It felt more like swimming season than hunting season last week, but there we were, hunkered with our shotguns and dogs along a bare wheat field on a sultry dawn — scanning the crimson sky for mourning doves.
The old yellow Lab at my feet — a veteran at this game — panted from the summerlike heat.
At 6:40 a.m., just as the sun was rising through dirt-gray clouds, the first shot rang out, launching the 2015 hunting season. This is the 12th season since dove hunting was reinstated by the Legislature in 2004 following a 60-year-absence, offering wingshooters and their hunting dogs an early jump on fall.
Minnesota's black bear and early Canada goose seasons also opened last week, and hunters battled the heat and humidity to pursue those critters, too. But it was mourning doves — one of the most abundant and popular game birds in North America — that our group of seven sought.
And soon the sky was abuzz with them, single birds and flocks of eight or more winging in from all directions across the dank landscape. For Tom Kalahar, 62, of Olivia, hunting on the south edge of the field, the action was fast and furious. Not so for those of us on the west side. We could only watch as scores of doves flew in and landed well out of shotgun range.
But that's dove hunting, where serendipity is a key player. That's why some hunters can have excellent hunting, while others on the same field are lucky to scratch out a bird or two.
Two of our group hunted an identical field just one-eighth of a mile away, and had nary a shot Tuesday morning. They quickly moved to our field, where the birds — for whatever reason — flew in.
"You've got to be where they want to go,'' said Kalahar, an avid dove hunter.