Keenesburg – The morning flight of doves, the farmer said, was more than he had seen all season.
“They’re on the wires, in the trees, in the air, everywhere,” he said.
If this were not testimonial enough to a successful opening day, the resounding echo of shotgun fire would have told the same tale. In defiance of the escalating cost of shotshells, a small army of hunters happily were blazing away in the farm country outside Keenesburg.
Hunters again had dodged a bullet with a major break in the weather; apparently, doves were doing much the same. The large number of birds in the Saturday flight pattern spoke to the warm temperature that blanketed eastern Colorado through the end of August, virtually assuring that these thin-feathered fowl would stick around awhile.
On average, a cold snap spoils the opener about once every five years – which, coincidentally, is almost precisely the average percentage of marksmanship for a speedy bird noted for its erratic flight. Add a bit of wind to the equation, and the cost of filling a limit goes up exponentially.
In this part of the prairie, at least, no one could blame the breeze. On a day of dead calm beneath a quilted sky, lousy aim had nowhere to look for comfort.
The greater problem most hunters discovered Saturday could be found underfoot rather than in the air. A summer of ample rainfall turned the prairie the color of emerald velvet, with the tallest crop of weeds and sunflowers in many a moon.
In many cases, hunters found themselves excluded from their usual haunts. Trouble was, they could see birds to shoot, but difficulty with recovery caused them to move to shorter, not greener, pastures.
A similar abundance of water created a separate challenge. With virtually every depression filled with moisture, the usual strategy of watching tanks and windmills no longer, well, held water.
The overriding circumstance of this hunt is that, over most of eastern Colorado, doves can be almost anywhere. Colorado is home to several million doves, with this year’s crop assessed at about average.
Success this season likely will include a strategy that embraces a good food source and a nearby roost site.
In the area near Keenesburg, the best combination seemed to involve sunflowers, which grew in abundance. Although most of the seeds had not yet ripened, this bounty included enough food to bring birds from every direction.
The flight pattern also included the first appearance in the area, to our reckoning, of an Eurasian collared dove. This exotic species, larger than the mourning dove, has been making increasing inroads across the region, much to the consternation of the Colorado Division of Wildlife, which fears competition with the native birds.
Regulations allow an unlimited take of the Eurasian invader, provided the tell-tale black collar at the back of the neck is left intact for identification. DOW will allow a Dec. 1-Feb. 29 extended season for these birds, which often remain around the edges of town during winter.
Meanwhile, good dove weather is expected to hold for several days; the first break in the current heat wave isn’t expected until Thursday.
By then, many hunters will have run out of shotshells.
Staff writer Charlie Meyers can be reached at 303-954-1609 or cmeyers@denverpost.com.
