Another dove season opens. I go with my nephews into the wide open plains to hunt dove.

The boys were supposed to be guarding a cluster of dove decoys but since it was 105°F that day they had to take a break. We mainly sat in cover by decoys and waited on high alert as doves flew by in the morning and evening to investigate.

The midday heat lowers the birds’ activity. I got bored so I opted to leave the decoys behind and walked to flush some dove out of cover. It gained us a few birds at the cost of a lot of sweat.

At the end of the day we split our catch. Every picture I took had some gore from the cleaning so they are omitted. Some of us caught more Zzzz’s than doves, but we all made great memories.