Anyone seeing dove #’s increasing lately?

Slight cold front coming up at the end of the week, not sure if it’ll be strong enough to influence the birds or not. Doesn’t seem like it’s bringing much weather with it, at least west of dfw.

I see the decrease in central Texas so far.

Too early.
October is the deal.

I've definitely had some solid hunts in mid-to-late September in the past, and it seems to be a bit cooler than usual through this month. No two years are exactly the same.

Saw quite a bit on the power lines this morning, more than I've seen in the past 7-8 days combined. Might be a good weekend. All of these were mourning doves, seems the white wings have moved on.

I havent seen enough dove here to make a one man borrito. Was almost the same last year. WW move in heavier each year thru Oct and stay pretty solid towards real early Spring. Wish the WW came in during early Sept. here.

Saw more between Breckinridge and Moran this morning than I’ve seen all year.

Been hunting between Eastland and Breckenridge for 10ish years and we have yet to shoot any white wings, always been curious about it considering I see them all over sometimes. Only the occasional flock a hundred yards over the top.
But good news on the mournings, hopefully I can get a few hunts in.

Waller / Katy may have some fresh birds. I saw decent numbers this afternoon along the Grand Parkway between 290 and I-10.

Still seeing some birds around this morning. Not going to be a barn burner this weekend, but my guys will have some to shoot at.

Went out to the lease in Brookshire this morning for a few hours. Nothing at all. Dog and I got some exercise though.

I cruised the area NE of Dallas yesterday afternoon, and saw very few birds. I think we need a major cold snap before much is going to happen.

Foggy as heck this morning, but I'm hearing some shooting.

Tons of birds in my field in Throckmorton but my gosh the mosquitos are bad.

Same results north of Katy this morning.

Several limits this morning, I'll post some pics later.

RIght around Mason it has been slim pickin's, to say the least. It's been deteriorating for the last 5-6 years. I don't even bother any more.

I notice the same thing but this year was a little better than last year.

Hunting in the fog.

Looks like good times again John!

This afternoon I checked that field you hunted in opening day, it had a lot of birds. Haven't hunted it since opening weekend and don't have anyone scheduled to hunt it.

Timing is the main thing always. LOL

Only got 1 so far. Dove hunting stinks now since they put a subdivision in not 4 miles from the lease, the one dove I did kill, his gut was full of Sunflowers seeds. Not many people around here Grow Sunflowers, but alot of people feed em!

No limits this morning, but everyone got some shooting in on my place. No one hunted the lease fields this weekend.

I shot at one about 40 yards out this weekend.

7 limits in Breckinridge, 11 folks hunting

I have two lease fields with lots of birds this week. One field is 100 acres and one is 35 acres.

We tore them up all last week in the south zone.

Mosquitos were hungry, called it early on Sat evening, we were getting destroyed, even with deet and permethrin. Sunday morning was chilly, so mosquitos didn't show up until 10AM. Birds had stopped flying by then. Ended up with 13 dove for 2 guns. Woodson TX

edit: if we woulda shot better, we could have had probably 10 more birds.

This afternoon was really good in the lease field.

How much a gun and where are the fields located at?

South of Breckenridge, $100 a day.

What is a number for ya?
A buddy and I might be interested for Sunday but won't know till later this week

Pm sent

Stompy seems very honest whether he’s got birds or not. Wish I were closer!

I buy hunts too, have dealt with some good and bad outfitters. I really try to be the best I can dealing with migratory birds. They will move on you with the slightest weather change. I always tell folks what I'm seeing that day, it may change the next day for better or worse. It's really frustrating at times, but I do my best. I will never lie or embellish, I hate when Outfitters do that. Thanks for the kind words.

Good stuff right there!

"Oh Man, y'all shoulda been here yesterday"

I've heard this too many times, mostly goose hunting

Hunted in jones county over the weekend near Noodle Mosquitoes everywhere and very few birds flying. Not good hunting conditions at all. Hopefully, a cold front will bring some down. Bird populations are interesting. Last year was an amazing year.

You know what, some times that's true. If folks expect to kill a limit every time they hunt with me...then I'm not your guy.

The power lines were COVERED UP with birds in Lucas when I was running errands earlier. I hope they stick around.

Saw a few on the lines between Glen Rose and Cleburne today on hwy 67.

