HARLINGEN — South Texas wing shooters again will enjoy an expanded 90-day season to hunt doves.
Like last year, hunters will see an expanded four-day period in the Special White-Winged Dove Area which covers the Rio Grande Valley.
“For the second straight year, Texas will be taking advantage of a 90-day dove season and the expansion of early white-winged dove hunting during the first two weekends in September, in effect, create early September hunting opportunities statewide for the first time ever,” Dave Morrison, TPWD Wildlife Division deputy director, said in a statement.
During the early two weekends in the Special White-Winged Dove Days, hunting is allowed only from noon to sunset and the daily bag limit is 15 birds, to include not more than two mourning doves and two white-tipped doves.
During the general season in the special area, the aggregate bag limit is 15 with no more than two white-tipped doves.
Other notable changes for the 2017-18 migratory bird hunting seasons include a reduction to the daily bag limit on pintail to just one and a modification increasing the youth age restriction for waterfowl hunting to 16 years of age.
Among other birds, statewide teal season will be from Sept. 9-24 with a daily bag limit of six birds.
Duck season in the South Zone begins with the Youth Hunt from Oct. 28-29, with the regular season running from Nov. 4-26 and Dec. 9 to Jan. 28.
Bag Limit is six per day in the aggregate to include no more than five mallards, of which only two may be hens, three wood ducks, three scaup, two redheads, two canvasback, one pintail, one “dusky duck” (mottled, black or Mexican-like) may only be taken after the first five days of the season in the respective zones.
