Great shoot!!!

 

Great shoot!!!

Thank you. Think I'm gonna do it again in about a month.

 

Interesting.

Do folks eat those things? My guess is yes, and that hopefully they taste better than a pigeon and closer to a dove.

I've been a serious dove hunter (Ohio) since our first season in the 1970's. For a short while when we lost our season until a ballot initiative straightened that out, I hunted them in nearby next door Pennsylvania. Never anywhere else.

I'd heard of the Collared dove, but we don't have them here. My instincts are telling me I hope we don't start seeing them. Do they compete against our native dove?

 

GG- I've got a lengthy post (that I don't have the time to finish right now) answering all your questions above. I'll try and get it posted up within the next few hours.

 

GG- I've got a lengthy post (that I don't have the time to finish right now) answering all your questions above. I'll try and get it posted up within the next few hours.

Thanks Richard. Very gracious of you. No need to hurry responding on my account. It's a busy world and ANY time spent responding for anothers benefit is an unselfish act. While not perfect, but none the less, this is overwhelmingly a good site for friendly, helpful, unselfish, information.

If you get time, we'll look forward to your post. In the meantime I'm going to do a little research of my own. I have a vestige of a personal interest in wildlife biology, and invasive species' impact on native fauna.

 

GG, they taste exactly like Mourning Dove, only you get about twice as much meat. I've seen them as far north as Helena Montana, and they seem to be able to survive cold weather because I've seen them at elevations above 7000 feet while there is still snow on the ground. Being that they are descended from relatively small groups of escapees from southern Florida in the 1960's and 70's, I'm surprised you are not seeing them.

My guess is you've already seen them and didn't realize what they were, just maybe not so much in your traditional dove hunting areas. Unlike Mourning Dove who are seen in both wild and suburban/urban areas, you generally only find the Collard Dove in agricultural and urban/suburban areas. I've seen striking evidence of this in my local dove hunting spot which I'll explain in the next paragraph. They seem to love being where people are.

My local hunt spot is right at the base of the foothills that lead up to the mountains just outside of a national forest boundary. The Mourning Dove fly in along a Eucalyptus tree line into a wide flat bottom canyon where I set up my mojo decoys in wait. I've hunted this spot probably 100-150 times over the past 10 years and generally take an average of at least one Mourning Dove per hour hunted. Less than one mile away from this spot is a residential street that skirts the base of the foothills where on any given day I can see multiple Collard dove hanging out on the power lines and in the trees. However I have never even seen one in my local hunting spot just north of this street.

The Eurasian Dove seem to thus far coexist peacefully with Mourning and White Wing Dove. There is currently no scientific evidence (to my knowledge) that supports any kind of pressure on native North American Dove populations. I frequently see all three species feeding together on the ground, and hanging out together in trees with no apparent aggressive behavior towards one-another. Their is some scientific conjecture that the Collard Eurasians are filling the North American ecological niche left behind by the now extinct Passenger Pigeon.

As an avid wing shooter, I absolutely love hunting these avians for a few different reasons. With their exploding numbers, the state of CA ran a pilot program in Imperial County opening the season on them all year long with no bag limit. Didn't even make a dent in the population, so the following year they were opened up state wide with an unlimited bag limit. If you learn their flight patters/favored environment, you'll most likely smash a few on any given day of the year. In general they fly a bit slower than their smaller cousins, but they are capable of the same frustrating acrobatics once they know you are trying to drop them. For me, they are one of the very few advantages of wing shooting in Southern California.

 

What an informative response! Thanks for sharing your expertise, I'm smarter today for it.

 

Really great write up. I need to get out there to try and hunt these.

 

Thank you Harbor and Papa. I wish I could find a job guiding these types of hunts...

 

I'm very familiar with the Imperial Valley. The heat just gets brutal starting about now!

 

Richard, how far would this be from San Luis Obispo? My daughter will be in school there next year and I could make some extended trips.

 

Richard, how far would this be from San Luis Obispo? My daughter will be in school there next year and I could make some extended trips.

Not really close at all. Probably a five hour drive, and potentially 2-3 longer due to traffic if you don't time it right. If you are going to be in the San Luis Obispo area, you'll be much closer to some decent California valley quail hunting. Also lots of good duck hunting in the San Joaquin Valley in central California.

 

Thanks, Richard. I've located and contacted some guides in the SLO area for dove and quail hunts next year.

 

I would gladly pay you to show me the ropes in the Valley!

 

Hi PoorRichRichard,

Thanks so much for your post. It brought back fond memories of my youth when I hunted doves with my dad and very close friends who're now with God.

