As I remember, it passed both houses.

That is the price I see for shells down here.

Edit dropped a couple of words

The owner's land is mainly pasture with lots of mesquite and some huge oaks. But I have noticed some abandoned fields along a dry creek where dove hang out. If he is up for it, I think I might try for dove whould we both punch deer tags early. Fat-assed white wings. Boy, it would be good with a planting of sun flowers!

work. It's early, but I guess it's never too early.

and trails into the 40 acres below the mesa which is under plant for about 40 head of cattle. Deer like to raid it. There is a main trail from there up to the mesa, but at least a couple other obscure ones which bucks use. Lots of rain in the area at end of the spring, but drought set in again, and no rain for nearly 2 months. Still, the land looks good with many hearty oaks, elms, some walnut, and of course cedar. The drought killed off a lot of that, and our "cedar party" 2 yrs ago cleared enough for more shooting lanes. Two seasons ago we got into both mourning dove AND white wings. The two species would not intermingle; the former in the sunflower field, the latter in the oaks and elms less than 2 hundred yards away. Got a Eur-Asian collared dove last year -- big as a small pigeon.

Maybe with global warming. We live on about 10 acres in an undeveloped spread of much larger parcels, mostly heavily forested with some good features like a high ridgeline and some water elements. Great for grouse and deer, although we've had several bad years for deer -- very hard winters and a thriving wolf population. My permit area will have an antlerless lottery, though, this season. We'll see.

parts of Florida when I lived there. Hell, we used to get quail. Now, the populations of bob whites are less than 10% of what they were when I was in college. But the dove continue to prosper. Global warming has driven the white wing species (a tropical bird not under the rubric of migratory regs) from below San Antonio north to Austin and Waco where hundreds of thousands have taken up residence in the cities. Plenty of pigs, too, but my friends have fortunately not had a problem with them, so I very rarely see them.

fewer birds around our place, and lean years mean lots of birds at our place. Not sure why. If we don't get out after them we can almost always count on one flying into a window at the house and offering itself up for the table.

Used to have 3 coveys bu the feral cats got them. Hunted cats for 2 years real heavy. Then brought in 6 breeding couples. Have counted 30 or so birds last week. Still kill every cat on my property to protect them. But may hunt them next year. Also flushed out 3 pair of Phesant last month. Got to keep the cats under control and I will have some more of them.

The cats are unwanted pets from the Houston area. People just bring them out and let them"be free". Average 3-5 amonth, down fron 10-12 a month, I believe the drought killed a lot of them.

and unchanging in this behavior. They Must know by now that the cats will screw up the environment and will themselves be killed in short order by stronger predators. But it is a milignant off-shoot of Bambi Biology, hence its enduring quality.