Opening Day is Coming

Its been:

179 days since the season for quail closed,

220 days since the season for ducks closed, and

227 days since the last season for doves closed.

It's 6 days before the opening day of Dove Season.  Everyone is getting ready.  Wally world has the cheap boxes of shells out, my brother is calling with his plans, fields are being cut and raked for the big event, and the doves have started their annual mocking of me.

It's true, I see more doves flying over vacant lots and sitting on power lines as I drive by.  And for some reason there are an inordinate amount of doves flying over my yard, setting in a tree and for some unknown reason, they seem to be mocking me.

Its like they know the season is coming up, and this is their last chance to get at me before I can talk back.  They seem to be everywhere.  And I believe that the dove perched on the power line outside my window just flipped me the feather.

OK birds, just 6 more days. Enjoy it now, I'll be having the fun on Saturday.

The Poor Boy's Dove Field

It’s been a while since my last post, and it might take days to catch up, but here is the quick synopsis of the plans for this year’s dove field.  I believe I gave some advice that if you don’t have the cash to spend planting and working the perfect field, there are options.  When I was told in April that I would be laid off this summer, those options were my only hope.  So this year, it’s the poor boy’s dove field.

I had tilled the field during the turkey season in hopes of planting sunflower and was trying to figure how much herbicide to put out, when I learned of my bosses’ plans.  When you have to cut back, the expensive field is the easy thing to do.  So we just let it grow, and I figured I’d mow a few strips a couple of times in the summer and just see what happens.

So I did.  Nothing fancy, and there were plenty of grasses and weeds dropping seed.  The first time I looked at the field was late July and we found an early covey of quail at the edge.  A strip was mowed, and we would see what may come.  And to my delight, the news from Johnny that he found dove feeding in the field this past weekend.

We shall see.  Hopefully the open mowed area will draw a few birds in.  If not, it seems the quail will be there for the winter hunts.  Regardless, I know where I’m spending opening day now.