I had six hunters and they limited on opening day. Next day they shot about 25 birds total. Saturday and Sunday zero birds shot and only saw about a dozen seen flying.
Tough slow opening weekend for sure.
The freeze killed a bunch and 70 mike an hour winds and hail knocked down a bunch of nest.

Traveled from Waco to Seguin yesterday from 5 to 7:30 pm and watched the wires along the way. Only saw 5 singles and one group of about a dozen birds sitting on the wires. The group were just south of Temple still in the city limits. Not your normal bird count on a trip like that.

Same for us out west. We slayed them on opening day, and it's fallen off dramatically since. We found over 100 dead birds back in the freeze, and had big storms right about the time the eggs were laid. We haven't seen near the number of whitewings we normally see.

Went out opening day just north of Mason and saw exactly 2 birds and they were sailing across the field about 100 yards away. Next day I sat by two tanks; one in the morning, and one in the evening. Did not see any birds. We haven't had huntable numbers of birds around Mason for the last several years, but could generally pick up a couple on opening day. The Big Freeze really took its toll, and I'm afraid that we're going to go from bad to worse and I'm sure it will take a couple of years for the populations to come back. I've heard that we may have another very cold winter; not Polar Vortexes, but "below average" temps and that certainly won't help.

I hunt Stonewall county and opening weekend sucked. 2-3 weeks ago I had birds everywhere, but they’re gone now. I shot a limit on Thursday, but it took morning and evening hunt to get a limit and I shot 12 during the morning hunt.

We did see some birds, but they were flying high and flaring on the mojos. Really weird opener.

Weather being so hot does not help either! Looks like we have another week of high temps, this weekend being near mid 90s, and then finally falling off next week. Not too normal for Sep, or at least this far in

Update——-
Went out late Saturday morning. Saw a few, very few. Shot at 4 brought in 2. Not a good hunt. Back out on Monday evening. 4 of us.

This tank was the bone daddy for white wings. Very bad. Very few birds. I think 4 shot yesterday evening and we stuck it out till the end. Hoping it gets better but gloom has sat in for me.

The USFWS dove population status appears to be on a year lag basis. The August 2021 report lists data through 2020. Sad to see the decline in mourning doves over the past decade in the Central region. I expect we'll see a dramatic drop in absolute population when the 2022 report is complete next year, as well as a corresponding reduction in the daily bag limit. It's unfortunate the extraordinarily cold weather event & die-off wasn't considered in this year's harvest planning. I look forward to dove hunting more than any other 'holiday' & want it to be around for my grandkids & beyond.

https://www.fws.gov/migratorybirds/...gDove/MourningDovePopulationStatus21.pdf

Might just be me, but I would say that hot temps are pretty normal for September - if anything, this summer has been pretty mild.

I agree, Houston didn't have a day over 100° this summer which is the first time since I don't know when. I am not talking about heat index the actual temp didn't get above 100.

Dove and duck numbers are way down. I do not care what and usfw survey states. Farming has changed and it’s changed all migratory birds. For the worse. It ain’t the weather keeping dove away. We all sweat our rears off 20 years ago while counting our limits.

I noticed the "deep freeze" we had in February killed/ froze dozens of dove as well as Turkey on my ranch. Not surprised the numbers are down on the native birds

Was very slow in Throckmorton until the front came through Sunday. Sunday evening and Monday morning were absolute barn burners.

I believe that dove hunting is like owning a business...the only thing that matters is location, location, location...

Case in point, I went to an area that had four properties within a five mile radius...two of the properties were freshly cut hayfields and two were harvested cornfields...

I drove by three of the properties and did not see any birds perched on the high wire lines or flying about...I mean it was like an empty fishbowl. These were the two cut hayfields and the larger cornfield.

However, the last property had a total of two dove perched on the high wire lines overlooking a small cornfield.

I started my hunt on the larger harvested cornfield and I noticed the farmer had turned the field after harvesting the corn...and the waste corn was now plowed under...I saw only a few dove and they were really really far away...no bueno...

During lunch, I cooled off in the truck AC and tried to come up with a game plan that at least would give me a chance at some dove...so I decided to try the smaller cornfield where I saw the two dove perched in the a.m.

Turns out a lot of dove were feeding in the smaller cornfield...and I ended up salvaging the day with a decent dove shoot.

I was curious as to why the dove liked this smaller field, so I took a good look and found the farmer had harvested the corn, but had not turned the dirt over after the harvest...so there was a good bit of waste corn laying around on the ground...and the dove wanted it badly...!!!

Location, Location, Location...!

x2 pretty normal. can remember opening day 5yrs ago. temp 105 DEG. was covered up.

Hot and Dry weather is custom made for good dove shooting...maybe hard on us humans, but the dove love this type of weather...!

Hot and Dry weather is custom made for good dove shooting...maybe hard on us humans, but the dove love this type of weather...!

Maybe they decided to stay down central America since the people are migrating here.

Planning to head out to the ranch in Throckmorton tomorrow - for you guys that live out that way, any more birds hanging around after that front earlier in the week? Figured it takes them a couple of days to get on the move down after it blows through up North.

I'll be out to Throck tomorrow PM as well. Hopefully this little front pushed some down. LO said after couple of hunts fri and sat they were shot up and gone.

Dang - hopefully we can catch a break. All of our guys had a similar report from last weekend. Didn’t sound like any white wings made their way down yet.

Will post up on Sat upon my return to Metromess.

Ugly. No birds. Shot at 2 birds hit one in 4 shots. Sleeping in and headed back home. Never seen it like this. Gonna take big time fronts to bring birds down. There are just no local birds. Sad. October hunting could be great. Hell during deer season could be good. Good luck out there.

It was slow going on my end as well. Ended up with 4 birds. Should have had 2-3 more but had to take a work call.

I saw a few decent sized groups, 8-10 birds, all Mourning Dove though, no white wings yet. These are the resident birds. I’m setup on a ~200 acre field that was wheat but pretty much bare now. Property across the street is mowed sunflower lanes about the same size. All my birds this evening were in transit to/from this field. Only 1 guy hunting over there or they would have been moving more.

I think the key in this area will be once the White Wings show up. Hasn’t happened yet though (so it seems). I agree it will probably be in the next few weeks - month maybe. All we need is one strong cold front where it gets low up north to drive them down. Should be great for a few days to a week while they work though.

I’ll report back after the AM hunt.

I slept in. Appels, at least you burned a few shells.