Jay Roberson
Jay Roberson
covers ground hard mourning picking scratch sight snow time visible
Mourning doves are ground feeders. They also are sight feeders, picking up visible seeds. They don't scratch or dig. When snow covers a field, they have a hard time foraging.
issues
It's way, way early. There are so many other issues out there right now.
feed few forced mortality percent resulted shown studies
They have studies that have shown where as few as one pellet resulted in about 50 percent mortality after 21 days. They forced feed doves in pens.
concerned fallout forces might
I am concerned about what kind of fallout there might be and what it forces us into in other states.
birds dead field picked problem weak
One problem is that it may not show up in dead birds in the field because they get weak and picked of by predators.
birds certain fed found lead low missouri number small studies survival
There are some studies going on now in Missouri on penned birds where they were fed a certain number of lead shot. They've found that if they ingest even a small number of shot, they have a very low survival rate.
efficiency information mourning rates survival
We need better information on survival rates and recruitment rates of mourning doves. But we have to look at the availability and efficiency of non-toxic shot.