I shot a new species!!!

[lunkerhunter2]

Went out to my spot this morning to get a dove or two. Started off with seeing 6 doves before legal shooting light and nothing for a half hour. I shot at 2 singles over the next hour and then got a pair and a single in 10 minutes. Nothing else for the next hour and then a dove flew over fast and hard and i dropped it! I went to retrieve it and found out it wasn't completely dead and had a fun time trying to catch it. I finally caught it and was totally blown away![shocked] It was a eurasian collared dove! I had heard about them but never thought i would shoot one. It was almost as exciting as when i shot my first wood duck.[] I am going to get this bird mounted. They are huge and beautiful. Got some good pics so enjoy.
[signature]

[Theekillerbee]

Nice work on nabbing one of those dudes! I've seen a couple around, just not while I've been hunting.
[signature]

[gshorthair]

Congratulations on the new species. The colors look similar to the mourning dove's. How do they compare in size?gshorthair
[signature]

[Kraizee_Skot]

[font "Times New Roman"][#ff4040][size 3]Hey congrats on the collared dove. I have always wanted to get one of those.[/size][/#ff4040][/font]
[signature]

[lunkerhunter2]

They are close to 3 times the size.
[signature]

[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]When we lived in Arizona, we lived in an area of Mesa where there were community lakes. There was a large group of those ring necked doves living in the neighborhood and they flocked into our backyard because we had a big bird-feeding operation going. There were even a couple of the white doves that came in with them. Evidently someone had been raising them and a few had escaped. That's how they have spread across the whole country. [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Once they got used to you they were really friendly. They would land on our hands and eat those little black sunflower seeds right out of our hands. They would also land on our heads and shoulders. Once when I was trying to restring some TV cable, they came in and landed on me, the ladder and the hanging cable, playing like it was a swing.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]We really enjoyed those little rascals and still miss them a lot. BUT...the hunter in me often wondered how they would be if I invited a few of them inside for dinner. As an old Idaho farm boy I don't have any foolish notions about sparing "family pets" if they eat good.[/#0000ff]
[signature]

[lunkerhunter2]

Sounds cool. I had ducks and geese when i lived in idaho and they were all caught wild by a friend. Come hunting season, the still wild birds would come in to investigate my captives. I never shot any doing this, but i am sure i could have killed a bunch.
The dove i killed is huge compared to the mourning dove. I would not mind if they were replaced. I am not eating this one, but mounting it. I saw another this morning, so hopes are good i will get another.[cool]
[signature]

[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]I dug up some old print photos and scanned some to share here. It brought back a lot of fun memories. We had several of the doves that we nursed back to health, after run-ins with neighborhood cats or kids. [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]As the pics show, they would actually come right inside our house, looking for handouts. A couple of them liked to perch on the paper holder TubeBabe used for doing her computer projects. Others just walked around on the carpet, looking for any stray seeds we had dropped...and often leaving "something" of themselves behind for the vacuum cleaner.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]They were wild birds and did not go into many yards, but we were on their "friendly" list I guess.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]We actually had about 4 different kinds of doves that came in to our yard down there: mourning dove, whitewing, the little Inca doves and the ringnecks. On one occasion, while living in Chandler, we also had a golden pheasant land in our back yard for the free eats. Unfortunately he met with a sudden case of "lead poisoning" (a shot to the head from my pellet gun) and became a supply of fly tying feathers.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]I included a couple of shots of one of the white doves. We called her "Princess" because she acted kinda snooty and seldom really interacted with the lowly ringnecks. She just hung out with them for companionship and group protection...except during nesting time. Then she got frisky with the riff raff for awhile but never did sit on a nest.[/#0000ff]
[signature]

[lunkerhunter2]

Cool pics. That's neat to have them act like that. Have a pic of the pheasant?
[signature]

[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Nope. I was too anxious to "collect" it and my sniper genes kicked in before my photographer side could preserve a live image. They just don't look as regal after expiring so I did not record my deed. I skinned mine out and tanned the skin quickly to keep for future fly tying. [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]HOWSOMEVER...being an efficient Internet scrounge, I have snagged a couple of neat pics for your viewing enjoyment. [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff] [center][/center] [center] [/center] [center][/center] [center] [/center] [center] [/center]
[signature]

[lunkerhunter2]

WOW!! Those birds have some good hackle!!!
[signature]

[cat_man]

Wow! Those golden pheasants are beautiful!!

Speaking of pheasants, I was driving hwy 198 between Sp. Fork and Salem yesterday and just about had a hen pheasant come through my windshield! Scared the crap out of my wife and I. Two pheasants flew out in front of us, and the 2nd one just barely missed our windshield.
[signature]

[2morecasts]

[font "Times New Roman"][#ff4040]congrats Man[/#ff4040][/font]
[signature]