Doves are peace symbols — and targets for hunters’ guns

Earlier this week, while stopping at a country store in Monroe County to buy some snacks, I ran into an old acquaintance decked out in well-worn, camouflage hunting clothes.

“Going deer hunting?” I asked.

“Nope, dove hunting,” he said. “It’s the first day of the new dove season.” Georgia, he explained, has three dove hunting seasons each year: the first beginning in early September and the last in late December.

“Well, good luck,” I said. I’m not against hunting if it’s done legally. I once was a bird hunter myself. But dove hunting seems ironic to me: Doves have long been symbols of peace, especially at Christmas, but they’re also the most-hunted game birds in Georgia and elsewhere — more so than the bobwhite quail and the wild turkey.

Doves as peace symbols commonly adorn Nativity scenes that commemorate the birth of Jesus, who, according to the Bible, is the Prince of Peace. Later, when Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River, the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove landed on Jesus’ head as he emerged from the water.

And before Jesus’ time there was Noah, who sent out a dove from the ark after 40 days and nights of rain. The bird returned with an olive leaf, an indication the biblical flood was receding and that tranquility and new life were returning to earth. Since then, many Jews and Christians have regarded doves as peace symbols.

No one knows which one of the world’s 300 dove species Noah deployed. However, over the span of time, doves in general have come to represent peace. Famed Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, when commissioned to design the logo for the World Peace Congress in 1949, chose a dove to represent the peace movement, thus ushering in the modern era of the bird as an international peace sign.

In Georgia, the most abundant dove species by far — and the most hunted — is the mourning dove, known for its soft, mournful cooing and monogamy. Wisconsin in 1971 adopted the mourning dove as its official state symbol of peace; Michigan did so in 1998.

And with that, I wish you a Merry Christmas.

In the sky

From David Dundee, Tellus Science Museum astronomer: The moon will be last quarter on Sunday. Venus, Jupiter and Saturn are in the west around sunset. Mars and Mercury are too close to the sun for easy observation.

The mourning dove is the most abundant species of dove in Georgia — and the most hunted as game.