This is just one of several possible recommendations. The Commission is not likely to act upon any of them until shortly before the season opens, so be sure to check the regulations before you head out for your dove shoot.

SCOUT FOR SUCCESS
Finding productive areas to hunt in Imperial County is usually not a problem. To locate concentrations of birds, savvy hunters dispatch a scout to the area a day or two ahead of the season opener.

Such scouting can pay big dividends. One year, for example, pre-season scouting located a field where droves of white-winged doves flew out from a nearby orange grove. On another occasion, scouting revealed that a previously productive field had been plowed under and held no birds.

In recent years, the region around Niland near the Salton Sea has become a very productive area, thanks to the efforts of volunteers from Desert Wildlife Unlimited and Quail Unlimited. Using funding from the Upland Game Bird Heritage Program, the volunteers work with the state to plant vacant fields. More than 20 of these large fields, encompassing more than 2,700 acres, are typically planted with milo, wheat, safflower, barley or sunflowers.

The fields are open to the public at no charge. Limits or near-limits are common for opening-day hunters.

You can download a map at www.desertwildlifeunlimited.com, as well as from the DFG Web site.

In some parts of Imperial County, such as the area around Winterhaven, it’s possible to stand in one spot, shoot three doves, and have one fall to earth in California, another land in Arizona and the third fall on Indian reservation land. It’s entirely possible that one could be a mourning dove, the second a white-winged dove and the third a Eurasian collared dove.

In this area, the state border is not a straight and well-defined line as most people imagine. Rather, it zigs and zags like a drunken sailor, requiring hunters to possess the appropriate maps and licenses for both California and Arizona -- and, to be on the safe side, the Quechen Indian Reservation.

Our group has always found it well worth the investment. We like to move around and find concentrations of the different species in different areas. I can’t recall a single day of hunting in the area when this strategy failed to produce limits of birds.

OTHER HOTSPOTS
Other hotspots include fields near the Holtville and Palo Verde areas, and farming areas west of the Cibola National Wildlife Refuge.

The Brawley, Calipatria, Calexico and El Centro areas also typically produce good numbers of birds, when you find the right spots.

When you’re on the lookout for those right spots, you need to think about the doves’ four basic habitat needs: food, cover, water and gravel, or grit. The best shooting doesn’t always occur where doves happen to be feeding, resting or taking a drink. Rather, it happens when doves are traveling between such sites. When you find an area offering all of these habitat elements, you’ll likely find lots of doves traveling along established flyways on their way to feed, drink, roost -- or loaf away part of the day picking at gravel.

Fields most heavily used by doves are characterized by an abundance of small seeds scattered on the surface of relatively bare ground, often with little horizontal cover.

Studies indicate that the presence of bare ground may be as vital as the availability of specific foods or seed types. Modern farming practices often create these exact conditions.

While it’s certainly possible to find good hunting around water sources, roosting sites and the like, the heaviest hunting pressure tends to be focused on feeding fields because that’s where you’ll typically find the most consistent action.

KNOW YOUR DOVES
Wherever you hunt, make sure you can tell the difference between species of doves, since some -- such as the ground dove, ruddy dove and Inca dove -- are protected by law.