Illinois (and Indiana) hunting: Dove and early Canada goose openers

Hunting begins in earnest on Sunday with the openers for doves and early Canada geese with some hope and some concern for a good dove opener.

You might say, there will be doves around, but prospects are not over the moon. At least I might say that with the photo above.

I outlined conditions at public sites in northeast Illinois Wednesday with my column for the Sun-Times outdoors page. To sum it up, it should be a usual year, though one of those smoking hot openers.

I will try to pull together a list of opening day results, but it might be tougher with Labor Day on Monday.

Chris Young had an interesting note in the State Journal-Register about the lack of sunflowers being harvested at Jim Edgar Panther Creek SFWA, usually the top dove spot of the Illinois public spots.

Conditions look pretty good at the public sites in northwest Indiana, where a few regulations have changed. One of the more interesting one is limiting hunters to 50 non-toxic shells at public sites. Boy, that would force people to focus on not sky-busting. I did a breakdown of public sites for the Post-Tribune.

As to Canada geese, looks tough. Geese left nesting areas a week or two ago. Absolutely no corn has been harvested and the flooding in April knocked down nesting success, particularly in the Fox River Valley.

That said, I am sure some will find open fields and some success.