DELIGHT FOR DOVE HUNTERS : SUNDAY'S OPENER LOOKS PROMISING.

Byline: Jim Matthews Special to the Daily News

The dove-hunting season opener - a Sept. 1 tradition and the nation's most popular hunting day - should be strong throughout the agricultural and desert regions of Southern and Central California.

``The long-term trend in dove numbers is slightly upward and that is the important thing,'' said John Massie, a Department of Fish and Game biologist in Ramona. ``Everything else really depends on weather.''

There was a 7.2 percent increase in dove population earlier this year during the nesting season and an even bigger increase in the number of birds seen on the fly routes, said Sam Blankenship, the DFG's statewide coordinator for upland birds.

``There's a ton of birds throughout the state right now,'' he said.

Massie also noted that in Imperial County and eastern Riverside County - the focal points for most Southern California dove hunters - there was substantially more wheat planted this year than last year - 128,000 acres versus 26,000 acres. While most of that acreage has been harvested and cultivated or burned, the bare fields often hold a tremendous amount of scattered grain that attracts mourning doves.

Using Upland Stamp funds, the DFG planted three fields near Niland specifically for this year's dove season. All are open to hunting, but Massie noted they were not holding huge concentrations of birds, perhaps because there is so much feed throughout the valley.

The first field is located near the intersection of Beal Road and the East Highline Canal east of Niland. The second is on the southwest corner of English and Ponds roads south of Niland. And the third is found between English and Wilkins roads northwest of Niland.

The Wister Unit of the Imperial Wildlife Area, located north and west of Niland, is also open to hunters and has good numbers of birds, he noted. Birds are also using the Finney-Ramer Unit south of Niland.

``Season looks pretty good. We haven't had a cold storm to move birds out of the valley and we've got a pretty good population of whitewings (white-winged doves) at this moment,'' said Wayne Pinkerton, owner of B&B Bait in Blythe. ``I was out to a field north of here the other morning and it looked like the ground was moving, there were so many doves.''

Most hunting in this region takes place in the alfalfa fields down around the town of Palo Verde or at the far north end of the valley adjacent to the mesa north and east of Blythe. Pinkerton said hunters working the desert margins from Midland Avenue to Sixth Street north of town along the power-line road should find birds.

Farther to the west, in San Bernardino County, the season is expected to be pretty good, at least for the first few days, according to Andy Pauli, a DFG biologist in Barstow. Birds are showing in pretty good numbers in the agriculture near Newberry Springs and throughout the Mojave River between Barstow and Victorville - all traditional hunting areas but both with much posted land. Pauli said the railroad tracks and the desert springs and guzzlers, or water feeders, also attract numbers of doves. It all comes down to scouting and asking permission to hunt, said Pauli.

The Owens Valley in Inyo and Mono counties is holding lots of doves this year. Many hunters are traveling north to this region to try to beat the crowds in other areas and have the opportunity to get in a little fishing besides. There are huge areas of sunflowers on Los Angeles Department of Water and Power land in the Owens Valley from Lone Pine to Bishop, and the entire region has heavy bird use right now, according to the DFG staff in Bishop.

DFG biologists Rocky Thompson in Lake Isabella and Bill Asserson in Bakersfield both said they expected the dove hunt in Kern County and the southern San Joaquin Valley to be as good or better than last year because of increases in the number of birds, however scattered, in the flyway this year.

Blankenship said weather will be a strong factor in the success of the season.

Doves traditionally begin their southward migration in late August or early September, when the first cool nights hit. A drop of as little as eight or 10 degrees in the nighttime low will send birds packing south. The northern portion of the Sacramento Valley experienced its first cool nights this week, which could be a boon to hunters here as the birds from the north move into this region over the next few days.

Blankenship said that even if birds are scarce, the opener will draw about 100,000 California hunters into the field Sunday and Monday, and nationwide there will be probably more than one million hunters out for this opener - the only hunting opening date shared nationwide each year.

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

PHOTO (1) Like many of his fellow hunters, Roy Rodieck u ses sporting clays and skeets as a way of practicing for the dove-hunting season.

Phil McCarten / Daily News

(2--color) Barring weather problems, there should be plenty of doves for opener.

David Welling / Special to the Daily News