Forwarding an interesting piece of news from Laura Erickson, noted birder
and bird educator, Duluth, MN. The data on declining Mourning Dove
populations from central and eastern states could be used where hunting
seasons on yet another species are being contemplated.

Ric Zarwell
Lansing, Iowa


As one of the participants in the US F&W Service's annual Mourning Dove
Survey, I just received in the mail this year's copy of Mourning Dove:
Breeding Population Status, 2001.  For Wisconsin, it shows a 2.8% decline in
the number of doves surveyed from 2000 to 2001.  Wisconsin is still listed
as
a non-hunt state.  One interesting paper in the report, with the very long
title: Development and Evaluation of Mourning Dove Population Models for
Optimizing Harvest Management Strategies in the Easten Management Unit,
Central Management Unit, and Western Management Unit," by David L. Otis,
opens with this paragraph:

Despite the fact that mourning doves are among the ten most ubiquitous and
numerous bird species in the continental U.S. (Robbins et. al 1986), indices
of population density have been declining during the past 30 years.  The
Call
Count Survey (CCS) reveals significant declines in all management units
during the periods 1966-2000 and 1991-2000 (Dolton and Smith 2000).  The
Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) indicates similarly significant declines in the
Central Management Unit and the Western Management Unit, during
approximately
the same time periods (Sauer et al. 1997).  The BBS also shows significant
declines in the continental U.S. (Sauer et al. 1997).

Troubling to start a new hunt state in light of this?  I sure think so.

The Mourning Dove report is published by the US Fish and Wildlife Service,
11500 American Holly Dr., Laurel, MD  20709-4016.

It's also available free as a PDF file on the internet at
http://migratorybirds.fws.gov/reports/reports.html

Laura Erickson
Journey North science writer
http://www.learner.org/jnorth/current.html
Duluth, MN
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www.forbirds.com

"There is symbolic as well as actual beauty in the migration of the birds...
There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of
nature--the
assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter.
                                                --Rachel Carson

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