4 NEBRASKAland • NOVEMBER 2017
Ed Winans took this image in Paxton.
Minutes later, both animals were gone.
Bruce Thiel from Lincoln submitted this photo of a Sandhills hay meadow on a foggy morning.
Hand Calling Doves
Dear Mr. Spilger,
I read your article about
dove calls in the August/
September 2017 issue
of NEBRASKAland
Magazine and it made
me think about how,
as a kid, I would cup
my hands around my mouth and
imitate the doves on our farm. At least
in my mind, the doves would reply to
my imitations over and over. Maybe I
was just doing it between their normal
spacing of calls, but it made me happy.
Many years later, I went dove
hunting with some friends and we
got to the hunting area too early in
the afternoon, so the doves were not
moving around. I found a scraggly
old tree with a large root exposed, so
I sat down on the root, in the shade,
with my shotgun across my knees and
waited. It was hot and I was sweating
and bored, so, after a while, I decided
to do my dove imitation and to my
surprise a dove got up from a nearby
tree and flew directly toward me. So
I shot it. Shortly after that one of the
other hunters came walking by to get
water for his dog. He said, "I heard you
shoot. Did you see a dove?" So I said,
"You won't believe this" and told him
what I had done.
He wanted to hear my imitation, so
I did it again and another dove got up
from the same tree and flew right to
where I was, and I dropped it, too.
I have tried my imitation call
countless times since with no luck, but
somewhere out there is a young man
who thinks I can call doves in with my
"mouth call."
Good memories.
Monty Splitter
Kearney, Nebraska
Ha
d
S
my hand
