OUTDOOR CORNER: DOVE SEASON SHOULD BE BOUNTIFUL

Friday, Sept. 1, marks the opening of Missouri's dove hunting season.

The number of resident mourning doves are up. Crops that provide food for doves are ready.

And with Missouri headed for its second consecutive split dove season, quail and pheasant hunters will be able to share the bounty. All in all, this year's dove season seems to be shaping up as a memorable one.

Results from this summer's roadside mourning dove survey show significant increases in mourning dove numbers compared to last year and to the 10-year average.

The state's northeast river breaks region showed the most impressive gain, a 45.3 percent increase from 1999 and a 21.3 percent increase from the past five-year average. The northwest prairie region was second, up 39.4 percent from last year and 33.3 percent over five years. The western prairie region's increase was 34.3 percent from last year and 11.9 percent over five years.

Even the Ozark Plateau, where observers counted the fewest doves (.7 per mile of survey route), posted an impressive 30.8 percent increase from 1999 and was up 36.9 percent compared to the past five years. The Mississippi lowlands region posted the largest five-year gain 55.5 percent. It and the remaining regions showed gains of 20 to 26 percent over last year.

A mild winter and a relatively dry spring account for the surge in mourning dove numbers.

Doves are year-round nesters in areas where the climate permits, and this year's warm winter temperatures let many birds get a head start on the nesting season. Wet weather normally takes a toll on early dove nesting, but this year we didn't have any serious rainstorms until mid-June.

Most of the birds that Missouri hunters pursue on dove season's opening day are ones that spent the summer here, rather than those migrating to Missouri from farther north. Most migrants don't arrive in Missouri until later in the fall. So good news about the number of summer resident doves means good news for hunters on opening day. And because a large portion of the doves taken by hunters every year are killed in the first week or two of the season, 2000 is likely to see a large dove harvest.

This year's dove season also bodes well for hunters who spend time afield in November.

For the second year in a row, the Missouri Conservation Commission has approved a split season, running from Sept. 1 to Sept. 30 and from Nov. 1 to Nov. 30. This contrasts with the preceding eight years, when dove season ran from Sept. 1 through Oct. 30.

The change was intended to provide maximum dove hunting opportunity. Although a few hunters were pursuing doves in October, dove season was closed by the time quail and pheasant seasons opened in November. The idea was to give Missouri's 75,000 to 80,000 quail and pheasant hunters the chance to shoot doves when other upland game bird hunting opportunities were scarce.

This season, shooting hours are from a half hour before sunrise to sunset each day. The daily bag limit is 15 doves with a possession limit of 30.

Hunters 16 years of age and older are required to have both a small game hunting permit and Missouri Migratory Bird Hunting Permit.

Hunters 15 years of age or younger are not required to possess either permit if they hunt in the immediate presence of a licensed adult hunter or if they have successfully completed a hunter education class.

Ten Mile Pond CA in Mississippi county will hold a youth-only dove hunt the morning of Sept. 2. Youths age 15 and younger are eligible for the event. Each youth must be accompanied by an adult. The adult must have a valid hunting permit if the youth is not hunter education certified. Participants must check in at 5:30 a.m. on Sept. 2 at the Ten Mile Pond CA headquarters. The headquarters building is off Highway VV, 5 miles southeast of East Prairie.

For more information, call 573/290-5730 or e-mail LANCAM@mail.conservation.state.mo.us>.

Gene Myers is a Missouri Department of Conservation agent in Cape Girardeau County.