When it comes to dove hunting, most hunters think of hunting large grain fields or even large farm ponds surrounded by plowed crops of wheat or corn. These areas do often produce large numbers of doves. Hunting mourning dove in forested areas can be a bit more challenging, but knowing where to find them is the key. The Honobia Creek and Three Rivers Wildlife Management Areas in southeastern Oklahoma are great places to visit for anyone looking for a different type of dove hunt that only forested habitats can provide.
What To Look For
Finding the food resources that mourning doves prefer is the key when it comes to finding doves in commercially forested habitats. Both the Honobia Creek and Three Rivers WMAs are managed for timber production, with more than 25,000 acres of pine timber thinned or clear-cut annually. Clear-cut areas as well as 1- and 2-year-old pine plantations typically have an abundance of small-seeded, early developmental plants that mourning doves seek out.
Any young plantation with an abundance of crotons is a prime area to begin searching for mourning doves. In addition, mourning doves frequently perch in dead-standing trees in and around where they feed. Such areas are likely to attract mourning doves. In addition to crotons, mourning doves consume seeds from ragweeds, pokeweeds and sunflowers, and they readily consume many grass seeds including barnyardgrass and bristlegrass.
Recommended Methods
Once a young plantation or clear-cut area is located, three common hunting methods are available. Often, the crotons in these types of habitats are knee-high, making it difficult to spot doves feeding on the ground. Hiking through the plantation and flushing the birds from their feeding areas, similar to quail hunting, is one method that can prove successful.
A second method is to examine the plantation with binoculars to learn whether any particular dead-standing tree or group of trees is being used regularly as perch sites. Sitting near these perch sites can allow for some wing shooting as doves fly to and from their feeding areas.
A third method that may be available at some locations is locating a water source in or adjacent to the plantation. Mourning doves regularly visit a source of water throughout the day as they feed, and if one is nearby, it can be a great place to sit.
While harvesting a limit of doves from one location is possible, hunting two or three of these young plantations in a day will produce slightly different hunting situations, which can make the challenge even more enjoyable.
While an occasional white-winged dove and Eurasian collared dove are spotted in southeastern Oklahoma, the mourning dove is far more abundant. As is common throughout Oklahoma, the best dove hunting action is usually toward the beginning of September. Doves begin to migrate south as daily temperatures start dropping.
Before you go on your next hunt, be sure to visit ODWC's dove field resources.
The Honobia Creek and Three Rivers WMAs are privately owned by timber companies but open to the public through cooperative agreements between the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation and each timber company. Accessing the Honobia Creek and Three Rivers WMAs for any type of recreation requires each person to buy a Land Access Permit. Revenues from the Land Access Permits go toward management of the WMAs and to pay the timber investment companies an annual lease fee to help keep the WMAs open for the public to enjoy.
When visiting these WMAs, be sure to leave only footprints. Picking up any trash or litter is a great way for everyone to help keep the WMAs open for all to enjoy.