Hunters should find birds where they find food and water

Published 12:00 am Friday, August 17, 2018

This is one of those years that Texas dove hunters better have plans B and C ready for Sept. 1, or you might be doing a lot of leaning on the tailgate talking to friends.

A hot, dry summer across the prime dove hunting range in central Texas could make it hard on hunters to pull out an opening-day limit in the North and Central zones.

“It is very dry right now, particularly across the central part of the state from Del Rio to DFW,” said Owen Fitzsimmons, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s dove program leader. “Drought maps indicate that 80 percent of Texas is in moderate to severe drought condition, with just the coast and some areas in west and north Texas that are normal.”

As is normal in Texas, giving a general report is difficult. In the course of any year, it can rain on one field and not in the one across the fence.

“I talked to our county biologist in the Abilene area, and she mentioned that the Big Country area around Abilene has actually been getting periodic rain this summer and is doing relatively well. I think it’s just really spotty, overall,” Fitzsimmons said.

And then there are locations where the range is dry, but still birds. Fitzsimmons said that describes the High Plains in the Panhandle, and in South Texas and the Rio Grande Valley where the country is rain-starved ahead of the Sept. 22 opener in the South Zone.

Oddly, nesting conditions were excellent up until July. That should mean more birds than might be expected based on current conditions.

“We had very mild temperatures this winter along with a lot of rain in key parts of the state in February and March, which led to some really early breeding initiation. I think the drought probably affected some of the late hatch in July, but, thanks to that early precipitation, habitat conditions across much of the state were pretty good through most of the spring. It looks like we had excellent production, the best in a few years, thanks to that,” Fitzsimmons said.

Also on the hunters’ side is that biologists guestimate Texas is home to about 35 million breeding doves annually. As those birds begin to migrate each fall, another 15 million or so migrate into the state.

That could all translate to excellent hunts in fields that do have food or water.

“It seems that no matter what part of the state, hunting success will come down to finding that water hole or that successful dove field. If they can do that, they’re likely to have some really good hunting,” Fitzsimmons said. “It’s not important that a water source be big, but you want it to be consistently available for the birds. Doves will travel 7 to 8 miles a day between food, water, and roost sites, but they prefer that distance be 2 to 3 miles or less. If you can key in on an area that has those elements in close proximity, you’ll likely find yourself covered up in birds.” 

He added hunters should look for grain crops like sorghum, corn, milo and any wheat or millet, native plants croton, pigweed, annual sunflower, partridge pea and panic grasses, and woody species like sumac, lime prickly-ash and hackberry. 

Last year, Texas hunters took an estimated 4.6 million mourning doves and 1.8 million whitewings during a 90-day season. Those numbers were down considerably from 2016-17 when hunters took 6.4 million mourning doves and 2.9 million white-winged doves. Hurricane Harvey, which kept an estimated 150,000 hunters out of the field last year, is blamed for the reduced harvest.

Since TPWD began keeping count in 2005-06, white-winged doves have been an important part of the harvest. That first year, hunters reportedly took 6 million mourning dove and 1.7 million white-wings.

“White-wings continue to expand in abundance and distribution, and a lot of our hunters are starting to key in on that. Hunters who traditionally used to shoot a bag full of mourning doves are now starting to take more and more white-wings,” Fitzsimmons explained.

The biologist said Texas has an estimated 10 million white-wings. In an average year, hunters take about 3 million or about double the harvest from a decade ago.

The dry summer is going to impact white-winged dove numbers, but not to the level it does mourning doves because they relate more to towns outside the Rio Grande Valley.

“As for how the drought affected white-wings, I think they are definitely affected to some degree, but many of those birds are able to take advantage of urban food and water sources and aren’t quite as susceptible to dry conditions as the more rural mourning doves.  Either way, there are more white-wings than there have ever been these days in Texas, which is a good thing for our hunters,” Fitzsimmons said.

Initially when white-wings began expanding north and Eurasian collared doves first showed up in Texas, there were concerns they might negatively impact mourning doves through disease or other issues. That has not been the case for either species.

Free birds for hunters because they do not count in their daily bag, it is estimated there are about 5 million Eurasians. Eurasians were first discovered in Texas in the mid-1990s and are now found in more than half the counties in the state.

The fall dove season is open through Nov. 15 in the North Zone, Nov. 5 in the Central Zone and Nov. 8 in the South Zone. The daily bag limit is 15 with no more than two being white-tipped doves.