The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

The raspy "cuh coo co" calls of Eurasian collared doves could be heard in every direction. It was 5:30 a.m. It's an absurd hour to be afield chasing doves, but August heat makes the birds lazy. The first couple of hours of dawn are the most productive.

Being surrounded by birds prompted me to hole up beneath a pine aand rose bush on the edge of an opening where I could wait for doves to fly through. Pass-shooting is a standard technique for mourning doves where the hunter finds a water source, food source, and tree line or power line near the other two in which to sit and wait for doves to...