Dove season under way in much of Texas

Dove hunting in Texas is regulated by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department across three zones each with their own specific dates and bag limits.

Henderson is a part of Texas’ Central Zone and its dove season will last until Nov. 4. After a recess, dove season will start up again from Dec. 22 to Jan. 14.

The northern and central zones share all of the same dates, but the southern zone’s dates are slightly different.

Dove season began for south Texas on Sept. 14 and will be cut off on Oct. 30, before starting up again from Dec. 14 until Jan. 21.

The southern zone is marked by U.S. Highway 90 from Del Rio to San Antonio which merges into Interstate 10 from San Antonio through Houston.

The bag limit for each day is 15, which means each hunter is limited to killing 15 birds per day.

This number includes any combination of white-winged, mourning and whitetipped doves, but only two white-tipped doves may be killed per person each day.

In order to legally participate in Texas’ dove season, hunters are required to purchase a license for the 2018-19 season.

These can be purchased online through the TPWD website, by phone at 800-8954248, or in person at over 1,700 retailers across the state.

Hunters can buy a license at Walmart. Licenses are also available at over 50 state parks around Texas and each of the 28 TPWD law enforcement field offices across the state.

TPWD also requires each hunter born after Sept. 1, 1971, to complete a hunter education training course in order to legally hunt in the state.

The certification received for completing the course is valid for life and is honored in every other state across the U.S.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department estimates that more than 300,000 Texans participate in dove season each year and that together, they harvest 10 million doves annually.

As the largest state in the continental U.S., more doves make their home in Texas than any other state in the country.

TPWD estimates that the Texas dove breeding population reaches almost 45 million animals and that number increases during the fall as even more millions of birds migrate to the south for the coming winter.

“Texas is uniquely situation to catch a lot of migratory birds as they move through the central part of the continent,” Own Fitzsimmons, the leader of TPWD’s dove program said. “Despite the dry conditions this summer, we had excellent production very early in the spring thanks to a mild winter and good rains in February and March, so there are a lot of birds around.

Fitzsimmons predicts that areas with sizable bodies of water will be hotbeds for dove activity during the season.