small ground nesting owls wait patiently for the dove to fall out of the sky
I carry two cell phones, one for the United States and one for Argentina as I have yet to find a provider anywhere that offers reasonable rates and seamless number options in either country. When I am home in Mississippi I use one and when I am home in Argentina I use the other, I have another one for European travel, but that is a story for another day. I regularly check the voice mail no matter what continent I am on and the other day I had several viscous messages from a clear nut job in reference to our photo gallery at Argoshunts.com. Their comments ranged from suggesting I needed to be shot to several other colorful and vivid suggestions of where and what to do with myself, so it occurred to me that perhaps actual educated hunters might view our site and think what are they thinking with all these piles of birds, surely this is a waste.
Anyone that has ever hunted with us or any other Argentine dove outfitter worth a hoot has seen the unprecedented abundance of the Golden Eared Dove, Zenaida Auriculata or as some locals call them Palomas Doradas. They number in the legions in central Argentina and for years have been the bane of the local farmers large and small. It is a slow day at the office for our local doves to only decimate a fraction of a grain field. It is normal for farmers to lose a fourth of their crop or more. With the most recent esitmate of over 32 million doves in a small geographic area it is no wonder that it is a wing shooting paradise. Add to this the fact that they rarely migrate ,nest 4 to 5 times a year and the discussion of conservation and survival shifts rapidly from fowl to farmer.
I get that images of piles of birds can be off putting to some but the survival of the fittest in this case is an actual issue for the humans. Dependent on grain crops for their economic survival with no defense against the torrent of swooping doves from sunrise to sundown 365 days a year other than the small groups of hunters that come to try to damp down the ever growing population. The birds we take don’t go to waste, they are on our menu at the lodge and the tables of our staff, local schools and churches benefit as well. This is not a wealthy area and no one wastes anything.
Pigeons are equal pests and much harder to hit!
With that little rant out of the way for another year we intend to happily continue firing away at the doves and pigeons that blacken the sky in Santiago del Estero. If you understand conservation and would like to help our cause please join us at Argos Hunts. Oh, and there has also been a sharp increase in the health and welfare of all predator birds in our area as they sit and wait for their daily meals to fall from the sky!