Fact with anybody. I hunt an area that is going to nearly always have birds, but this year it started tough. After 3 tries this season, first 2 the rain got us, we finally hit it right north of Abilene. Hunted 3 days and smoked 'em each time.

Still pretty slow where I'm at in sw young co. This is the only bird I have seen.

Ain't seeing anything this morning due to fog, can't see 40 yards.

If you like hunting prior to big cold fronts, this may be the weekend for you. Seeing 20-25 degree drops from Sunday to Monday in some places!
Hope you like wind also, though.

Falls County, heading down to Mom's for breakfast this morning from Waco, I saw more doves than I've seen in years. If I'd been in my truck and carrying my shoot'em gun I would've been late for breakfast.

you know the saying. Dont leve home-8-***##

Hi slow drifter, i have friend that grew up in Marlin, his twin brother still lives nearby, small world. So you hunting sunday??

Limit this afternoon in less than 2 hours... Haskell county.

Hope they stick around for a bit, got a big group hunt planned for next weekend just SE of Haskell!

Hunted in frost to last night and this morning very slow . Not hearing many other shots either

Brookshire didn’t produce a lot this morning, handful of birds in range.

Had 3 fields with good birds and had 3 fields with very few birds, all in all, a fun weekend.

Haven't seen a ton of birds out here in West Texas, but haven't shot a lot either. Introduced my son to the world of bird hunting and so I have been letting him do some shooting to learn just how fast them little boogers can be.

going to give it a shot in Colorado City this weekend. Hope these cold fronts push some down.

Still plenty of birds in Haskell County.

Lots of birds in S Texas, hunting Duval & Jim Wells county. Good mix of mourning dove & white wing. Lots of birds killed last weekend but most big groups were high fliers. After two years of trying with the family 4/10 my 9 yr old Son finally shot his first dove on Saturday evening. Sunday morning I upgraded him to a pump 20 gauge and he shot 4 more. Gun’s a little long for him but he’s shooting skeet & birds with it well so I’ll leave it alone, he’ll grow into it in no time anyway. He actually outshot 4 or 5 adults with it on Sunday, which he’s pretty proud of My baby girl is now starting on the 4/10 but she has a ways to go yet. Right now she’s still enjoying being the best little bird dog in S Texas. I should have taken more pics. Life is good.

Awesome!

After opening week I've seen very little. Been out a couple times about 50 min NE of Austin. Almost nothing flying. Wether it's early morning or late evening maybe 2-3 birds are seen and normally not within shooting distance.

Normally by this time of the year I'm able to go out and on average be able to shoot (at) 10-12 birds every hunt at our house in VZ county. I haven't even fired a shot this year. No dove to speak of - not even many local birds around. Odd year. It IS 2020 after all I guess. Plenty of food and plenty of water so who knows!

I had birds on my lease start showing just before the front, then bam, they were gone again the next day. Not a single bird stayed behind.

We have property in Myrtle Springs...went out once and shot one bird. May give it another go this weekend.

Went down to Mom's house in Falls County for breakfast Saturday morning and saw more doves flying than I have in years. I could have gotten a limit in her front yard in about an hour. Normally I would have gotten a hunt in before breakfast but I'm medically barred from shooting a shotgun or rifle for the foreseeable future so yeah, my dove/duck/deer season is a scratch this year.

May be better this weekend. I noticed a bunch of birds between Forney and Wills Point on my way home yesterday. Even had a few show up at the house N of Edgewood. Just so long as the next front doesn't push them out - which it shouldn't because it should be a dry front.

Sitting in my backyard in NE Ft. Worth, enjoying the weather, and watching a ton of 10-30 bird white wing flocks hauling butt W-SW. Flying high and fast with this NNE wind.

Finally started seeing some dove out in Brookshire. I saw the first snipe of the season this weekend as well and my springer flushed a small covey of quail. We've been seeing quail out there every trip I take the dog. Nice surprise and seeing wild quail out on the Katy prairie made not shooting many dove sting way less.

Still flying pretty good in Throckmorton County. I got these yesterday morning.

I also jumped a covey of Quail in a field adjacent to Katy Prairie Conservancy yesterday morning. Very cool seeing them there.
I did shoot a few dove, managed 5. Not much to get excited about. But, with averaging .75 birds over 8 previous hunts, it was a welcomed change.

