Doves

[Researcher]

Been quite a few years since old Researcher has had an opportunity to do any Dove shooting, but one of the "Sunday morning joy boys" I shoot skeet with invited me over to the Columbia Basin yesterday for the last three hours of the 2018 season here in Washington. One Mourning Dove and 55 Eurasians for the two of us. Thank goodness for invasive species!! Unfortunately any of the Fox doubles I would have liked to use were buried too deeply in the gun safe, so a 12-gauge Browning Superposed did the duty.

[Stan Hillis]

ONE mourning dove and fifty-five Eurasians! Unbelievable. Those "ringnecks" are unworthy of being killed with a Fox anyway, Dave.

SRH

[Researcher]

Took a lot longer for me to reduce those 56 birds to this large mixing bowl full of meat then it did for us to shoot them!!

[Jim Cloninger]

Dave, I am amazed there are such a high number of Eurasians that far north to be in Washington state! I have only seen 3 here around my house in the SF Bay Area. Lots of Mourning doves, though. Do the Eurasians taste different than a Mourning dove?
Jim

[Researcher]

They are not much in my neighborhood at 2200 ft elevation, but a mile south and 200 feet lower elevation down towards the Spokane River there are lots of them, but in areas too densely populated to be shooting them. Where we went in the southern part of the Columbia Basin Project we were at about 700 ft elevation in farming country.

I just sautéed some finely diced onions and garlic in olive oil until beginning to caramelize, threw in breast filets for about 90 seconds on each side, hit it with a splash of Sherry for another minute and dumped the whole mess over a bed of wild, white and brown rice. Tasted like Mourning Doves to me.

[loggy]

We live at 4500 feet in SE Idaho. The Eurasian doves will dominate our bird feeder in the winter. They don’t seem to mind the snow and cold.

[Stan Hillis]

They "eat" just like regular mourning doves to me too, Dave. There's just more meat on 'em.

SRH

[Stan Hillis]

One thing I would add about shooting Eurasians is that they are not nearly as sporting a bird as the Mourning dove, IMO. I've killed small numbers of them on dove fields for the last 10-12 years and found that they invariably fly slower and are not wary of "standers". Where a Mourning dove will flare if it sees you the ringneck won't. They'll just come loafing by at about half the speed of their "cousin", making for a much easier shot. We were concerned, when they first showed up, that they might become so numerous that they caused a reduction in the Mourning's population, but that does not seem to have happened at all. Actually, they don't even seem to be increasing in number. The hawks may be keeping their numbers in check. I would suppose they are a lot easier prey for a hawk than the Mourning.

296 Mournings, 1 Eurasian (in the middle of the cleaning table, and just to the left of the waste hole).



SRH

[Sporrns]

Dave, I hope you selected a good Columbia Valley Red Zinfandel to cap off your dove feast!

[Jeff S]

Wow! That's a lot of birds!

[Researcher]

Dave, I hope you selected a good Columbia Valley Red Zinfandel to cap off your dove feast!

Not much of a Zin man. Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec and some of the Red Blends. Just put two Dove Pies ala Shooting Sportsman, Aug/Sept 1991, in the oven. However mine are real pies, not turnovers as SS did.