The lone return from the western unit was harvested in 2017 in
Arizona, an 850-mile direct-flight in Phelps County, where it was
banded the same year.
Other birds opted to keep flying north the following spring. A
juvenile banded in 2015 in Johnson County was harvested the
following September in Minnesota. An adult banded in 2007 in
Frontier County was harvested three years later in southeastern
North Dakota.
The distance champion was banded as an adult in Dawes
County in July 2003 and recovered six months later in
Guatemala, more than 2,100 miles away. Another bird banded
in Phelps County in 2005 traveled nearly as far, recovered
seven months later on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico.
"I do keep my fingers crossed each year that we get some
recoveries from Central or South America," said Lusk. "But
doves, being generalists, probably stop at the first suitable
habitat they reach where the temps are warmer than where
they came from."
Band returns can give somewhat of a picture of the timing
of the migration. Of the 72 birds that were harvested in other
states in the same year they were banded, 25 were harvested
during the first two weeks of the hunting season. That may lend
credence to many hunters' beliefs that doves leave at the first
cold snap, which might even fall before the season opener.
N
LEFT: A map shows where doves were banded in Nebraska
and where the 552 returns were recorded in North America.
Biologists use walk-in traps baited with millet to capture mourning doves at 18 locations throughout the state. Banding starts
in July and ends 10 days before the Sept. 1 season opener.
MAP
ILLUSTRATION
BY
MARC
MAREAN
44 Nebraskaland • August-September 2020
