Hearing the mourning dove again was a revelation, but with it came a realization: the wistful coo hadn't been in the air for years.

The fall hunting season kicks off Sept.1 with the opening day of dove season across the Sooner State. The ODWC office said that northeastern Oklahoma counties have not seen large numbers of doves but ...

The mourning dove -- with a distinctive "cooah, coo, coo, coo" call--is a gray-brown bird 10 inches to 12 inches long with purple-green iridescent markings on its neck.

Slightly larger and exponentially more aggressive than the more-familiar mourning dove, the Eurasian variety's never-ceasing "coo, COOO, coo" echoes from dawn to dusk around my neighborhood.