(Radio Iowa)  – Hundreds of Iowa hunters will hit the fields this holiday weekend for the start of the rabbit and squirrel seasons. Nate Carr, an Iowa D-N-R conservation officer for Hamilton and Hardin counties, says the weather should be ideal.
“Rabbit and squirrel season are going to open up this Saturday,” Carr says. “The two things you’re going to need for that is pretty basic, your typical hunting license, and habitat fee are what’s required for those. For rabbit, shooting hours are sunrise to sunset, you can take up to 10 per day, and then for squirrel, your daily bag limit is six.”

Iowa’s rabbit season runs through February 28th, while the squirrel season will end on January 25th. Carr says this Sunday will also kick off the hunting season for mourning doves.”That’ll run from September 1st all the way through November 29th. Your daily limit for doves is going to be 15 birds,” Carr says. “Just like rabbit and squirrel, make sure you have your hunting license and habitat fee, but also, like any migratory bird, you’re going to need to be registered through HIP or have your HIP registration.”

HIP is the Harvest Information Program, for which you can sign up at IowaDNR-dot-gov. Sunday also marks the start of the teal hunting season, which runs through September 16th.