning dove as part of a larger national effort coordinated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

In addition to mourners, white-winged doves will also be banded across the state. TPWD estimates that approximately 3,000 whitewings will be banded in 2011. Banding will begin on June 1 and end on August 15. It takes a lot of effort to capture and band doves, but the real data comes when hunters report dove bands recovered from harvested birds. As whitewings continue to expand across the state, keeping tabs on these dove populations is becoming increasingly important.

Dove band recoveries are revealing extensive travel records and offer interesting insight into the ecology of this prominent migrant. Most banded mourning doves in Texas do not survive to see a second year and extremely few live past three years of age. However, the oldest mourning dove ever recovered in Texas was 9 years old.

White-winged doves banded in Texas have been recovered in four states including Texas, four countries, and one in international waters on an oil platform. The oldest white-winged dove ever recorded in Texas was 17 years old. The farthest recovered white-winged dove banded in Texas originated in Hidalgo County and was recovered in Nicaragua, 1,242 miles from the original band site.

For Texas, the implications of dove management are significant considering the Lone Star State boasts fall dove populations in excess of 40 million birds and its 300,000 dove hunters harvest about 6 million birds annually or roughly 30 percent of all doves taken in the United States. Dove hunting also has a major economic impact, contributing more than $300 million to the state economy. But, despite having more dove hunters than any other state and harvesting more birds than any other state, Texas has the lowest dove band recovery rate in the nation.

“I think most dove hunters aren’t aware of the banding effort,” said Corey Mason, TPWD’s dove program leader. “Unlike with ducks, hunters aren’t looking for bands and because dove bands are only about the size of a bead they don’t stand out.”

Data obtained from dove banding efforts are used to estimate survival and harvest rates and population abundance. These estimates are then used in population and harvest models to determine dove hunting regulations. If you are lucky enough to harvest a banded dove this hunting season, report the dove band and help biologist do their best to manage our natural resources.

The dove hunting season has been open for over a month now and most dove hunters have already packed it in, but that does not mean there are not doves out there to shoot. In the North Zone Dove, dove hunting reports indicated than an abundance of playa lakes have mourning doves scattered around watering sources in the High Plains. As is to be expected, corn, milo and sunflowers continue to produce near Amarillo and Dumas.

Abilene and Lubbock dove hunters have seen the same results around sunflowers and milo. Treelines and soybeans have held the bulk of the doves in the Panhandle over to the Red River. Many hunters reported the recent front pushed some new birds to the area, but few hunters are still in the fields. But there is still time to get some dove hunting in. The season runs through October 24 and the birds are there.

Hunters and guides in Texas’ Central Zone reported that the dry weather allowed doves to resume their flight pattern. Whitewings continue to find corn, milo, and other fields offering good dove habitat from San Antonio down throughout South Texas. The cool weather has brought new doves into the area.

New birds were also reproted last week around Katy, Brookshire, Columbus, and El Campo (which is in the South Zone). These areas saw an influx of mourning doves. Central Texas reports indicate that fields have been good for near-limits around goatweed and croton. Many doves have been moving back and forth between the Central and South zone because of pressure from hunters. The dove hunting season runs through October 24, so get out there!.

Dove hunting kicks off the fall hunting season in Texas each year, but many people, even though interested, have never had an opportunity to learn what hunting is all about. That is about to change for some families that are looking to get outdoors, in addition to testing their ability to shoot.

An innovative public hunting opportunity for newcomers, the Mentored Hunting Permit, will launch this fall with a dove hunting workshop September 19 and 20 at the Justin Hurst Wildlife Management Area (WMA), near Freeport, Texas.

The family-friendly event is designed to introduce participants to hunting and provide hands-on knowledge and experience for hunting dove and other game animals in Texas. The mentored dove hunting workshop will focus on teaching hunting skills, safety, ethics, game processing and preparation, elements of habitat management, and provide guidance and advice for hunting activities in the future.

As part of the workshop, participants will be offered the opportunity to take part in a mentored dove hunt accompanied by an experienced hunter.

Reservations are on a first-come, first-served basis and space is limited to 20 participants at the Hurst WMA. Information about the event, including registration form, is available by calling urban wildlife biologist Richard Heilbrun at 210-688-6444. Cost for the workshop is $35 and the Mentored Hunting Permit, which covers cost for access to the dove hunt, is $25.

Participants must also have a valid Texas hunting license and Texas Migratory Game Bird Stamp and have satisfied Hunter Education Certification requirements or purchase the Hunter Education Deferral prior to the weekend of September 19.

“The mentored hunting program is intended to explore possible ways to increase hunter recruitment,” said Linda Campbell, director of public hunting with Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. “By offering these educational workshops and mentored hunting opportunities, we hope to provide an effective vehicle for people who are not from traditional hunting backgrounds to learn about and get started in hunting.”

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission approved the new hunter recruitment initiative as a means of providing opportunities for people interested in participating in a multi-day hunter recruitment workshop on a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department WMA. Participation will be by reservation, on a first-come, first-served basis, and the fee for the Mentored Dove Hunting Permit will be $25.

