More excitement

Too hot to do much hiking but more excitement from the birds. Mainly from the truck. I can’t say I normally see this many birds from the truck but I’m usually not on the road this much. It’s really looking promising for the season. The dogs and I got out on two different 15 minute hikes and each time found a covey of chukars with young ones about four weeks old and flying about 100 yards. I’m guessing each covey had over 10 birds. So fun to find.

Mark sent a great report of chukars spotted and sent this picture of some chukars running down the road.

Those are definitely an early season hatch and at least 6 weeks old. Thanks Mark.

Another friend said he spent some time on the Owyhee reservoir and saw several hatches of chukar coming down for a drink. He estimated most hatches wer around 4 weeks old but saw some older chicks also.

My drive in found four different covey of huns on the road. Two flew off with a good number of chicks that seemed pretty big. The other two stayed on the road for a short video.

https://videopress.com/v/QTmfbyj0?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true

https://videopress.com/v/H64KWr5S?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true

The best that I count I could get was 13 chicks in the first covey and 16 in the second. My guess was about 4 or 5 week old birds. I also saw several covey of quail along the way. I was a little disappointed on the chick count and wondering if the large number of magpies around them could have been the problem. There seems to have been a great hatch on magpies.

Anyhow. More food for thought on the upcoming season. I can’t wait to see what’s for dessert.