Same area longtalltexan.

Y'all making me nervous reading y'alls reports. I'm headed to Uvalde next weekend for a couple of days. Fingers crossed the birds are there as I'm introducing a couple of guys to hunting and wouldn't want this trip to be a bust.

Less birds at my place today

We need a cold front, suppose to be 94-95 this weekend. There were a few birds on the last front but not many. I believe mid to late October will be good, if we get some fronts. I don't believe we've seen the bulk of the migration yet.

Just a different year for sure

I feel that is what alot of people have been saying for years now

Yep.

Folks will be singing another tune next year.

Looks like there's a little interest in this thread. 1,100 of those view are likely mine, doing some digital scouting.

Past 3 years have been bad hatches, that's the issue. We need a couple of good hatches to increase numbers.

I saw more birds last weekend in central Texas. However, they did not fly much, few hunters in the field as well. It is hard to get them if the bird does not fly.

What this man said. Those 2 bad droughty years followed by last year is the problem. Last year there weren't enough seed birds left. Like we talked about John. Gonna be a while.

Very few in Fannin County this morning. Not even the ones that normally hang out on the wires on 816 around Vernon's place.

Crazy never saw a dove and the field is loaded with food

We haven’t seen any migration in Hamilton County that I can see. I hope we some movement before the season is over.

Any updates, especially down south?

Pretty slim here south of Breckenridge. Hopefully this next front will blow some in.

Homer75 I'm thinking about taking a drive down South but I don't know were I want to go. Maybe somone will answer you on how the birds are in the South zone.

Stompy you are a man of your word. My wife asked me on Sunday if an outfitter would tell the truth. I told her I knew of one two that would.

birds in Mansfield

Not many seen in Grayson County last weekend.

Lots of birds flying in the areas of the South Zone where I hunt. Youngest Son & I bagged 22 Sunday evening.

Decook, I wish I could invite you down but we’re backing off of the dove now, getting close to rifle season for deer. We deer hunt most of those same areas.

I'll try to drive them out of Kansas and Oklahoma this weekend.

Thanks skinnerback. But you're right to back off, November is coming FAST. Maybe next year. It appears that you taught your son how to shoot a scattergun, maybe you can punt some tips to me. I do everything perfect, except hit the birds. Just this one last piece to figure out and I got it made.

I'm counting on you bobcat1. I'll let you know how successful you were on Monday.

It never seems to corollate with what's happening in the field, but I think we have some new birds showing up in Spring. I've seen a lot of birds today. White Wings and Morning.

I live in Spring, too. Just several groups flying around my house. Gonna pop out to the lease and see what's going on. Seems like every year, the birds don't show up until near the end of the season. Season dates are frustrating.

Checked my fields (4) and some lease fields (3) this morning. Two of the fields (125 acres) were recently planted in wheat. Saw a total of 8 doves this morning. I have no idea why the northern birds aren't here, was 45 degrees here this morning. Pretty unusual for this area.

Sparse in Wharton area

Same here food everywhere and very few birds I can't figure it out

Saw a flight of 6 mourning doves go past the house just after sundown, plus 2 other singles at about the same time. Im near 1488 / 2978 area. Well, I'm up at 02:30 tomorrow for the 5 hour drive down South. I hope I have some opportunity. This is gonna be the last dove hunt for me this year.

Several groups flying and on lines this evening grayson county.

I have had tons around Woodson up until about a week ago. Mine seemed to have left a day or two before the front on last Monday. It’s been poor ever since.

Very poor here too south of Breckenridge. Two fronts coming this week, hopefully better next weekend.

i think this cool front pushed them in for us. going this evening.

Wow. long weekend. Saw more dove on this trip than I have seen on public land for the last 3 years. Not stellar numbers like I read here, but I'm guessing I saw between 40 to 50 birds, not all were in range. If I could just shoot a shotgun I could have brought home 15 doves between 2 days (just a guess). I didnt hit a single one :-(

My wife and I made a camping trip of it too. I have one of those pickup bed tents, just pitch it in the bed and blow up the air mattress. We like to stay at those picnic areas you see going down the road. Love hearing as hoot owl in the middle of the night.

