doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Local Dove population concerns.

I have four Dove fields that are each about 15 miles apart. They run from three to four acres in what has been prime Dove areas. Wheat, sunflowers, millet, corn for cover and feed. This will be my second year on two of them and first year on two. Only one field had decent bird numbers and it one of the new ones. The two from last year were extremely good have perhaps a few dozen birds using them at most. The best has several hundred right now and building. These cover an area in KY and SW Ohio.

Anyone else seeing fair to disappointing numbers of birds? A quick stop at the area State Dove field manager did not fill me with hope. He had 15 fields in three counties and says he's got zero birds in half of them. His best field has several hundred using them but just that one he says. Perhaps a few birds will move in this week if a little cold weather hits above us. Starting to make me worried about this season.

You'll have birds.
Migration is on. This cool snap sent about a bazillion blue wing teal down from Canada, and doves move with them around here.

I'm hoping for 6 Bluewings on the 1st.

We have plenty of doves here in NW Kansas, and a LOT of standing water which may complicate things a bit. I am seeing early migrant ducks, not a lot yet but more than a few> Our playas all have water in them so I think the Early teal season on the 9th will be good. Seeing good numbers of Pheasants as well..

I thought the whole idea of Dove shoots was to control the population so they did not eat to much of the farmers crop....look like you have done a good job....the farmers crops are safe.....unless you have alternative motives for shooting those little bird feeder birds.....

Jon, are the birds you normally have early local birds or migratory? We don't ever get migratory birds until late October or November. We have tons of doves here now, but they are all birds that raised here this spring and summer, or survived last winter.

Bird patterns are probably so different there and here that any comments I might be able to make would most likely not be applicable for you anyway. Hope the numbers start building soon.

SRH

Almost no birds here either.

Glad I shoot in Georgia...Geo

the usual dozen or so of these gentle song birds visit my bird feeder at dawn and at dusk...they spend the night in the pines in the back...not sure where they go during the day...their haunting song and loving interaction with each other is both pleasing and peaceful...

Eating a plateful of them is "both pleasing and peaceful' for me, too.

SRH

One of our guys scouted Yuma last week and reported that most of our usual hot spots are pretty much devoid of birds. Ag practices have changed there over the last few years, and alfalfa acreage is way down. Lots of melon production ended about six years ago, but seems to be coming back slowly. Few years ago we had access to thousands of acres of milo, now we can barely find any. Wheat stubble has been very difficult to find the last few years. We'll be fine, but it wont be like we had hoped for coming off the wet winter and spring.