There's More to Dove Hunting...
...than just the birds at your feet on opening day (if fortune smiles). I've enjoyed reading of the preparations some of our dedicated dove hunters have and are making for the upcoming season. Our hunting will be a very modest affair in comparison to what Charlie, Mills, and Stan, for example, are anticipating. Elaine and I scouted some of the local WMA sunflower fields this morning and saw decent numbers of birds.
In addition to the scouting for dove, we also surveyed some of our harbingers of Fall -- late blooming sunflower varieties, native thistle, prematurely reddening blackberry canes, and, my favorite, goldenrod, its color set off by the rich purple of ironweed. The goldfinches have gathered and are feasting in the sunflower fields. All is ready and decent weather predicted. We'll give the early morning flights a try, but the real treat will be to have a fine old bird gun in hand on a day afield. The older I get, the more I cherish these days.
Good luck to my fellow dove hunters.
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"Doubtless the good Lord could have made a better game bird than bobwhite, and better country to hunt him in...but equally doubtless, he never did." -- Guy de la Valdene (from A Handful of Feathers )
"'I promise you,' he said, 'on my word of honor, I won't die on the opening of the bird season.'" -- Robert Ruark (from The Old Man and the Boy)
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