Dove hunting season can be great fun, but Texas hunters must follow the rules | Leggett

I don’t even have to wait for dove season to open next to see what happens.

I know that when we gather up to clean doves on opening day, someone will have a least one ground dove or more likely an Inca dove in their bag. I know it’s happened at some point, but unless you’re George W. Bush campaigning for manliest candidate on the campaign trail, mistaken identity in the dove field is part of the equation.

Now I can already hear some of you sneaky so-and-sos asking why doesn’t the state allow us a mistake bird so we can stay legal? But you already have the answer before I give it: Because there would be a certain percentage of hunters who would absolutely have a tiny little Inca dove among their assorted birds.

Don’t think I’m just sitting around casting aspersions on you as an honest hunter because I’m not. Just assessing the odds. Don’t try to knock down any little doves that pop up off the ground as you’re walking to your hunting spot.

Just make sure you don’t make a mistake that could cost you a couple of hundred dollars and ruin what is sure to be a most enjoyable day, despite the 100-degree heat we’ll almost certainly have that day.

What to know about dove season

I’m not sure why dove season — opening day, at least — winds up being a game warden’s dream for violations, but there are so many things to which rules apply that it makes forgetting something an area for concern. But let’s talk about a few that have come and gone over the years.

The actual season is one of those things. It starts on Sept. 1 in the North and Central zones. South Texas has a delayed start because federal biologists determined that doves are still nesting at that time, but parts of the South Zone are still within the Special Whitewing Dove Zone that allows hunting on special weekends during the closed season for the rest of the area.

Hunters still can harvest mourning doves during that season, a holdover from the days when hunters were required to purchase a special whitewing dove stamp for $7 at their local retailer. That stamp gave hunters the right to hunt whitewing doves, which were contained almost totally on the Rio Grande and the Mexican side of the river.

How a 1983 freeze changed everything

That was before the 1983 freeze killed so may citrus trees where those doves nested. Within a year or two, there were more whiteings in San Antonio and down along U.S. 90 than lived in the Lower Valley.

Something had to be done to prevent hunters from taking too many whitewings. So we had the 12-bird limit, which punished hunters in certain areas with lots of mourning doves. Then we had two limits for a short time, 15 for mourning doves and 12 for whitewings. But that was too complicated for everybody, and we had so many whitewings in Central and West Texas that the daily limit was moved to 15 birds, no matter the species.

That didn’t erase the requirement that you had to leave a wing on whitewings to allow wardens to count how many whitewings you killed that day. If you’re confused now, think how mixed up I must be. We’ve settled on 15 birds of all species (except for white-tipped doves, at two per day).

But some wardens liked to know what you killed because — as a warden told me one day — some guys still like to see a wing on whitewings, even though the requirement had been dropped.

Have fun hunting, but follow the rules

Be sure to check your shotgun for a plug unless you’re using a single shot or a two-barreled gun, get out there and enjoy the opening of dove season on Sept. 1, but don’t forget your new license that expired Aug. 31. Get the “Biggie” License, which has everything, including any special requirements for archery, oversized redfish and any bird species you might hunt except for ducks, which is a federal requirement and a good one.

Go have fun and fill your daily limit with doves, which is two limits for the weekend since there’s only one weekend day that opening weekend. Just make sure you’re hunting in the right county and with the right bag limit.

That limit is only problematic if you’re hunting in an area with a large population of Eurasian collared doves. There is no daily bag limit on those birds. Leave a wing to be sure you can identify them to a warden.

Complicated, I know. But when you have a bunch of bacon-wrapped dove breasts sizzling over a mesquite fire, you’ll thank me. Or maybe not.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Dove hunting season can be great fun, but Texas hunters must follow the rules | Leggett