Missouri dove hunters should have little trouble finding birds this season. That’s the word from state resource scientist John Schulz.

Schulz said population surveys conducted earlier this summer showed dove numbers about the same as they had been for more than a decade.

“Year-to-year changes in Missouri’s dove population over the past 10 or 15 years are so small they don’t make any practical difference,” Schulz said. “Stability of dove numbers means continued good hunting. The key to success is finding the right spot to hunt.”

Missouri’s dove season will begin Sept. 1 and conclude Nov. 9. The daily limit remains 12 and the possession limit 24. Shooting hours are one-half hour before sunrise until sunset.

Surveys do show significant differences in dove populations from region to region, however. Missouri’s Bootheel and northwest and northeast prairie regions always come in near the top.

Asked if drought in much of the state would affect hunter success, Schulz said: “It’s a two-edged sword. Doves are seed-eaters, and they like to feed on open ground. With a drought like the one we have had this year, you get lots of open ground, and it causes plants to mature earlier. But dry weather also decreases the number and quality of seeds.”

The birds will congregate in areas where local conditions have produced high-quality seeds.

“There is no easy formula for success based on this year’s hot, dry weather,” Schulz said. “Hunters who go out before the season and find pockets of abundant food will have lots of shooting. That could mean areas that got more rain or fields where crops were planted early. Otherwise, it’s just hit-or-miss.”

Dove hunters ages 16 through 64 must buy a Small Game Hunting Permit to pursue doves. All dove hunters 16 and older must have a Missouri Migratory Bird Hunting Permit.

Three species of doves are legal game in Missouri. Mourning doves are native to Missouri.

White-winged doves, which once were found only in the southwestern United States, have expanded their range into Missouri in recent years.

A third species, the Eurasian collared dove, arrived in the 1980s in Florida, probably blown there by tropical storms. That species also has expanded its range to include Missouri.

Mourning doves make up 99.9 percent of Missouri’s annual dove harvest. Show-Me State hunters see the other two species so seldom, they often don’t recognize them until they are in hand.

Schulz urged dove hunters to collect empty shotgun shells following each hunt.