Photo by Mark Romanack

The first doves of the afternoon skidded and jerked over us in the cerulean blue sky like miniature fighter jets. Their twists and rolls emphasized the heavy wind that was blowing along the field.

Bennett Kirkpatrick shouldered his grandfather's 12 gauge, tracked, led and finally fired at one of the passing birds; it tumbled to the ground. The scene reinforced the idea that the silver-embossed scattergun passed down through the generations could still do its job.

"Good shooting!" hollered the guy at the next station. "You're going to keep it exciting for all of us."

Then, more doves quickly flashed by, but none of the eight shooters even got a chance to pull the trigger. The whole afternoon was filled with singles, twos and threes flying by -- never enough doves to provide what the guys considered truly good shooting. But there were birds sufficient in number to keep the hunters scattered around on their chairs and buckets awake and scanning for incoming targets.

"See how they zigzag across the sky?" Kirkpatrick said. "You have to plan when you're shooting doves. To hit them, you have to aim where they will be, not where they are."

For me, this first dove shoot was a near-perfect afternoon and a great learning experience. The weather was cool without being cold, and I had a willing teacher to explain the ins and outs of hunting these amazing fliers. Kirkpatrick, who had hunted doves for more than 40 years, detailed the basics of dove shooting in between shots, as we sat hidden in a clump of tall weeds.

I picked up pointers on the etiquette of shooting -- as when, for example, a dove on the wing is ceded to the next hunter. On the technical level, the challenge was how to figure out where to put shot to meet the rapidly flying birds.

Although these days I hunt doves, I still hit about one in six birds I shoot at. Even so, the dove's my favorite for wingshooting.

MOURNING DOVES
The mourning dove is small compared to a duck or a goose, and thus presents a tougher target. An average dove in Mississippi is about 10 1/2 inches long, and is weighed in ounces, not pounds. These gray-brown birds with black-spotted wings can be identified by their doleful cooing and the whistle of their wings as they take flight.

The mourning dove is the most hunted migratory bird in the United States, millions being killed across the country each year. Not only are doves the most hunted birds nationwide, but more doves are harvested annually than all other game birds combined as well.

Doves are also the most popular game birds in Mississippi. Surveys show that the average dove hunter spends 3 1/2 days in the field annually and takes 6 1/2 birds. If the average hunter is anything like the folks I've hunted with, it took about four boxes of shells to get those six birds. Obviously, dove hunters are a boon to the firearms and ammunition industries!

Although an estimated quarter-million doves are taken here in Mississippi each year, plenty of the birds survive to reproduce. An ambitious pair of doves -- which remain mated to each other until one dies -- can produce as many as six broods during the year. The nests are either in a clump of vegetation near the ground or in the branches of an evergreen tree. Most nests are built of a few sticks, are flimsy and hold two eggs per clutch. Male doves generally sit on the eggs during the day; the female takes over at night.

Both parents make and feed the young a substance called "pigeon milk," which is crshed seeds, berries and other gleanings broken down the adult bird's crops. Pigeon milk is more nutritious than cow or human milk and provides enough protein to enable the squabs (baby doves) to grow rapidly. Doves are ground feeders, eating a variety of seeds and berries they find in the field edges and yards they call home.