BY LYNN BURKHEAD
HERALD DEMOCRAT
On the Sept. 1st opening day of dove hunting season in North Texas and southern Oklahoma, a Facebook friend of mine posted a photo of a weather radar screen.
Lit up like the fireworks finale on the Fourth of July, his caption was simple.
Bye, Bye Birdies.
No doubt...especially as some area rain gauges measured more than 10 inches of rain during the September deluge.
Want to bust up a budding drought in the region?
Simple...just open dove hunting season. Which can turn conditions from searing heat and dry conditions to a four-wheel drive quagmire in one day.
In truth, the exodus of local dove flocks actually began about a week ago as rainfall and a north wind invaded the area.
Fields that had been full of birds previously were suddenly empty as the birds picked up and moved elsewhere.
So much so that two big North Texas dove hunts I know of were scrubbed earlier in the week. Why? Because of a lack of birds.
Nonetheless, there has been some spotty good dove hunting thus far.
Some of that was in the non-incorporated areas in the Frisco/Celina/Prosper area, a place dubbed "Little Argentina" in recent years thanks to the roost cover in nearby neighborhoods and the ample grain fields lying just outside of the those towns' city limit signs.
Other good shooting was reported too.
Vernon Richardson, a gun shop owner in Wolfe City, reported that he and his wife ended up two birds shy of a limit on Thursday evening...in just 90 minutes of hunting time.
Kevin Strickland reported a fairly easy opening day limit for himself and a near limit for his son, all of that coming within the first couple of hours of shooting time.
Other good shooting -- some of it red-hot -- was reported in Throckmorton County, near Haskell, and near Paris.
And down near San Angelo, several reports I've seen have described ridiculously easy shooting for limits of doves.
So in essence, the first two days of dove hunting season have come down to the tried and true axiom "Location, location, location."
As with any form of hunting, it's ultimately about the real estate you find yourself on.
If you found yourself where the birds wanted to be, the shooting was easy.
And if you weren't, well, better luck next time.
So what should Red River Valley dove hunters look for over the Labor Day holiday weekend?
For starters, they should look for new concentrations of dove to be arriving. While last week's front redistributed the wealth of resident dove flocks, this week's strong front should deposit a new bunch of birds into the area fresh from northern Oklahoma and southern Kansas.
Next, they should look for preferred food resources since water hole hunting is going to be sketchy at best for a few days until any remaining sheet water or puddles evaporate.
Finally, they might want to grab a few decoys and a Mojo spinning wing decoy or two. Most of the hunting reports I've seen this week indicated that the use of such decoys was a definite plus.
One thing seems certain -- while weather has scrambled the deck during the first few days of the 2010 dove season, it will also help to produce some epic shooting.
As long as you're in that proverbial right place at the right time, that is.
To be there, be prepared to do a little -- or a lot -- of scouting work.
Because the birds are going to be somewhere.
And that might as well be where you are.