Our Point of View

Not So Lonesome Doves

Going south for the winter seemed like a good idea, and even though a trip halfway down the South American continent might seem like a field too far, any wannabe wingshooter worth his salt would jump at the chance to try out some of the most spectacular dove shooting anywhere in the world in hospitable Uruguay!

That was the case at La Ninette, a comfortable & spacious stone lodge built on a bluff overlooking the Rio Negro River, surrounded by fields of barley, sorghum, sunflower and corn, which, in turn, produce prodigious numbers of eared dove.

Hector Sarasola, our expansive Uruguayan outfitter, hosted us as his hacienda, La Ninette, near Mercedes (above).

Even the ornithological field guides describe the flocks as “sometimes enormous;” our companions gleefully pointed to vast flights - muy palomas - and offered more shotshells for our over-heated shotguns, barrels hot enough to burn a careless touch.

Hector Sarasola was our expansive, continental host, a former factory owner and erstwhile industrialist who focused his energies on developing his own world-class hunting lodge. His perspectives on gamebirds, swimming pools, fine wines, women and life in general were robust & entertaining.

According to Uruguayan legend, Jack Bell & Jerome Guinn (above) shared one shotgun and shot hundreds of doves in 15 minutes before breakfast one morning near La Ninette Lodge, but that is not the case. In fact, our six Georgia hunters found flights of birds numerous beyond any expectations. Jack & Jerome had help from their companions, although they claimed those who assisted were unskilled, ill-advised & un-cooperative.

Uruguay is a melting pot of European and South American cultures, and these hard working people take great pride in a strong democratic tradition, perhaps the strongest in South America. The country is a wonderful place to visit.

Rolling hills are covered with crops, and shallow draws and brushy bottoms are thick with thorny acacia bushes. The bird life is bountiful, including spectacular tropical species that defy description. Fork-tailed flycatchers scissor back and forth between brush rows; kiskadees, coots, limpkins, rosy-billed pochards, speckled teal and yellow- billed pintails frequent wetlands and ponds; and the skies are filled with raptors of all varieties, everything from peregrine falcons and crowned eagles to kites, harriers and crested caracaras. After dark, huge nighthawks called bandwinged nightjars patrol dirt roads for flying insects.

Senior Sarasola built his lodge of stone quarried from his own claim, and named it after the dog that helped him build a profession around bird hunting. Ninette was a fine Brittany spaniel with a nose for Perdiz and a love for the hunt, and her heritage helped him build a reputation for fine bird hunting in this fertile, agrarian country on the eastern cusp of the continent. Dove season runs all year, but Hector’s forte may well be some of South America’s best Perdiz hunting May thru July. These grassland gamebirds are hunted behind Brittanys and flush for fast action while pigeon can congregate in autumn.

If you like birds, you’ll love Uruguay. And of all the birds, there are none more common than the eared dove, similar inmost ways to our mourning dove.

Their climate mirrors ours, albeit in reverse - early January featured summer heat and blustery winds wrapped around a few severe storms. (I even got to witness my first lightning hit and saw the strike when it hit our hacienda!) Regular hunting seasons open in their winter, but impossible numbers of eared dove make year-round hunting possible.

We flew into Montevideo from Santiago, Chile, A quick, trans-continental hop over the spectacular Andes (no soccer squad jokes, please). Uruguay is about the size of Texas, so a five-hour drive to the western edge of the country found us near Mercedes, a small city near the border with Argentina (only four hours east of Buenos Aires. This motley Kingsland crew came from steerage with Jack Bell at the helm, and the brothers Guinn, Jerome & David, along with Ernest Rogers at port arms; they added Nelson Bedingfield and myself to round out a disheveled halfdozen South Georgia hunters for the trek. (I was forced to promise - under duress - to remain within close range of the facts.)

Every morning and every afternoon, we visited fields just a few minutes from the ranch. Almost everywhere, windy rafts of eared dove wove thru the skies. The wing-shooting is so encompassing that small gauge shotguns are encouraged, andindeed, I managed to find the range with my 28-gauge Ruger Red Label more than a few times.

Georgia hunters David Guinn, Jack Bell, Jerome Guinn, Nelson Bedingfield, Ernest Rogers & M. Jicha pose for pictures afield below a shot of porch & pool just off the great room. (Photo by Mr. Bedingfield).

One afternoon we hunted a huge grainfield after the harvest - a series of fields about two by two miles, with birds boiling up from the draw backed by a hot 20 mph high wind at their tail.Flights of 50 or 100 birds worked their way up to the treeline where we stood, darting and dashing as they flared and flashed in a blustery sky. When that group moved off another followed, minute after minute, hour after hour, until all of our gun barrels were too hot to handle. Some singled out a bird and made the shot with disarming ease while others, including yours truly, banged away with wild abandon without breaking a feather. But soon we all found a spot where we could make our shots, and we enjoyed one of those outings that are almost impossible to describe.

We dined on luscious dove that evening, prepared to perfection by the talented and accomodating ladies who handled kitchen duties, shared with a hearty glass of Tannat Viejo, one of the rich, full-bodied wines that represent Uruguay’s world-class red tannin grape.

In every way a delightful week with wonderful people, we had to cut our travels short before we could get a full taste of Montevideo and left behind promises to return again as soon as possible, flying back across the Andes and into this side of the horizon.