Friday was the official start of Colorado’s dove hunting season and because the Arkansas Valley of southeast Colorado is so vast, scouting for the birds is essential – at least according to two hunters.
In an article special toThe Denver Post, Kirk Davidson recounts his experience with the opening day of dove hunting season in the Arkansas Valley of southeast Colorado, a semi-arid, desert region in which the Arkansas River provides numerous oases of cultivated farmlands which serve host to migrating birds.
Because of the valley’s large size and a bird that can cover 50 miles in an hour’s flight, scouting matters, Davidson writes.
But Chris Harrington, who farms and ranches near the Fort Bent area, says wetter-than-normal conditions in the area this year has made a difference in the dove situation there.
Harrington said in his 60 years of hunting he had never seen so many doves in the trees and fields but that mid-August rains and cooler temperatures moved them out.
Davidson said he and fellow hunter Erik Wettersten eventually headed north of that area, where Davidson writes, scouting paid off because they were able to bag their 30-bird limit.