Once again, living in South Texas has paid off tremendously for me and my close companions during hunting season.  Any opportunity to get out and do some fine wing shooting at incredible private lands is more then welcome for us.  When I found out just a few days ago that I was invited to participate with an appreciation hunt hosted by Border Construction Sevices out of San Antonio for the Alpha Building Company employees, I almost wet myself.  Then I found out where the hunt would be taking place and then I actually did wet myself because I knew the area just south of 410 near the Toyota plant was a whitewing wonderland.  There was no way that I would miss this hunt, even if we had 5 inches of rain just days before the hunt and the possiblity of at least an inch of rain falling during the hunt.

     I am forunate to have a brother in law that works for Alpha Building and gets invites to hunt for dove around the San Antonio area.  Even more importanly he knows how much of a Dove Hunting monster I am and quickly extended the invitation to include me and another dove hunting maniac Chad aka " el weadow."  The only major problem we were experiencing was the drought busting rain that was pouring all over South Texas.  But, after talking to the host of the dove hunt the plan was to hunt rain or shine.

    We arrived at the hunt location at about 4pm and were greeted by the two camp host who were busy preparing our South Texas Bar-B-Que for after the hunt.  The ranch had recieved a tremendous amount of rain during the week and the property was four wheel drive material.  We unloaded our gear and were hauled off to a dove patch full of sunflowers about 1/4 mile from base camp.  The 90 acre property could of easily hosted 50-75 die hard dove hunters, but today there would be eight hunters particpating with this special event.  It did not take long to pop off the first rounds from our shotguns at low flying birds.  Then out of dove heaven came flocks of high flying whitewings, some as big as 50 birds.  You could tell these birds have been shot at because they were cautiously crossing the field high and wide. 

    For almost an hour good flocks of whitewings were flying past us to our left and some to our right.  We could here other hunters just north of our location slamming the birds that were flying out of our range.  Then all of a sudden the dark rain clouds moved in from the east and the birds stopped flying.  But we knew that we still had shooting time and a late flight could still take place.  During this down time we moved to another spot on the ranch that had a nice tank of water where late flying flocks of whitewings gave hunters bird shooting opportunites on openning day.  We waited until the sun magically appeared and then the flcoks of whitewings started flying again.  This time in greater numbers and consistenlty flying wave after wave.  Shotgun blast rang out, but few birds were dropped due to the exteme high flights that were taking place.

    In conclusion, an amazing amount of whitewings flew that afternoon even after a heavy down pour of consitent rain.  Plenty of shots were fired, but only a handfull of birds were taken.  Just being out there in a nice dove patch was a memorable experience for us and the great hospitality of the people for Border Construction was worth the trip.  The highlight of the evening was enjoying the good food that awaited us after the hunt back at camp.  There was smoked brisket, chicken and championship beans to please our appetite.  It was truly a good hunt even though limits were not taken, the birds flew, stories were told and plenty of laughs were had by all.  A special thanks to the Border Construction Services crew and the amazing cook that catared the hunt.  Know that you efforts were appreciated by me and the other fellow hunters who particpated with the hunt.