From Wildlife & 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.

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

north zone usually opened the third weekend of September. In the most recent years, dove season in the north zone has opened the second weekend of September, the weekend after Labor Day. With a mixture of opening dates over the last 20 years, the Alabama Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries Division decided to survey dove hunter preferences to help inform the season-setting process.

In 2018, the Alabama Dove Hunter Survey was sent via email to more than 46,000 hunters who were Harvest Information Program certified and/or who had signed up to receive information about dove or small game hunting via email. Most respondents (58%) indicated they had hunted dove for more than 20 years. Also, 74% of respondents indicated they typically only hunt one to five days during the 90-day season, and 70% start hunting on opening day.

To determine how hunters utilize dove hunting zones in Alabama, a series of questions asked about hunting participation among zones. Most respondents (78%) indicated they hunt only in the north zone for all dove hunts and trips. When hunters were asked about when dove season should open in the north zone, responses were all over the board. However, the greatest percentage of respondents (37%) indicated that they would like the season to open the first Saturday in September (see Figure 1). Most respondents (71%) also indicated they prefer that the majority of the season’s open hunting days occur September through October. Most (53%) also wanted the season to include as many weekends and holidays as possible.

In the North Zone, the earliest that dove season can open is Sept 1. Would you prefer the season to:

37%

8% 25%

20%

10%

Open Sept 1, no matter what day of the week if falls

Open the 1st Sat after Sept 1 (1st Weekend) Open the 2nd Sat of Sept (Currently in North Zone)

Open on 3rd or 4th Sat of Sept (Currently in South Zone) Does Not Matter

Figure 1. Preference of hunters for the timing of the opening day of dove season in the north zone. With the survey results in hand when setting the dove hunting season dates for the 2020-21 season, preferred factors were considered. These factors included timing of opening day, so the season was set to open Sept. 5, the first Saturday in September. Opening the season in the north zone on Sept. 5 allows seven additional hunting days in September and includes an extra holiday (Labor Day) for people to maximize hunting opportunity.

Only the 10 southernmost Alabama counties make up the south zone, translating into fewer responses for that zone; however, the largest percentage of respondents (45%) indicated they prefer the opening day of dove season to be the second or third Saturday in September. Historically the south zone has opened the Saturday following the north zone opener. Therefore, the 2020-21 south zone dove season opening date was set for Saturday, Sept. 12, the second Saturday in September. The remaining south zone responses align with the north zone responses. To see the entire dove survey go to www.outdooralabama.com.

The Alabama Dove Hunter Survey took some speculation out of the season-setting process, allowing WFF to maximize hunting opportunity by providing hunters with their preferred season options. We intend to replicate this survey every few years to have up-to-date information on hunter preferences. We hope that you can spend some quality time outdoors with friends and family this fall by kicking it off with dove season in September. What better way is there to get together with a group while maintaining social distance than on a dove field?