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Changing weather pattern impacts start of dove hunting season

After an extremely dry summer, Texas has seen a recent increase in rainfall across the state. The changing pattern is causing some delays.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — It's that time of the year as dove hunting season begins to kick off. However, the recent rainfall has made it a bit dicey for those planning to head out for the first weekend.

"I've had to cancel this whole weekend for a special whitening season and next weekend because of how much rain we're getting," said Benjamin Graham, a hunting guide.

Graham has been dove hunting for about 20 years and guide-dove-hunting for five years.

"Birds are flying good. I don't think that it's necessarily going to affect the bird hunting itself as it is going to be the accessibility to bird hunt," Graham said.

He said this year the season is off to a shaky start with the recent rainfall.

"Rainfall can impact in a couple of ways," said Owen Fitzsimmons, the Dove Program Leader with Texas Parks and Wildlife.

Fitzsimmons agreed with Graham and said the rain can cause a scatter-like pattern amongst the birds as they will have more water and food sources to choose from.

"It can make hunting a little bit tougher, but you know, that's it, that's the fair chase of the game is dealing with that and trying to find the birds," Fitzsimmons said.

Though the rain is much appreciated considering the statewide drought, both Fitzsimmons and Graham said it'll certainly make the upcoming dove season interesting.

"It's kind of counterbalanced by the fact that we can't even get there so the excited me is kind of pulled down, but the amount of animals we have has got me really really excited," Graham said, "because we have a huge amount of birds down here right now."

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