Photo by Mark Romanack

Rifling through the thick September sky, the single dove popped into the sunflower field like a missile.

Pop, pop, pop, in rapid succession. More bangs of gunfire. Shots continued to ring out as the dove tried to beat a hasty retreat from the field. Finally, at the opposite corner of the field, a hunter connected on his second shot. The dove tumbled earthward in an uncoordinated aerial acrobatic display.

Following the single dove 45 seconds later, a trio of gray speedsters attempted to land in the field. They were met with an equal amount of firepower, and all three hit the ground. Lucky hunters ran out into the field to collect their prizes, ever mindful of watching the sky overhead for more doves.

The doves continued to swarm into the Canal Wildlife Management Area (WMA) public dove field in Berkeley County all afternoon. The frequency increased as the afternoon progressed. Hunters began leaving the field with limits, while others left short of a limit after expending their two boxes of shells. As hunters departed, new arrivals filed into the fields and found their place amongst hunters who were busy poking holes in the sky, with an occasional dove falling from some of those holes.

When September rolls around, this is standard action on many of the state's public-land dove fields. Hunters wait all summer for these hunts, and most of them are very good, including some that have continued success after the first-day hunts.

The success of the public-land dove field program conducted by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR) is bolstered by the state's strong tradition of dove hunting and its robust dove population.

DOVE POPULATION
SCDNR has long recognized the value of its mourning dove resource to hunters. As such, the agency has been involved in dove research and surveys off and on over the years. There is now a new initiative on a very large scale that is hoped to improve management of the dove resource.

"The agency has been involved in the past with Clemson University to estimate dove survival rates," said Billy Dukes, SCDNR's Small Game Project supervisor. "This information has been helpful on a statewide basis. However, a larger effort was launched in 2003 to band doves in 27 states, including South Carolina."

The objective behind the study is to band doves during July and August and determine how many are harvested during the subsequent dove seasons. By banding doves on a more national scale, wildlife biologists can obtain not only state-specific but also regional estimates of survival. From this, harvest regulations can be modified to better conserve the dove resource as well as potentially provide additional opportunity in some areas.

"SCDNR has had great success so far banding doves for this study," Dukes said. "We have met our banding quotas during the first two years of the study." SCDNR personnel banded over 1,300 doves in 2003 and nearly 1,000 in 2004.

It is too early in the effort for initial estimates, but several interesting trends are coming to light.

"There have been 179 recoveries of doves banded in South Carolina," Dukes said. "Ninety-two percent of those recoveries were in the state, and most recoveries were within 10 miles of where the dove was banded.

"Fifteen doves banded in South Carolina have been recovered outside of the state. Eleven were in neighboring Georgia, three were in North Carolina and one was in Kentucky. Only five doves that were banded in another state were recovered in South Carolina," Dukes added.