Winter dove season increasing in popularity
Texas wingshooters have a few million reasons to look forward to this part of December, those reasons manifesting as gray/ brown feathered blurs — doves and lots of them — boring through the cool, sometimes blustery winter sky over fallow fields, pastures, plowed ground and harvested grain fields across the state.
Texas’ “winter” dove season opened Dec. 14 in the state’s South Dove Zone and begins Dec. 21 in the North and Central zones. And while the winter season, which has a relatively short history, does not get the attention or draw the participation the early-autumn dove season sees, it is becoming increasingly popular with the state’s 400,000 or so wingshooters. There are a lot of reasons, but the number of doves wintering in Texas leads the list.
Millions of mourning doves and white-winged doves winter in Texas. Some are that portion of the state’s 30-35 million resident mourning doves and 10-15 million resident white-winged doves that don’t migrate out of the state during winter. Many are part of the estimated 10-15 million mourning doves that are transient residents of the state — migrants from states to the north, some just passing through to warmer climes in Mexico and Central America and some stopping here to winter.
That abundance of wintering doves is the reason for the late season. In the mid-1970s, Texas wildlife managers initiated the state’s first “winter” dove season to give hunters opportunity to take advantage of what was an under-utilized resource — wintering doves. Managers took a few days from the end of the “regular” dove season, which ran into November, and placed them around Christmas. (As with all migratory game bird seasons, total number of days of dove season is set by federal migratory bird management officials, with states give some latitude in when they use those days.)
Over the past four decades, Texas has slowly but steadily increased the length of the winter dove season. Two years ago, the winter season got a significant bump when federal officials approved increasing the length of Texas’ dove season from 70 days to 90 days.
This year, the winter dove season in Texas South Zone runs Dec. 14Jan. 21. In the North and Central zones, winter season dates are Dec. 21-Jan. 14. The daily bag limit is the same as during the early regular dove season — 15 doves per day, to include no more than two white-tipped doves.
To reach that daily limit, or to just have a quality winter dove hunt, means late-season dove hunters have to adjust their tactics to fit the behaviors of wintering doves.
“It’s a different game than it is during September,” Owen Fitzsimmons, who heads Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s dove programs, said of the winter dove season.
One difference between the early season and winter season is where doves are most likely to concentrate. And that’s tied to food.
Wintering mourning doves feed mostly on native forage, not the agricultural crops that draw a majority of doves during the early season. Most of the waste grain from autumn harvest of small cereal grains such as milo, soybean, rice, wheat and commercial sunflowers are long gone. Wintering doves focus their efforts on areas holding an abundance of seeds of native vegetation. That includes croton (dove weed), pigweed, ragweed, spurge and late-season wild millet. And it focuses on the small seeds of at least a dozen native grasses.
A winter-withered field that sported a fine growth of seed-producing native plants can be a hot spot for winter doves, as can be a field of native vegetation or even agricultural crops that has been disked. The low, open cover of such fields and the availability of an abundance of seeds are key.
Also, Fitzsimmons said, agricultural fields, fallow fields and pastures that have been the subject of controlled burns in the fall can be dove magnets and the birds hit the fields to take advantage of quick regrowth of seed-producing native plants and the “clean” landscape that makes finding durable seeds easier.
But not all such fields will draw wintering doves. And those doves can be much more fickle and transitory than September’s flocks. Mourning doves tend to travel to feeding areas in larger, more concentrated flocks during winter than trickling in and out as they typically do during the early season. Also, they often will feed heavily in a field for a short period — two or three or four days — they suddenly abandon the area for no apparent reason. And, during winter as during the autumn season, weather — heavy rain, cold temperatures — can trigger overnight mass movement of doves. That makes scouting crucial during the winter season.
“You have to take scouting seriously,” Fitzsimmons said. “And if you find birds using a field, take advantage of it; they may not be there long. Doves can move around a lot this time of year.”
Those winter doves also will behave differently under hunting conditions than they did during the early season. Hunter can improve their chances of success by adjusting to those behaviors. Winter dove flocks don’t include any of the young, slowflying, naive juveniles seen in September. They are adult birds. They act it.
“I approach winter dove hunting like I approach duck hunting,” Fitzsimmons said. “I take hiding seriously — camo up and tuck by some cover. You’re not going to get away with not trying to hide. The birds definitely are a lot warier.”
They also are a lot harder targets. Winter doves often come in to a feeding area higher and faster than they do during the early season. That makes for more challenging shooting, especially if the birds have a stiff wind to aid them. And during winter, such days are common.
On average, winter doves are engaged by hunters at longer ranges than during the September season. That means wingshooters often are much better off using a tighter choke and larger shot than during the early season. Instead of using an improved cylinder choke and loading with low-brass 8s, winter dove hunters often find a modified choke and shotshells throwing No. 7½ or 6 shot to be a more effective combination.
Prospects for this winter season appear good, Fitzsimmons said. Early reports from the recently opened South Zone indicate hunters have enjoyed good hunts. Fitzsimmons said he had reports from South Texas, especially the Lower Rio Grande Valley, of good concentrations of wintering doves. Some of the TPWD public hunting areas in the region, including units of the Las Palomas Wildlife Management Areas, saw good hunter success.
The state’s South Zone hosts the majority of Texas wintering dove and certainly produced the best of the winter hunting. But other areas also can be good.
Wingshooters on the coastal prairie between Houston and Victoria also had moderate and good success over the South Zone winter opener, with some solid hunts in the El Campo area.
Usually, there are fewer hunters in the field, so participants aren’t likely to feel crowded. The weather during the winter season can be, and usually is, much more comfortable than those blistering September days during the early-autumn dove season. And that applies to hunters and their canine partners.
“As hunters, we appreciate that more comfortable weather,” Fitzsimmons said. “But it also makes life a lot better for retrievers; those dogs can be at real risk for heat-related problems in September. You’re not likely to have that issue during the winter season.”
And that’s just one of the millions of excellent reasons Texas wingshooters look forward to winter dove season.