Mourning dove season again in Michigan? Nugent's on it.

Looks like another state is inching closer to a dove season, and chiming in this time is none other than the Nuge:

I haven't vetted his statistics about dove being more numerous in Michigan than pheasant, quail, grouse and woodcock combined, or about dove hunting providing more recreation than fishing for bluegills, but he's probably not too far off the mark. Making this situation even more curious is the fact that in 2005, Michigan had a dove season. A single dove season. And then anti-dove hunting factions managed to place a referendum on the ballot that effectively scrubbed it.

Part of what brought voters out against dove hunting is that the dove is - get this - Michigan's state bird of peace. What?  Isn't that about as necessary as a state corn flake?

What Ted's so giddy about is a piece of legislation recently signed into law that places the ability to designate game species in the hands of the state Natural Resources Commission. Where did this control previously rest?  Within the immense pit of knowledge known as the state legislature. The same governing body that felt there was a justified need for a state bird of peace.

I'm pulling for you Michiganders, and if they take your season away again, come on down to South Carolina.  We let you hunt dove, our winters are warmer and we have no shortage of embarrassing politicians.

Enough with the rain already

The forecast said 50-70% chance of showers and thunderstorms.  It started on Saturday afternoon and did not stop, not even for a few minutes, until sometime in the wee hours of Monday morning.  Never worse than a pale yellow on the radar, it persisted like a four year old asking for dessert.

Rain and cooler temps can be a lethal mixture for a clutch of bobwhite chicks.  Fortunately we're probably still incubating any early breeders, at least the ones that didn't float away.

Ever Google "blueprints for an ark"?

Hope Springs

On my way back to town last Thursday I took a detour off the interstate to see if they'd burned any of the management areas I hunt in the Sumter National Forest.  One of the areas is a beautiful piece of land where I've had exactly zero success finding birds. Last season I ran into some serious rabbit hunters as they were packing up and asked if they'd seen any coveys. One replied that in all the time they'd hunted this tract they had not seen a single bird.

I drove by anyway and pulled over to stretch my legs, noticing that they had not burned this year and short of a well-timed lightning strike the brush would thicken considerably over the summer. I hadn't even closed the door to the truck when I heard a very lonely bobwhite giving it his all in hopes of finding some female companionship. Where's Chuck Woolery when you need him?

Yeah, you damn right I'll be back in the fall.