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Show Mourning Dove season opens in Utah on Sept. 1st By Denis Jones Conservation Officer One half hour before sunrise on September 1 marks the beginning of the 1978 Mourning Dove and Bandtail Pigeon seasons. sea-sons. Both of these hunts will remain open through the end of September. Bag limits were set at 10 a day and 20 in possession for doves and 5 a day and 10 in possession for pigeons. I would like to remind everyone that all birds that are home in the freezer still count on your possession limit. The only way to reduce the number of birds in your possession is to eat them. This year's outlook is good for both doves and pigeons providing the weather remains warm. Your best bet for bagging a few doves is to find a waterhole that the doves are using and wait for them to come in in the evenings or find a sunflower sun-flower patch or harvested wheat field where the birds are finding waste grain. The bandtails are open in Beaver, Garfield, Grand, Iron, Kane, Millard, Mill-ard, Piute, San Juan, Sevier, Washington, and Wayne counties. Band-tails Band-tails are most often associated with ponderosa pine and oak brush. They feed on mast which is seeds, berries, and nuts. In areas where dry farming farm-ing is adjacent to this ponderosa oak brush vegetative veg-etative community, waste grain from these fields seem to attract the pigeons. pig-eons. Before the season rolls around, make sure you have purchased either a small game or combination combina-tion license. If you are planning on hunting band-tail band-tail pigeon a free permit must be obtained in addition to the license. These permits may be obtained from any of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources offices. Both license and permit must be carried on the person while hunting. Shooting hours are from one half hour before sunrise to sunset. The shotgun being used has to be plugged so no more than three shells can be fired without reloading. It is unlawful to shoot at doves or pigeons resting upon telephone lines, powerlines, or poles. It is unlawful to shoot from or have a loaded gun in a vehicle and it is unlawful to hunt while under the influence of alcohol or illegal drugs. These are a few of the most common laws broken |