Just checked my fields after this front, saw 3 doves. No idea where the northern birds are, either there's not many or just not here yet. Weird year, usually this time of year is pretty dang good.

We hunted this morning and saw 0 crazy

I went to my property yesterday and didn't even take a shotgun.....figured I would be covered up in birds when I didn't have a gun with me but no, didn't see a single dove, not even on the wires driving there...

Saturday afternoon in Haskell, saw one pair, and I got there about 2. Sunday morning I did not hunt I had to get back, but scouted around before I left and did see more birds.

I wonder what is going on with dove season this year I never seen it like this

I've heard a theory that the smoke from the fires are messing with their migration. No idea if that's the case, just a theory I heard. They may have had a bad hatch up north, I'm as confused as you are Sallysue

Hunted this past weekend in between La Pryor and Uvalde and there were a few birds at best. There were five of us that hunted Saturday and Sunday morning with a grand total of 14 birds killed. We were hunting in a sesame seed field and still weren't enough birds to call it a hunt.

I think me and my brother found the flyway through our property, sparse groups of 3-5 fly through for about 5 minutes totaling about 30 dove, I got one this evening

HUGEEE cold front coming through on Monday, let’s see if the season gets salvaged in the last few weeks. *fingers crossed*

Texas First Dove Split ends 1 November...so they better get here quick...!

in the Lenard- Bailey area in Fannin County I saw very few this weekend.

North Zone is November 12th, so just about 3 weeks left for some.

Big groups of dove flying today. Several groups of 3/4/5 as well. Going to try tonight if it's not raining.

That’s unfortunate, that’s usually a good place for dove.

Saw maybe 7 or 8 this morning

Where? County?

Go scout king bird hunter!

Sorry, grayson county.

That's Mr. King Bird Hunter to you!

I just curious, I'll be hunting Haskell this weekend, which has not been good last 2 weekends.

Nothing on the front here,,so far. I don't know what happened to our northern birds this year, worst October ever for doves that I've experienced.

Same here in Bell County

2 shy of a limit in Haskell county. Got here 3:30. More birds than last week. Shooting these 9 year shells, have had 6 miss fires. About to do a fish fry for land owner and his family, I got 66 fillets,

How many people you feeding? While deer and dove hunting last weekend I Cooked for 6 men, brought 36 filets and still had enough fish left over.

That’s a lot of filets

Gettrdone!

I wanted to take my kids dove hunting again this weekend, but instead I'm sitting through a Hunter Education course with my youngest Son and nephew.

11 people, 6 fillies each. There was a bunch left over.

Nice hunt Guy. Good job taking care of that place and those folks. I'll find me one next year.

A lot slower this morning...

Extremely slow here this weekend, believe I'm done with Dove hunts this year. Unless the northern birds decide to show up in December. Very weird year, seems the northern birds never showed up.

That's a shame. We were looking forward to an October hunt.

The season has been a wash for me, but the snipe showed up today bigly. Just wish I had somewhere nearby to hunt them when the season starts.

Season started off ok than it got super slow and now rain next few days Season over Sat

I agree that so far, the bulk of northern birds have not yet showed up in the numbers hoped for...but there is a BIG cold front due in TX this Tuesday and it could salvage the last weekend of the first split in the central and south zones...will have to see if mother nature comes through for us.

I did get out this past Saturday to do a pm hunt over standing sunflowers...birds were kind of shy and the numbers were not heavy...but I did manage 12 before sundown.

Well has anyone noticed an increase in birds since this front went through? I noticed an increase in the northern metromess the last few days but urban birds are not the best indicator.

Talk to us Stompy! Tell us they showed up in droves and we need to hurry out there.....

Ive killed 58 in my last 4 hunts over the past 2 weekend hunting harvested sunflower fields in Slaton.

Didnt fire a shot this morning.

Just checked out 2 other fields and havent seen a dove at either field.

I am seeing more birds at my place in the evenings for some reason

Saw some high flyers this morning, but didn't get to fire a shot at anything. Grayson county. Lots of ducks and geese tho.

Season was pretty underwhelming but last weekend we were absolutely covered in doves (Milam county). I’m hoping for a great winter season

Dove showing up at house for first time in at least a month. We normally have a couple of hundred at deer lease by now. We might have 10. Strange year. I guess they are still in Kansas.