No worries

With a little more than four weeks to go before the Idaho chukar opener, it looks to be one of the best openers for a while. Every report I have gotten in the last two weeks has been positive for quail, Huns and chukars. That includes all of southwest Idaho and eastern Oregon. Those three upland birds look to be the highest in at least the last eight years. Maybe even further back. Time will tell.

We had a fairly substantial rain two days ago that should have helped the insect population stay strong and help the birds grow. But the heat is back and we still have to worry about fires. If that goes well, we are looking to have that banner year.

Cover is not as good as last year but ample good to hold birds tight. I am still seeing and hearing of some late hatches, but for the most part, the first hatch seems to have been very strong. I am already hearing of people seeing fifty bird covey’s in their travels.

For the out of staters, September and October may not be as productive as the later months because of the heat and dryness. Last year I heard some dismal reports as well as I had a tough time finding good number of birds until the first good rain and cool spell came. Then the same places I wasn’t finding birds early were suddenly filled with lots of fun action. We all know how well chukars will hold and if the dogs can’t get smell then we probably pass by many of them.

It’s been a long off season for me. Not as much action as we usually get due to me tending to injuries as well as learning to work with a diabetic dog and having to keep another one down while he heals from a leg injury. So I’m chomping at the bit more this year to get to hunting than any year I can remember. Even if it were going to be a bad season I would be out there. But I think God has plans with my recovery for lots of this action.

So get the dogs ready, your shells reloaded, clean that shotgun, grease your boots, get the bird vest out, and more than anything else, remind your significant other how much you’ll be out chasing birds this year and get ready for what the chukar mountains are going to offer.

As always, if you ever see my truck or camper, please stop and swap some lies with me. I hope to see some of you on the mountain somewhere. Good luck and send me some success pictures. I like tail gate pictures. I don’t look at them as bragging but more like “look at what my dog did for me today”.