Dove hunters might need to watch weather like hawk
With dove season opening Wednesday in the North and Central Zones, hunters will need to keep their eyes on the skies — and not just for challenging targets.
Various weather forecasts are calling for a chance of rain every day through the opener, and that could cause doves to scatter like they did last year when rains hit just before the opening weekend.
“The birds all left and never really came back. And they never blew in from the north,” dove outfitter Rick Hodges said. “Last year was terrible, not just for me, but for many other outfitters I know.”
Weather also hangs a big question mark for many hunters over the coming dove season.
The severe winter storm that brought below-freezing temperatures for days across the state in February affected dove populations. But plentiful spring and summer rains increased nesting.
“Our spring dove surveys suggest that there may have been some impacts from the winter storm, particularly in the northern half of the state, but it’s difficult to know the extent since dove populations naturally fluctuate from year to year,” Texas Parks & Wildlife Department dove program leader Owen Fitzsimmons said in a press release.
“The most evident impact seems to be in the North Zone, where white-wing estimates are below average overall,” he said. “I don’t anticipate any long-term impacts. The good rainfall this spring and summer has resulted in good production, which will help offset any losses and allow a quick recovery.”
Statewide breeding populations are about average this year with 25 million mourning doves and 12 million white-winged doves.
Estimates range from average to below-average in the North and Central Zones, but they are still well within normal and even a little up from 2019, the last surveys, Fitzsimmons said.
While the winter storm dropped white-winged dove numbers to below average in the North Zone, they are up in the South Zone, where surveys show the population of mourning and white-winged doves are about double the average.
Doves in every zone could have suffered from frostbite that will show up with missing toes or damage to the tips of their beaks, Fitzsimmons said.
The only regulatory change for the 2021-22 season is the addition of two more Special White-winged Dove Days for a total of six in the South Zone that will offer two threeday weekends for hunters — Sept. 3-5 and Sept. 10-12.
The change was made to make up for federal regulations restricting the South Zone regular season from opening before Sept. 14.
With the habitat conditions, good hunting may continue through October and into the late-season dates.
Dove outfitter Hodges, though, is hesitant to pull a prediction from his crystal ball.
“After last year, I have no idea. Last year was such a weird year,” he said. “I talked to people in North Central Texas that had some birds but they left.
“An outfitter in the Central Zone had a lot of birds in a sunflower
field, but his hunters shot one day and they left.”
For this season, Hodges is doing everything he can to entice doves to stop by for dinner and a drink.
“I tried harder, got lucky and found places that fit the program,” he said. “I’m happy with the way things are going.”
He focuses on afternoon Central Zone hunts with five places in the New Braunfels area, three near Kyle and a 350-acre ranch minutes from Castroville that is reserved for groups of 20-plus.
In all, he has about 20 different areas for hunters.
Milo, corn, wheat and native and cultivated sunflowers are in the mix while landowners are cooperating by harvesting crops, clearing out the plants and discing, which scatters seeds and gives doves a better landing area.
At the place near Kyle, the landowner converted two sand and gravel pits into ponds and built two new tanks.
“I would bet there will be a lot of late birds because with rainy conditions they could breed effectively through July and August so it might get better later on,” Hodges said.
He charges $120 per hunter and is booked on opening day.
While he only hunts weekends after the opener, he is booking Thursday through Labor Day.
TPWD’S $48 Annual Public Hunting Permit offers access to more than 1 million acres of public land and more than 100 private tracts under lease for dove and small game hunting.
Meanwhile, TPWD is continuing its dove banding research and asking hunters to report leg bands on harvested birds by calling 800-3272263.