OK, I live in a state that has no dove shooting season at all and the only ones I see are the mourning doves that feed on the seeds etc I spread out for them and other birds. A side benefit is my Brittany likes to point them.
So I am ignorant about bag limits for doves. Call me stupid, but I cannot understand how a "fully feathered wing and head remain(ing) attached to the carcass of the bird" would alter the limit of birds that can be killed (shot). I mean, dead is dead, headless or not.
It's a real mystery to me so I would greatly appreciate an education on this.
Many Thanks
It's because if the wing and head are left on so that the game warden can
identify the species and not count them against your limit. There is a limit of 15 on mourning doves (here), but no limit on Eurasian Collared Doves.
I disagree that they will ever become a major agricultural pest. They hardly ever venture into crop fields, how could they be a problem? They stay around habitated areas, like pigeons. Pigeons have never been a problem to crops in America, to any major extent. These doves won't either, IMO, from watching them as I make a living farming.
Although they are around every farmstead in my part of the world they are almost unseen in our dove fields. I would estimate the take on collared doves, as compared to mourning doves, in the field, is not over 1%. We bagged somewhere around 500 mourning doves on one sunflower field so far. Not one collared dove, that I am aware of. And, there are dozens of them around a peanut buying point within one mile of the sunflower field.
SRH
