Teaser

Took a ride and some short walks yesterday and found what I’d call a teaser for the upcoming season. It got pretty hot, in the upper 90’s, and everything disappeared pretty early in the day.

On the ride in I saw 6 young coyotes running through the sage, a few deer, a skunk and loads of quail. Some of the quail had golf ball sized chicks, others were a little bigger and there were some single males as well as paired up quail with no little ones. I’m thinking that means some hens may be still sitting on nests and some of those pairs are trying for a second hatch. No matter what, the quail hunters should be pretty happy this season.

I also saw many turkeys. Most of them were in too thick of cover to see much but I could see a hen with a lot of movement in the brush around her a couple of differrent times. But this hen with two chicks were out in the open and not trying to hide. I filmed them forever but cut it down to this segment because of their actions. I’m guessing the chicks were a couple of males getting that strange feeling and not knowing what it is but it feels good. Kind of like a dog humping someones leg. They’re also trying to strut.

https://videopress.com/v/tXmUxgJl?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true

I was sad to see only two chicks with this hen but found another hen a little later with a bigger brood.

https://videopress.com/v/4wxbK7mx?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true

And than there are the huns that get’s closer to what my heart likes to find. Here’s a good covey of birds I’d guess to be about six weeks old, putting their hatch around the first of June.

https://videopress.com/v/sm9DTw3v?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true

I saw a second covey of huns that looked to be about three weeks old but they disappeared into the thick stuff before I could film them. I decided to let them be and keep the dogs at heal rather than see if they could fly yet. But later we found this third covey with a good number of chicks in it. They also looked to be about six weeks old.

https://videopress.com/v/XnDFwpNm?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true

Although the chukars eluded my camera, they were there. We had a couple of coveys flush that were about four weeks old and strong enough to fly 100 yards or more. And we had this chukar with about a dozen week or two chicks scurrying through the brush.

I walked into the thicker stuff they moved into but couldn’t see a trace that they were there. I couldn’t even get the adults to move.

https://videopress.com/v/BlcCTWuh?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true

Like I said, my past couple of trips have been a good teaser of what is out there now and the kind of season we might be having. Keep the fingers crossed that we have no fires and Mother Nature cooperates for the rest of the summer. I’m pretty jacked.