When a Hunter’s Fancy Turns to Doves
Dove hunting in South Texas is a cultural experience especially unique to the Rio Grande Valley’s diverse landscape. Once September rolls around, hunters young and old flock to leases and rural properties, all set to brave the extension of summer-like weather. I still remember the first time my dad took me and my brother dove hunting. I was 14. After we were given thorough lessons in safety and how to hunt effectively, doves started to fly beyond the mesquite tree line. That’s when empty shotgun shells started hitting the ground and the smell of gunpowder filled the air.
It took a few tries to finally nail the technique to bring down the birds, of course. But after that memorable daylong hunt, we for the first time barbecued our take. First we butterflied the dove breast, then stuffed it with cream cheese, wrapped it in bacon, and set it on the grill over sizzling coals. Delicious.
Growing up, I had friends who would talk about hunting and fishing trips with their families. Until I finally experienced it firsthand, my only concept of hunting was what I had seen in movies and on TV.
“We’d have 40 or 50 people and have a good time cooking barbecue. We didn’t call it a family reunion—it was a dove hunt—but, looking back at it, that’s what it was.”
For several years, I took annual dove-hunting trips with my dad, my brother, and our friends. On rare occasions, we would get extremely lucky with a cold front to relieve us from the humid and scorching climate as we hunted. It seemed almost every year at least part of the opening day of dove season would be rainy. Rain or shine, though, our hunt would begin early in the morning and stretch through the whole day. And it would wind down as a beautiful pastel sunset painted the sky.
In the late 1800s, Edward Mathers’s great-grandfather moved from Indiana to Brownsville, where he started farming and ranching the now-multi-generational Mathers property. More than a century later, Mathers runs Mathers Dove Hunt, a family- oriented business in Brownsville where locals and those traveling from far and wide can spend the day dove hunting in season. Mathers has fond childhood memories of going into Mexico with his father to hunt doves and of his family gathering at their property for an unofficial family reunion revolving around dove hunts.
“My cousins, uncles, and aunts, everybody would come down, spend the weekend out here, and we’d go hunting,” Mathers said. “We’d have 40 or 50 people and have a good time cooking barbecue. We didn’t call it a family reunion—it was a dove hunt—but, looking back at it, that’s what it was.”
Every year, Mathers’s father would plant sunflowers around Mother’s Day, and once dove season started, those sunflowers would be dried out, making the perfect food source to attract doves to the property. Today Mathers continues the annual planting of sunflowers in the spring, so they’ll be ready for the doves by September.
The total mourning dove population in Texas is estimated at 34 million, while the number of white-winged doves exceeds 12 million, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. TPWD says about 300,000 hunters in Texas each year set out to hunt their limit, contributing more than $500 million to the state economy.
A RITE OF PASSAGE
In McAllen, Marcus Barrera nostalgically recalls working as a kid on his family’s decades-old ranch in Hidalgo County, where he continues to hunt today. From a young age, Barrera would accompany his father on dove hunts to serve as his bird catcher.
“I’ve been dove hunting since I was probably 7 or 8 years old, when my dad used to go out with his buddies and I used to tag along and be the bird dog for him,” Barrera said.
Once he was old enough, Barrera too started to hunt, and dove hunts continued to be an event for family and friends to get together and enjoy quality time. They would eat their catch after a successful hunt, he said, wrapping the dove breast in bacon or preparing it in a guisado that his mom would make.
Just as Barrera learned from his father, he also taught his own two sons about dove hunting. He sees it as a rite of passage, he said, one that family and friends continue to enjoy.
Sadly, as time has passed, Barrera said, he has observed a decline in the Valley’s bird population. He notes that the clearing of brush and the expansion of South Texas cities has drastically decreased the natural habitat necessary for doves to reproduce and thrive.
For many South Texas families and for those who travel here annually, dove hunting is a family- and friend-centered activity. It’s a way to enjoy the outdoors, a place where you can barbecue your birds on the spot. As time goes on, we hope that families will continue to pass along the lore and their knowledge of dove hunting, carrying on family traditions for generations to come.
