Outdoor Adventures
Phil Taunton
Friday, August 29, 2008
For those of you a bit long in the tooth, this column isn’t about the 1959 story by popular playwright Tennessee Williams, nor is it about the 1962 movie starring one of my favorite heroes, Paul Newman.
This story concerns morning dove hunting and the season opening on September 1. My days of emulating the rebellious “Cool Hand Luke” are long gone, but the passion I’ve had since I was a kid concerning dove-hunting is as strong today as it ever was. The fast and erratic flight of these little gray bombers zipping into a roost, a weedy sunflower field or coming to a watering hole provide shot-making challenges even the best wingshooters can’t score on.
With youthful innocence and not needing to take a hunter education class, I hunted doves with my trusty Red Ryder BB gun, with a slingshot and, believe it or not, I even harvested a bird or two with a well-thrown rock while marauding the back alleys and open areas in my hometown. At about the age of 10 or 11, Pop trusted me alone enough to take a shotgun out after my favorite quarry at the time. I was safe with a firearm, respectful of the land I hunted and the people I met. It was nothing for me to walk outside of town and find a place suitable to hunt doves. Hunting regulations and game laws were not as pronounced or meaningful then as they are today. Though not an excuse, I probably wasn’t even aware of them.
In today’s fabric of society, every hunter, young and old, should become an ambassador to the sport and in no way tarnish its heritage and tradition. It is every hunter’s responsibility to know and obey the laws that govern hunting each species.
Each year, the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks publishes a summary of Kansas hunting and fur harvesting regulations. Since the department needs to wait until the federal government sets the season for waterfowl, this booklet will probably not be in your hands by Sept. 1, but hunters can view and download the summary by going to the KDWP website, www.kdwp.state.ks.us and typing in “hunting regulations” in the search box on the home page.
Roost, feeding fields and watering holes are all prime locations to hunt doves. Scouting the birds prior to any hunt will guarantee you success if only you can hit these elusive targets.
Kansas is blessed with a lot of public lands to hunt doves, and KDWP has also gained you permission to hunt private land through its Walk-In Hunters Access program, or WIHA. These atlases are out now.
I talked with Don Patton, manager of Melvern Wildlife Area, earlier this week and Don said his crew planted three sunflower fields especially for dove hunting, but none of the fields did very well due to all the rain we have had. There are also two burned wheat stubble fields available for dove hunting.
The really bad news is that he hasn’t seen very many doves all summer on the wildlife areas. Some people are of the opinion that last week’s 50-degree lows might have sent some of the birds packing to southern climates.
As you go to the hunting fields this fall — anytime you travel to the country, for that matter — please remember to be ethical, respectful and sportsmanlike, and always be safe with your firearms. Please remember, you must have permission to hunt any private land, and leave the land as you found it. Do not litter. Take all your plastic bottles, cans, candy wrappers and assorted throw-away items back home with you.
Banded bird hotline
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, working with Kansas Wildlife and Parks, has been banding waterfowl and doves for several years now in an effort to gather scientific data concerning these species. Bands from these birds do not need to be returned, but information on the bands is essential for biologists to monitor the population of these species and to complete the survey. You may keep the band, but if you harvest a banded bird, please report it by calling the toll-free banded bird hotline at 1-800-327-2263.