September 1st was a ritual. Opening day of dove season was always exciting. From memory alone, we hunted off of Wert Rd next to the All American Canal. We hunted perimeters of cotton fields and next to huge rows of haystacks. We usually had our limits by noon. We sat in shade while one of our closest friends BBQ'd fresh doves. They were delicious. Within a couple years, the bag limit was increased to 15. The timeline didn't change: we had our limits by noon. I used an ancient 20 gauge SxS. If I remember correctly, it didn't have a serial number. It must have been manufactured in the very early 20th century when it was common for inexpensive shotguns to not have serial numbers. Regardless, it dropped doves. I bought it used, and used it to the point of questionable safety. My dad began to worry that it had become unsafe. By then I had turned 18. I bought a new 12 gauge Wingmaster. It killed doves just as dead as my 20 gauge.

I can vividly remember walking into Grant Boys in Costa Mesa, CA and seeing dove hunting displays. Remington, Winchester, and Federal promotional shot shells were a $1.99 a box. Even White Front on Harbor Blvd in Costa Mesa had dove opener displays. If you remember Gemco, it had dove opener displays.

There was a discernible difference in performance between promotional shot shells and better quality shells like Sure-Shot. My dad began reloading shot shells to replicate Sure-Shot for doves and upland game.

A common sight were huge vultures perched on high tension wires that seemed to reach clouds. Imperial County is the only place I've seen such vultures. They looked as big as navy jets that did practice bombing at a distant mountain range.

I can vividly remember talking with a then senior hunter at the bank of the All American Canal. He pulled up a pants leg to show us his severely disfigured foreleg. He had been hit by a sidewinder while he was crawling under one of those tall, fern-like bushes (trees?) to retrieve a dove. He cautioned us to be vigilant for those destructive serpents.

I have a lot of treasured memories of hunting darting doves in Imperial County. It exposed me to the necessity of hand-eye coordination working in harmony with a shotgun and predicting doves' darting movements.

Some 20 years ago, I road tripped down memory lane. The area that created so many treasured memories for me had "No Hunting" signs posted. CA is not the same state in which I as born and lived my entire life. I have difficulty recognizing it. It seems as though it has become a satellite state of e Third World country. Who would have thought that it would become easier to buy marijuana than it is for a law abiding citizen to buy a bird gun?

 

1911, very cool stories! Thank you for sharing! I'm going to be more wary of rattlesnakes while I hunt the Imperial Valley!!!

You are correct- California is pretty screwed. One of the reasons I love hunting the Imperial Valley is that is feels like going back in time, but even that seems to be changing now...

 

In Idaho collard doves are an invasive species that are displacing mourning doves. They can be killed year round by any means that is legal where you are standing, same as feral pigeons and starlings. They do not count in your Mourning dove bag.

 

In Idaho collard doves are an invasive species that are displacing mourning dove.

Cite your source please.

 

My bad: My info was dated. I'm sure they used to be listed as invasive. It amounts to the same thing from the hunter's standpoint-the same rules for taking as starlings and feral pigeons.
This is a page from IDF&G hunting rules for 2021-2022:
Mourning Doves, Eurasian-collared Doves
Eurasian-collared doves are larger than mourning doves. They have a black collar on the top part of the neck, pale gray coloration, and dark primary feathers. These doves are an introduced species that have recently expanded their range into Idaho. Should you harvest Eurasian-collared doves while Mourning dove hunting, it is recommended they are left unplucked during transport so they can be distinguished from Mourning doves. Eurasian-collared doves will not count as part of your aggregate bag of Mourning doves as long as they are identifiable.

Eurasian-collared doves may be taken in any amounts and at any time by holders of the appropriate valid Idaho hunting or combination hunting license, provided such taking is not in violation of state, county, or city laws, ordinances or regulations.

 

I have no trouble admitting I don't like collared doves. Thier coos are guttural and sound like they have gas. I have an expanding flock in my neighborhood that look like they have bred with pigeons. I call them Franken doves. I'm thinking about baiting them this year. I'll give a couple to my granddaughter to practice her taxidermy. I may use a few for dog toys. I'm happy to kill and eat them in dove season, but don't care to listen to them at home.

 

Eurasian doves are quite common here in FL. I did some research on them when I first saw them and they reportedly got to FL via the Bahamas where some escaped captivity in 1974. They are considered an invasive species here and can be shot without limits.

They are plumper than a mourning dove and from what I have seen, do not fly as erratically as our mourning doves. Always look forward to seeing a bunch when dove hunting because they eat well and don't count against limits.

Eurasian Collared Dove: Breed Guide | Pigeonpedia

The Eurasian collared dove - scientific name, Streptopelia Decaocto - is native to Europe and Asia. Though the European and Asian continents are where the…

pigeonpedia.com

 

Awesome hunt! Where should I start looking to hunt in IV? I've never been before. Is it just the wildlife areas? Looking to go shoot Euros for the first time after having a great late quail season. Any tips for hunting Euros or hunting in IV would be greatly appreciated

 

PRR,
Great outing, with some very nice gunning!

all the best,

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith Man