Texas hunters look forward to the opening day of dove hunting season each year. It is a time for getting outdoors, spending time with friends an family, and having some fun. It also signifies the beginning of the fall hunting season in Texas. And it looks like hunters have a lot to look forward to. Starting this year, Texas will be going to a 70-day dove season and 15-bird daily bag statewide. Possession limit is still twice the daily bag.

The season in the North and Central Dove Zones runs Tuesday, September 1 through Sunday, October 25 and reopens Saturday, December 26 through Saturday, January 9. The South Zone dove season runs Friday, September 18-Tuesday, November 3, reopening Saturday, December 26-Sunday, January 17.

The additional 10 days in the North Zone should provide more late season dove hunting opportunity for die-hard sportsmen, according to Mason. “Most folks hunt early, usually the first couple of weekends, but there are usually birds to be found throughout the season around water holes, food sources and managed food plots so the extra days could mean good hunting during enjoyable weather.”

The Special South Texas White-winged Dove Area hunting season will open to white-winged dove afternoon-only (noon to sunset) hunting the first two full weekends in September running September 5-6 and 12-13 and reopens when the regular South Zone season begins on Friday, September 18 through Tuesday, November 3 and again from Saturday, December 26 through Wednesday, January 13.

The Special White-winged Dove Area season takes four of the allowable 70 days, so when the regular season opens, this area most close four days earlier than the rest of the South Zone.

Hunters in the Special South Texas White-winged Dove Area must abide by a different bag limit set for that area.The daily bag limit is 15 birds, not more than four mourning doves during the first two weekend splits and 2 white-tipped doves. Once the general season opens, the aggregate bag limit will be 15.

September in Texas marks the beginning of fall and just about every hunter looks forward to dove hunting season that usually kicks off on September 1. Texas has robust fall dove populations in excess of 40 million birds and its 300,000 dove hunters harvest about 6 million birds annually, or roughly 30 percent of all doves taken in the United States! Private and public dove hunting opportunities have a major economic impact to local communities, contributing more than $300 million to the state economy.

Dove hunting provides people an entry into the sport of hunting because it is relatively economical and accessible. Through its Public Hunting Program, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) offers affordable access to quality hunting experiences with the purchase of a $48 Annual Public Hunting Permit. This year, TPWD has leased nearly 50,000 acres of public dove hunting fields in 46 counties.

Many of the public dove hunting lands are located near major urban areas. The 140 hunting units are distributed from South Texas to the Panhandle and from Beaumont to West Texas. Over 70 percent of the dove hunting units and acreage are located in the four major metro areas of Austin/Waco, Houston/Beaumont, San Antonio/Corpus Christi and Dallas/Fort Worth, meaning most of you reading this are relatively close to public dove hunting areas.

From my experience, most dove hunting units get shot out fairly quickly, but they can provide outstanding hunting for the first couple of days. In addition, after the initial surge of hunting pressure most of the units become devoid of anyone, so later in the season doves will often move back onto the properties that have good habitat.

Also new for this year, TPWD has combined its Annual Public Hunting Map Booklet and its Dove Hunting Supplement into a single publication. The new map booklet is organized into 8 urban area based regions that will allow hunters to readily identify places to hunt in areas that they are interested in. Public hunting map booklets will be available beginning August 15 for download and viewing from the department’s web site.

With dove hunting action just months away, it’s never too early to start talking about the upcoming dove hunting season. Dry weather can impact wildlife species in many ways, but officials state that it could be a good season when it opens in September. Despite extended drought conditions across much of Texas, wildlife biologists with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) suggest there has been enough moisture to set the stage for good hunting this dove season.

“Dry conditions don’t necessarily equate to bad dove hunting,” said Corey Mason, TPWD dove program leader. “I’ve been around the state the last month and have seen good production of native sunflower on ranch land and numbers of doves along high lines and around water. I’m expecting a good dove season.”

Dove reports from field biologists fall right in line with Mason’s outlook. “Dove hunting should be awesome; especially if hunting over a water source,” said LaGrange-based district biologist David Forrester. Dry, hot weather means water sources will be hot dove hunting. “Normally water is overabundant in my district, but this year it will be at a premium.

Additionally, if you can find a stand of sunflower, goat weed, natural food plots, etc., whitewing and mourning dove hunting should be good. Food sources and particularly native food sources are going to be an attractant because the agricultural crops and harvest just aren’t going to be as good.”

In regions where rainfall has been plentiful, such as the Panhandle, dove hunting prospects are favorable but could bring unwanted additions as Amarillo district biologist Calvin Richardson warned. “Probably, the only downside that I could imagine is that we probably are going to have a heck of a mosquito crop during dove season.”

TPWD is also conducting ongoing dove banding research and asks hunters to please report leg bands recovered on harvested birds by calling 1-800-327-BAND. TPWD bands about 20,000 dove a year across the state. Most doves banded are recovered by dove hunting, so it important that hunters submit recovered bands to help biologist better manager the resource.