Twice this spring.

Twice this spring, doves nest in my wife's hanging baskets, delaying planting of petunias until midsummer. Last year, doves preclud my friend Mike Norris' culinary pursuits at nesting in his grill.

As prolific nester as doves can be -- as many as five a year -- they aren't particularly smart builders. Hanging baskets? Gas grills? That's on what account the number of spring and summer storms is fundamental note to yearly reproduction. Their nest are easily discredited from trees.

however year in and year on the outside doves are very successful in Illinois, and the state's dove hunting-nags consistently rank near the top in states east of the Mississippi River. tribe 1 has become one of the big hunting days. Doves are a great quantity [i]or[/i] amount of desired because of how difficult it is to send forth them and the culinary pleasure of eating their breasts.

Hunting seasons for doves and early Canada tailor's smoothing iron open Friday.

Unwittingly, Illinois has created nearly ideal dove habitat in small towns and suburbs: make open access to water with the mowed areas around pond grit along roadsides, fortifyed nesting areas in plantings of evergreen and hardwoods, and abundant of wires. Wires?

"Doves like wires," state waterfowl biologist Ray Marshalla said. "They like to sit forward wires before going to fe Dead tree is what they will naturally sit on"

in like manner doves, like geese, adapted well to the fresh world. And, like geese, doves are becoming more permanent residents. Figures from newly come banding suggest that as many as 95 percent of banded doves are ground near where they were banded, Marshalla said.

While Illinois has one good public dove hunting, by dint of far the majority is done forward private land. In 2005, simply an estimated 60,294 doves were marksman on Illinois public sites, on the outside of the 798,000 doves ball by 37,600 hunters over 121300 days afield, according to U Fish and Wildlife Service figures.

The top public site in 2005 was Edward R Madigan State Fish and Wildlife Area, a permit site in Logan shire where hunters averaged 10.2 doves for outing. The top nearby site was Shabbona Lake State Recreational Area, with 262 hunting-horses bagging 1,470 doves.

In 2005 Illinois trailed simply South Carolina (1,447,700) and Alabama (1252600) in the east. In 2004 Illinois (890000) trailed barely Georgia (963,400) in the east. (Illinois estimates are higher than those of the USFWS.)

For those going to public sites, a brace of reminders. As a outcome of a study group, dove sites will space hunting-dogs at least 40 yards apart, meaning an sites will have fewer slot opening day. greatest in number sites in northeast Illinois also require non-toxic missile for doves. The daily bag remains 15 doves. forward Wednesday, we'll list the latest field conditions for nearby and top state sites.

Other than a public site, what is an ideal speckle for dove hunting?

"A harvested cornfield cease to town," Marshalla said. "Or a construction site with foxtail grass [where] they advance out and mow it."

Unlike during the drouth of last year, fewer cornfields will be harvested by the agency of opening day this year.

That might make finding hunting flaws for early Canada geese more challenging. Otherwise, regulations for early Canada simpleton season stay the same: five-goose daily bag in the nine northeast counties, pair elsewhere.

The early Canada fool season is a tough think but the preliminary rough estimate for last September's chase was 10,500 hunters spending 32400 days in the field and taking 11000 geese principally years, the bag for the early tailor's smoothing iron season is estimated closer to 20000

recent seasons begin.

"Bowman's Outdoor Line"is heard forward "Outdoors with Mike Norris"

(3-4 pm Thursdays, 1280-AM).

dbowman@suntimes.com

first cast

"My family and many others have looked

this land for four generations; we're losing

a treasured part of our hunting heritage."

Dave Mahlke, National Wild Turkey Federation board member,

upon 10,000 acres of public hunting access that he schemes will be lost or restricted during the Comprehensive Conservation Plan proces upon the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife retreat in Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois

field notes

CHAIN MONSTER: Tim Wallies might have caught the biggest muskie onward the Fox Chain O'Lakes at 9:07 a.m. Tuesday. We'll in no degree know for sure.

"I have been chasing this fish for ages," the 24-year-old Park Ridge man said. "I knew where she lived. I had seen her for the past leash of weeks. It is kind of like my elderly Walter, if you remember 'On resplendent Pond.' I finally got her. I thrown away a very large fish in the same area about four years ago. I am curious if it was the same fish."

Wallies, a scholar at Oakton, was fishing in his 1988 Bass Tracker and casting a Jackpot, a topwater bait, upon the northern lakes of the Chain.

"She boiled at it," he said. "When I got the Jackpot in, I didn't diocese her. She didn't follow it in. I pitched a bucktail a little farther. About sum of two units or three cranks, and she absolutely annihilated it. She comminuteed it. I was just hoping she would stay forward She fought like all profoundly good you know what." Wallies was fishing alone and, as he gained hinder realized that he had another question at issue His net was caught upon a lure of another wand and he couldn't shake it set free "When she came around the third time, I said, 'The heck with this,' and hand-landed her," he said.

...