FROM WILDLIFE AND FRESHWATER FISHERIES
Doves,
the Kickoff to a New Hunting Season The dove season opener marks the beginning of fall hunting seasons!! Why would anyone want to be outside in early September when the temperature is usually pushing triple digits and the humidity is looming around 90%? Dove season … that’s why! Many hunters, present company included, can’t wait for the first hunting season of each fall despite the miserably hot conditions. For decades, the kickoff to fall involves football and dove hunting. With COVID-19 still lurking around and threatening the upcoming football season, we aren’t planning on letting the pandemic negatively impact dove season. We are still on schedule to practice proper social distancing and enjoy the wonderful September weather on a dove field as soon as possible.
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Cooperative Farming News
Dove hunting lends itself to being the perfect outdoor recreation for social distancing. A typical dove field will find hunters approximately 50 to 75 yards apart, surrounding the field. This distance is perfect for social distancing as well as hunter safety. In addition, you don’t have to be still or silent while dove hunting. The older I get, these are two things I’m finding harder and harder to accomplish. Unlike many years in the past, dove season for the north zone will begin Sept. 5, the Saturday before Labor Day, and Sept. 12 in the south zone. I’m going to turn the rest of the article over to our migratory game bird coordinator, Seth Maddox, to explain how the season was set this year. Mourning doves are the most hunted and harvested game species in the continental United States, and Alabama is no exception. The most recent state harvest survey shows that an estimated 35,955 hunters spent more than 194,000 days hunting and harvested more than 1.2 million doves during the 2018-19 season. Most of this hunting activity and harvest occurs within the first two weeks of the season, as Alabama hunters only average five days of dove hunting per season. Although this seems like a short amount of time for such a large harvest, the timing of opening day and available days during the early season influence the harvest and hunter opportunity. Since 2000, dove season in the north zone has opened the Saturday before Labor Day three times, 2009-2011. Before these years, dove season in the
