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Bigger bag limits highlight dove season

July 2, 2009

Dove hunters in  Texas’ Central and South Dove Zones and the Special White-winged Dove Area will see increases in daily bag limits and an earlier opening of dove season in the South Zone under federal regulatory frameworks announced this past week.

Under the hunting season frameworks for early-season migratory game birds drafted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s regulation committee, the daily bag limit of doves in the Central and South Dove Zones will increase to 15 per day, up from 12 birds allowed in recent seasons.

Dove season length in all Texas dove zones — North, Central, South, Special Whitewing Area — zones will run a total of 70 days, 10 more days than the 60-day season hunters in the Central, South and Whitewing Area have seen in recent years.

Also, the state’s South Dove Zone will open Friday, Sept. 18 — two days earlier than the earliest date previous federal frameworks allowed the southern part of the state to open for dove hunting.

Authority for setting hunting regulations for migratory game birds rests with the federal government; states must set their migratory game bird hunting rules to fit within federal frameworks.

Texas wildlife managers had requested the Fish and Wildlife Service modify its long-standing prohibition of opening the South Zone dove season before Sept. 20. The Sept. 20 opening was designed to delay opening of dove season until all doves in the area had completed nesting and raising young.

The state agency has had a policy of opening the South Zone dove season the Friday following Sept. 20 unless Sept. 20the 20th falls on a Saturday. The action is designed to open the season on days when more hunters could take advantage of the opener.

That meant that some years the South Zone dove season didn’t open until Sept. 25.

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department officials requested the federal frameworks be modified to allow opening the South Zone dove season on the Friday nearest Sept. 20 but not earlier than Sept. 17. Recent research has shown almost all doves in the South Zone have fledged by early September.

Federal officials agreed to the change.

Also, federal officials proposed a 16-day, teal-only hunting season for Texas other southern-tier states where a special September season has been allowed  for the early-migrating ducks.

Federal protocols allow a 16-day teal season when spring surveys show the breeding population index of blue-winged teal is 4.7 million birds or more. A maximum nine-day, teal-only season is allowed when the bluewing index falls below 4.7 million.

Preliminary estimates of this year’s bluewing teal breeding population peg the index at around 7 million birds, up from 6.6 million in 2008.

TO THE WISE

Based on the federal frameworks, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has set the following season dates, bag limits and shooting hours for the 2009-10 dove and teal seasons:

DOVES

•North Zone: Sept. 1-Oct. 25 and Dec. 26-Jan. 9. Bag limit: 15 doves per day, no more than two white-tipped. Shooting hours: Thirty minutes before sunrise to sunset.

•Central Zone: Sept. 1-Oct. 25 and Dec. 26-Jan. 9. Bag limit: 15 doves per day, no more than two white-tipped. Shooting hours: Thirty minutes before sunrise to sunset.

•South Zone: Sept. 18- Nov. 3 and

Dec. 26-Jan. 17. Bag limit: 15 doves per day, no more than two white-tipped. Shooting hours: Thirty minutes before sunrise to sunset.

•Special White-winged Dove Area: Sept. 5, 6, 12, 13, Sept. 18-Nov. 3 and Dec. 26-Jan. 13. Bag limit: Sept. 5, 6, 12 and 13, 15 doves per day, no more than four mourning doves and two white-tipped doves; remainder of season, 15 per day, no more than two whitetips. Shooting hours: noon to sunset, Sept. 5, 6, 12 and 13; thirty minutes before sunrise until sunset during remainder of season.

TEAL

•Season dates: Sept. 12-27, statewide.

•Daily bag limit: four teal (bluewing, greenwing, cinnamon) in the aggregate.

•Shooting hours: thirty minutes before sunrise to sunset.