Let's Kill Birdies!

I was outside just now and I heard ominous popping sounds off in the distance toward the cotton fields.

Strange, I thought to myself. What could that be? And then I remembered....

From OutdoorNewsDaily.com:

Hurricane Dean didn’t hit Arizona last weekend as originally anticipated, and die-hard dove hunters breathed a sigh of relief. Storms can prompt a lot of white-winged doves to begin their annual migration south right before the opener.

The dove season opens on Labor Day weekend this year, running from Sept. 1-15. Biologists with the Arizona Game and Fish Department said the abundant summer rains throughout much of Arizona, and the associated green-up in the deserts, will likely result in the morning dove population being more dispersed this year. “On the plus side, it means you will have the opportunity to find doves away from the major concentrations of hunters,” said Mike Rabe, the department’s migratory bird biologist.

A big change this year is the newly-created year-round season (with no limits) on the Eurasian collared doves. The Eurasian collared doves are larger than both the white-winged and mourning doves. The year-round season commences with the opening of dove season on Sept. 1, 2007 and continues 365 days through Aug. 31 of 2008.

“The Eurasian collared doves are basically bonus birds for the bag and table. This species of dove provides great shooting and very good eating,” said Randy Babb, a department biologist in the Mesa Regional Office.

Yep, the popping sounds I heard were shotguns.

Once, when I worked as a bartender at the local country club, one of the regulars brought me a plastic bag filled with little blobs wrapped in aluminum foil.

"What's that?" I said as the man offered the bag to me.

"Some dove I killed this weekend," he said proudly.

"How do you cook it?" I asked. "With a Bic lighter and a thimble?"

"You cook it on a fry pan with some grease," he said while poking me in the ribs. "Quit joshing."

"Take them away," I said. "I'm not in the habit of eating flying rats."

On a final note for this pointless post, here's a fantastic photo of a bountiful dove harvest in Argentina. Mmmmmmmmm.

Boy, wouldn't it be just great to be a Eurasion collared dove?

Oh, and Rob at The 12 Volt Blog is all excited about the beginning of the flying rodent shoot. You can also find some philosophical ruminations about Karl Rove and dove hunting at The Fat Finch Bird Brain Blog....