doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com How Common is that New Introduced Dove Species?

Here they have the same season and are counted in the limit in aggregate with mourning doves. Can't tell them apart on the wing anyway.

Virginian if you leave the wing and head on there is no bag limit on Eurasian dove:

http://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/hunting/dove

"but note: there is no bag limit on Eurasian collared-doves or ringed turtle-doves provided that a fully feathered wing and head remain attached to the carcass of the bird."

We see alot of them around them peanut mills. They do like civilization.

Adam

I can recall seeing my first one in the early 60's here in England when I was a kid. I checked all my bird books but couldn't find it. By the early 70's they were fairly common and soon put on the pest lists. They had spread in from continental Europe by natural means. They are not a great problem and I only shoot them round farm buildings if asked to do so. They are fine to eat. It's amazing how fast they spread but then they seem to find a natural limit. Lagopus.....

They have the square tail of a pigeon and their primaries don't whistle as much as a Mourning Dove's do. Their call is much lower than their cousin's, almost comically so. As stated here previously, they eat just fine. In Colorado they are considered an invasive species. I have heard that they will ultimately inhabit the same ecological niche as the Passenger Pigeon once did here.

Had my first contact with them down in the Arch Community of New Mexico Southeast of Portales while pheasant hunting down there. One afternoon - one entire afternoon, my brother and I staked out positions around the yard of a peanut plant and shot until we were were completely out of shells. I think the two of us killed near one hundred. Great fun and also as we discovered later, really good eating - as doves go!! They are in fact larger and I think as one poster said the meat is somewhat lighter. Good sport. However, in reference to something said by another poster, I do not think they are easier to kill than a whitewing or mourning dove. Easier to shoot, yes, because the do continue to "swarm" if you are in an area they favor, but I shot several with 2.74 inch 20 gauge #7.5s and had to shoot them again after they hit the ground and then flew as I was walking out to pick them up!!! And of course, don't anybody EVEN hint that it was just due to my poor shooting and/or eyesight!!!!! Well, maybe. But great fun nonetheless!

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

We usually hunt doves around Yuma AZ, and the last couple of years our take of Eurasians has been about 20% of the total bag in the first part of the season, depending on where we are hunting. As the season progresses, the Euros become scarce. Could be they are smarter than the others. I don't think they migrate to Mexico when the weather cools. As soon as the nights get chilly, the whitewings pack up and leave the mourning doves for us in the second season.

Regarding crop damage, the stories I hear about those guys who shoot 100 Euros in a day are usually around ag land, particularly milo fields. We have never found a huntable field with large concentrations of Euros, so I suspect the stories are coming from guys who can hunt close to farmhouses, as opposed to those of us who can't shoot within 1/4 mile of an occupied structure.

We have a few in the Austin area Saw my first one 3 yrs ago