The big pond

Barb, the dogs and I took a few days and went over to Brownlee to chase chukars. Before I tell you how the hunt went, I want to say how much weather reporters suck. It’s a good thing they don’t get a pay check only if they’re right. They’d all be broke.

There was supposed to be a 55% chance of rain Wednesday and 84% Thursday. The highs were supposed to be 65 degrees both days. With rain and cloud cover hunting should be good. I never saw a drop of rain and the sun was as bright as ever. The only redeaming fact was, the temperature dropped to 42 degrees all three mornings I hunted. It was half way decent on the shaded side of the mountain until about 10 oclock. Than the dryness and heat started working the dogs and me pretty hard. I was soon out of water and hunting my way back to the truck.

Okay, that was the bad news. Now for the good stuff. We found lot’s of birds. More birds than we have seen over where I hunted in at least ten years. And more huns than I have ever seen over there. More good news. We didn’t see any of those real little birds you don’t want to shoot and all the birds I came home with were first year birds except for one. And that bird was a loner.

Covey sizes ranged from 6 birds to over thirty with more large covey’s than small. It truly looks to be a darn good year.

Now back to the bad news. There must have been a lot of erosion this year. The hills were much steeper than I remember. The steeper they were the more chukars I saw. The huns were kinder and hung out on the more navigable slopes.

There was more green grass and shoots than I have ever seen in September. There was dew on the grass in the mornings. There was no reason for the birds to be in a specific area and they prooved it by being almost anywhere we went. But even with the morning dew the scenting conditions were bad at best and the boys walked through several covey’s. One of the huns I shot, I watched the boys walk past it three or four times before they finally got scent. We worked hard for what we got.

No camera this hunt. I had to carry so much water that I took everything else out of the vest that was not neccessary.

The hunting was very eventful with lot’s of birds and opportunities and it was nice to get our chukar legs going again but we really need some better weather. It’s going to happen soon. I think those who don’t mind getting out and hoofing it are going to be very happy this year.