For a few days I've been trying to digest the information in the 2008 USFWS dove report. Seems that the mourning dove's population status depends on which of their surveys you take more seriously.....

For the Eastern Management Unit (which includes us in SC), the long-term trend in birds seems to be unchanged if you consider the call count survey. However the breeding bird survey method, which is based on more data and a larger sample size, shows a statistically-significant increase in the long-term population numbers.

Based on HIP information, the number of doves bagged in the EMU for the last five seasons is estimated as follows:

2003-2004 8,198,100
2004-2005 7,712,000
2005-2006 9,793,000
2006-2007 8,155,400
2007-2008 8,908,400

What does it all mean? Are we overharvesting / underutilizing the resource? I can't tell.

Thoughts? Or does anybody want to start the top-sewn wheat discussion again?!