While some started slow, Abilene fields did not disappoint

Published 8:02 pm Friday, September 8, 2017

ABILENE – We had just barely pulled into the field and it was clear this was the place to be. It was ugly with doves feeding in the sunflowers and more flying in from all directions.

It was the opening afternoon of dove season and about 20 hunters organized by the Tyler Paper/TexasAllOutdoors.com had driven west for a three-day hunt with outfitter Lone Star Trails. After arriving at the lodge on the Hemphill Ranch between Baird and Coleman, we caravanned the 40-something miles to the field just outside of Abilene.

It was a field I had hunted in the past and it never disappointed. But those had always been morning hunts catching birds coming out of Abilene to feed. The early-arriving mourning doves first, followed by white-wings well after sunrise.

This was an afternoon hunt coming less than a week after a two-inch rain had scattered birds every which way in Texas’ Big Country. Prior to the rain outfitter Dusty Greaves had estimated the field and another about 10 miles away were holding about 5,000 birds a day. After the rain he said a lot of birds were still showing up, but it was not as consistent as it had been.

Based on an initial glance entering the field, I can only imagine what it must have been like two weeks earlier.

As the hunters spread out across the field, the birds kept flying. In fact, over a three-hour period I don’t think there was ever a time I did not see birds in the air, and I could not see over half of the field. It was never just one or two. It was five, 10 or maybe 25. Most were mourning doves. One corner of the field produced a lot of white-winged dove and another gave hunters a chance to add Eurasian collared doves, a bonus bird, to their bag. It matched what Greaves had expected.

“We saw dove all through the summer, and even now we are seeing some young dove. This is probably the most mourning dove we have seen in three or four years,” Greaves said of this year’s crop.

He added that even the pre-season cold front that brought the heavy rains was not a season-ending event like it can be.

“I think it relocated birds if anything. A few guys lost some birds. We picked up some in a few places and we also lost some. I don’t know if it pushed as many out or in as it did relocate them,” Greaves explained.

The afternoon was a success, with almost everyone bringing a limit back to camp. It actually may have been too good because it set the bar high.

Reality, however, set in the next morning with a move south of Coleman to a 250-acre field, a large field for 20 hunters. It held birds, but not nearly like the previous field had. Only two or three hunters limited out the first morning and they had to work for that.

Across the highway, however, where there were more sunflowers, it sounded like a war. Greaves said that was the way range conditions were in the area. He said a lot of farmers were able to harvest wheat this year, then plowed their fields under. Even with the rain, some fields do not have the sunflowers that others do.

“We have had a wet fall, a wet winter, a wet spring and wet summer. Good rains at the right time so there are a lot of sunflowers and a little bit of wheat left over so there is lot of feed for the dove,” Greaves said.

Also impacting the bird movement was the amount of water on the ground.

“There is just water everywhere from the Panhandle on through and the dove population is great, but I think it is really scattered out,” Greaves said.

Early reports from other hunters around the state corroborated that outlook with many reports being fair at best.

Showing how the weather can quickly impact dove, those who did not limit out the second morning made a return to the first-day’s field in Abilene. Thunderstorms rolled through the area and before dark Taylor and surrounding counties were under a severe thunderstorm watch.

Before the worst of the storms moved in, most were able to finish out with a 15-bird daily bag, but the number of birds took a huge dip compared to 24 hours earlier.

The final day of the hunt brought another run back to Abilene, but another field. Expecting a muddy field, the hunters were surprised with dry ground. Most were still in the process of putting out decoys and setting up when the first birds flew into the field.

For most, the decoys were of no use as the birds came in high headed toward the middle of the field. This forced most hunters to leave the outside edges and move to spots in the field just inside the shredded outside lanes.

Knocking the high flyers down was a challenge, but within an hour and a half of sunrise hunters were showing up at the front gate to clean what for most was a third-day’s limit.

With groups booked for all but three days in September and every weekend in October, Greaves hopes to get at least two weeks of hunting out of the fields he started the season with. As time goes along and other hunters focus on deer and duck season, he expects to have to do more scouting and pick up more fields.

“The first couple of days have been fine, right along with where they have been the last couple of years. Last year, the opening days were pretty spectacular, so I don’t know if we are quite that good. With as many doves as they have seen up in the Panhandle, I would suspect each cold front will bring a few more birds in, so it will be good throughout the year,” Greaves said.

Every experienced hunter and outfitter knows not all dove seasons are going to be great. Greaves hunters have experienced four good years in a row, at least with the early results.

Along with reports of slow hunts, there were also reports of less hunters in the field as most Houston-area hunters backed out and some others may have decided not to go because of the run on gasoline going into the weekend.