Banding data helps N.C. manage dove seasons

BAHAMA -- Chris Baranski had seen the mourning dove before.

"Number 1-6-9-3-dash-7-5-9-7-0," Baranski said on a recent August evening, clutching the bird in one hand and matching the number on the aluminum band it was wearing against records on a clipboard held in his other hand.

He thumbed through the pages.

"Just yesterday," said Baranski, the wildlife forest manager at the Butner-Falls of Neuse public game lands.

The other dove that was trapped in a wire cage, drawn in by cracked corn, hadn't been banded before, and Baranski, an avid dove hunter come September, slipped one of the aluminum bands around the bird's leg, crimped it down with pliers and, after writing down the number, let the bird fly.

Baranski is one of several people under the employ of the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission who band roughly 1,400 mourning doves in the Tar Heel state every July and August ahead of the annual hunting season, which starts Saturday.

The project started in 2003, under the direction of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, with a goal of getting a better handle on the most-harvested game bird in the country. It has provided state biologists a clearer understanding of the bird that opens the hunting season.

Because of the effort, state wildlife managers no longer are in the dark when it comes to knowing how many mourning doves are harvested each season. They have a new set of data, a tool that can be used if game managers ever get the notion to change regulations.

Joseph Fuller, the commission's migratory game bird coordinator, said the data has stayed steady, meaning regulations are unlikely to change in the near future.

"In general, the dove-banding program has made us more confident that our regulations are appropriate," Fuller said.

Historically, few changes have been made to the season, which is 70 days long and has a 15-bird daily limit.

A group of state biologists is working on a harvest strategy with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which regulates migratory birds. Specifically, using the new set of data, as well as other sets of data, they're coming up with specific guidelines that will tell them when to loosen or stiffen the regulations.

"If we do have to make changes at some point, we're going to feel more confident that those changes will be justified," Fuller said.

Before the dove-banding program started, data managers primarily worked with dove call county surveys, conducted each May. These are 20-mile-long drive routes, and individuals would stop every mile and listen for doves, counting birds.

"There was a lot of concern that it didn't give us good enough data on population size, trends or survival rates," Fuller said.

Now, because of the banding data, biologists are able to come up with survival and harvest rates for the birds, which are productive, even if they have a short life span.

They now know that every year, from an estimated 11 million to 13 million doves statewide, about 10 percent of immature doves are harvested each year; about 7 percent of adult doves are harvested. According to their research, the survival rate varies from 22 percent to 30 percent.

They've learned that the majority of the each season's harvest occurs in the first couple of weeks.

The data is collected when a hunter kills a banded dove. On each band is a unique ID number along with a phone number and a website where the bird can be reported. The hunter later receives a certificate, stating where the bird was banded.

Only a handful of North Carolina birds have turned up in other states - Georgia, South Carolina and Illinois - and a slightly larger number of birds from other states - Maryland, Pennsylvania and South Carolina - have turned up here in the banding data.

Most birds killed here are resident birds.

Of the bird killed in Illinois, Fuller said: "That's kind of an oddball. Maybe it went south for the winter, paired up with another bird and flew back to Illinois."

By the time birds from more northerly climes start migrating through North Carolina, most hunters will have moved onto deer season.

Baranski and other ceased setting traps 10 days before the season started. (The traps are baited, and it's illegal to hunt over bait.)

A few of the doves grow accustomed to getting trapped because it's an easy meal.

"Some of these guys I've caught six or seven times," Baranski said.