• Home
  • News
    • Politics & Government
    • Business & Economy
    • Crime / Courts
    • Health / Medicine
  • Sports
    • High School Sports
    • Radio Iowa Poll
  • Affiliates
    • Affiliate Support Page
  • Contact Us
    • Reporters

Radio Iowa

Iowa's Radio News Network

You are here: Home / News / Dove season opens Friday in Iowa

Dove season opens Friday in Iowa

August 28, 2017 By Dar Danielson

Mourning doves. (DNR photo)

The state’s seventh dove hunting season opens Friday and an Iowa Department of Natural Resources expert says many hunters have probably already been out scouting.

DNR  Wildlife research biologist Todd Bogenschutz says the preliminary work is key in dove hunting. “Definitely when you are thinking about dove hunting — doing some pre-season scouting before the season opens is super important,” Bogenschutz says. “Doves begin migrating out of Iowa usually around mid-August and start heading south and you definitely want to find out which fields they are using and how they are coming in and out of the fields.”

The state plants food plots to draw in the doves, and Bogenschutz says they can often be good areas to hunt. “Sometimes we’re pretty successful and kind of create ideal conditions. Other times mother nature makes it a bit challenging, so even our managed dove plots you want to check out,” according to Bogenschutz. “If you are going to be hunting on private land — whether that is pasture, cut silage fields, small grains fields — definitely pays to check those out too. How many doves are using them.”

The Iowa DNR doesn’t keep official counts of doves, but Bogenschutz says they’ve had some reports as other species are counted.

“We’re hearing from staff they are seeing pretty good numbers when we do the roadside counts, even though they don’t count them there. It looks like our season should be pretty similar to last year and I’m expecting the hunters should do fairly well,” Bogenschutz says. Hunters took 131-thousand doves last season.

“I think that’s one of our highest harvest totals and so we are expecting another good season this year,” Bogenschutz says, “our hunter numbers have stayed relatively stable. We’re right there I think around the 10 to 12 thousand mark for hunters. It’s bounced up a little bit, bounced a little down.” He says the highest population of doves tends to be in southern Iowa.

“When we had some counts through the Fish and Wildlife Service that seemed to show the better numbers down there. I think maybe it’s just a mixture of maybe more pasture down there and maybe some small grains showing up down there. And you’ve got a nice interspersion of landscapes. You’ve got a little bit of hedgerows and those kinds of things rather then when you get up here to central Iowa you’ve can have a lot corn and beans for a long ways and not much else there,” Bogenschutz says.

Dove season is September 1st to November 29th, with a daily bag limit of 15 doves, and possession limit of 45. Legal shooting hours are from one-half hour before sunrise to sunset.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Filed Under: News, Outdoors Tagged With: Department of Natural Resources, Hunting & Fishing

Featured Stories

Exhibit features lesser known works of Grant Wood

Testing finds 21 new CWD cases in deer

It may become a crime in Iowa to use fake urine in workplace drug tests

February trending 18 degrees below average temperature

Iowa House Education Committee votes to end tenure at UI, ISU, UNI

TwitterFacebook
Tweets by RadioIowa

Iowa’s Jack Nunge lost for the season

Key stretch begins for #9 Iowa

Drake’s Roman Penn lost for the season

Drake’s DeVries named to Naismith watch list

State wrestling opens with limited attendance

More Sports

eNews and Updates

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Archives

Copyright © 2021 · Learfield News & Ag, LLC