Water everywhere, but don't give it a thought. When dove hunting season opens Sept. 1, the flocks won't be concentrated around a few waterholes, as they tend to do during dry years.

"I don't think water is going to be the key out there for hunting," said Ed Gorman, small game coordinator for the Colorado Division of Wildlife. "I think people will be focusing on roosting sites and feeding sites."

Roosting sites include tree rows and farmsteads. Fields and hedgerows abloom with wild sunflowers are prime dove cafeterias.

A wet summer on the Eastern Plains - grown even wetter in recent weeks - means food and water are widespread. Mourning doves also should be spread out, with preference for those hot spots.

"It looks like a pretty decent dove year," said Gorman, who watches doves and other critters near Sterling when he's not scoping fields elsewhere.

"Up west of us, there are sunflowers everywhere. They are a little more isolated out east, but there are lots of sunflowers."

Mourning doves turn up almost everywhere, but southeastern Colorado has an edge when it comes to keeping them around longer.

Gorman says it should come as no surprise, though, that the biggest dove-producing counties are those that host the most hunters - generally in the northeast and nearby cities and towns.

The fleet birds are the most popular game bird in the United States and in Colorado. Doves make gourmet table fare, but they are challenging to hit.

"Don't forget to lead them," Gorman said. "They're moving faster than you think. Most people are prone to shoot behind them."

Last year, slightly fewer than 20,000 Colorado wingshooters bagged 270,300 mourning doves, according to Harvest Information Program surveys of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

For those keeping track, the average harvest in 2006 was 13.6 mourning doves per hunter.

White-winged doves also have been moving farther north from their traditional range, and some have pioneered territory in eastern Colorado.

The HIP surveys estimate that Colorado hunters took about 900 white-winged doves in 2006. This year, whitewings have been included in the daily bag limit of 15 doves.

There is no limit on Eurasian collared-doves, an exotic import, but hunters who bag them are required to transport their carcasses with head or one wing attached for identification.

Gorman says Eurasian collared-doves turn up in greater numbers every year, "but the difficulty if you're thinking about hunting them is that most of them occur in towns."

Exceptions are feed lots, grain elevators and virtually everywhere in southeastern Colorado. Large flocks of Eurasian collared-doves also can be found feeding in harvested wheat fields.

The regular dove season runs Sept. 1 to Oct. 30. For the first time, Colorado also has scheduled a special late season for Eurasian collared-doves only, Dec. 1 through February.

BANDTAIL ENIGMA: For a change of pace, a few hunters go gunning for band-tailed pigeons. But those who actually find bandtails usually have some experience scouting low mountains and foothills.

The elusive wild pigeons are bigger than ordinary pigeons and have a white neck collar. They tend to flock up and migrate early, thus the hunting season, Sept. 1-30.

Bandtails prefer oak brush and piñon forests but also turn up among ponderosa pines. Gorman suggests looking for them along the southeastern Front Range, the Spanish Peaks and in the San Luis Valley.

dentrye@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5481

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