Tomorrow, at sun up, September 1, 2011 dove season opens, beginning the 2011/2012 hunting season in Texas. Because of the severe heat and equally severe drought conditions, this time it’s kinda’ a blah feeling. Always in the past I’ve been looking forward to, even eagerly anticipating, this singular event, but this year, blah! Maybe it’s because the water holes that I have access to have dried up, maybe it’s because afternoon temps, pushing 110, make it too hot to touch your shotguns, maybe it’s because, even with a sweat band, sweat still gets into my eyes, I can’t even get excited, so it’s still blah!
However, come sun up tomorrow, I’ll be sitting in the shade, in a field north of San Saba, looking for some pass shooting. In the past this has been a fine venue, limit or near limit shooting, but this year, when I talked with Ted, the landowner, he told me that it’d been so hot he’d not even noticed if any doves were flying around, still, I’ll be there.
Dove sightings have been slim around here, I’m seeing a few mourning doves, fewer ring necks and still fewer white wings. Last Friday night as we were sitting in the grandstands waiting for the Goldthwaite, Thrall kickoff, in past years we had always been greeted with hundreds, maybe even thousands of white wings, flying over us heading for their roosts, not this year. Missing the doves, all wasn’t lost because Goldthwaite, ranked 4th in the State in football, won easily, 33-0.
I hope all of our white wings have flown to San Saba!