Field reports from last week’s dove hunting opener lived up to predictions, for the most part. The action was robust where hunters managed to find birds, but highly localized. Distances as short as a mile sometimes meant the difference between shooting your limit and sharing the ride back to camp with a skunk.
“It actually felt like the population was down a little,” said Kirk Davidson, a fourth-generation Arkansas Valley native who serves as the regional director of development for Ducks Unlimited. “It was good, but not really hot. Not on fire.”
Limits were the norm for Davidson and his 10 hunting partners over two days of shooting in the southeast corner of the state near Las Animas. But they weren’t universal. Fellow hunters were shut out entirely just a mile or two to the east or west.
A noteworthy surprise came in the form of the Eurasian collared dove, a larger, heavier cousin of the mourning dove that dominated the harvest of several shooters. Out of nearly 30 birds bagged by one of the hunters, 21 of them were the more aggressive Eurasian breed, an exotic introduced to the U.S. that is distinguished by its larger size (15 inches beak-to-tail compared with 12 inches) and a thin black-and- white band around its neck.
“The Eurasians are really expanding in our area. They are a lot bigger and a lot more aggressive than the mourning doves. I think that has to have an impact,” said Amy Seglund, a wildlife conservation coordinator out of the Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s Montrose office. “My yard is just full of them. It’s hard to find mourning doves now, and I imagine it’s not just at my place.”
Although Eurasians dominated the landscape, Davidson and his party managed to find both species of birds. And a scouting visit earlier this week revealed several doves as far north as Minnesota, offering optimism for doubling up now that the teal season has opened (along with the brief greater sage-grouse hunt).
“There are still some good shoots left, especially if it stays semi-warm,” Davidson said, adding that the state wildlife areas and farm fields holding the favored grains and wheat stubble proved more productive than the prairies. “I think a lot of them have moved on. But there will be a bunch moving in.”
Ptarmigan study.
Amid concerns of climate change and threats to so-called “indicator” species, the CPW had some positive news to report last week in regard to a statewide ptarmigan study sampling occupancy rates of the alpine birds.
Following an August 2010 petition by the Center for Biological Diversity requesting the species be considered for endangered species protection, state wildlife officials teamed up with CSU scientists researching their presence in 60 locations throughout Colorado this summer. According to Seglund, birds have been found on all 60 plots, with many hens raising as many as five chicks each.
“Right now, we’re just getting a good idea of the distribution and seeing if climate change has any impacts or if other things are impacting the population,” Seglund said. “We know that the ptarmigan are doing well in Colorado. Everywhere we’ve looked, we’ve found ptarmigan, all the way from way up north to the very southern San Juans. Now we want to monitor them over time.”
That should offer some relief not only to the smattering of hunters who pursue the masterfully camouflaged birds, but for those concerned with loss of habitat due to a warming climate. Like the American pika, a tiny, mountain-dwelling cousin to the rabbit that’s drawn attention from the environmental community due to shrinking habitat in the West, some worry that ptarmigans will run out of room as warmer temperatures drive them higher into the mountains.
“Currently they’re pretty secure in Colorado,” Seglund said. “We actually found them at lower elevations than we thought they occurred, below 10,000 feet. With the data we’re collecting, we don’t see them as endangered or threatened right now. But that could change if we do experience some changes in climate. That’s why we’re so interested in a monitoring program.”
More hunting, fishing.
The Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge in North Park is among 10 refuges nationwide to receive approval last week from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for expanded hunting and fishing activity. The refuge will increase its big-game offerings by allowing elk hunting for the first time. As many as 1,200 elk wintered at the Jackson County refuge, which also allows pronghorn hunting, migratory bird hunting, upland game hunting and fishing. Notice of the final 2011-12 Refuge-Specific Hunting and Sport Fishing Regulations was published in the Federal Register on Friday.
Scott Willoughby: 303-954-1993 or swilloughby@denverpost.com
