the season begins

Well, maybe not hunting season, but the beginnings of what makes or breaks our upcoming seasons. Our first canada goslings have shown up. The pictures aren’t the best since I’m taking them from the house in between squalls.

Only 3 and about a week earlier then on past years but I’m sure there will be about 50 to 100 little ones by the first of May. I have no idea where they nested or where the many other geese pair have their nests but suddenly they show up. The Wood ducks and Mallards are also using the pond but their little ones don’t show up until mid May.

I know the Wood ducks nest in the trees, but we have never found one of their nests or the nests on the ground of mallards. But they are here somewhere. We built a Wood duck box but they never used it. But the wasps sure loved it.

It’s not as good as seeing baby chukars everywhere but seeing these babies brings a subject quite often talked about this time of the year to mind. Running dogs on wild birds during the Spring. Another upland bird site had a pretty good discussion on that recently. I’d have to say the majority of the responders were against being out. Many think the birds need a break and some worried about the birds burning valuable calories used for egg production. Valid thoughts, but I find it hard to buy into them.

I try to use some common sense to what I have seen over the years, and how what I do might affect the birds that I love to pursue so much. If I thought for a moment my pursuing them with the dogs in the Spring would be deteremental to their survival I wouldn’t do it. By the same token I commend those who don’t take the risk because of what they believe.

Here’s my defense for being out in the chukar mountains with my dogs in the Spring. Let’s take geese, ducks, quail, pheasants and all the other birds that seem to survive the nesting season around my house or even the large cities. My dogs, the neighbors dogs, all the cats, the foxes, raccoons, skunks and avian predators are all over the place during the days or nights. We know the birds are here. At first, the geese are all paired and suddenly only the male spends time at the pond. The female is now sitting on the nest. The dogs and I travel the fields and ditches around here quite often and never find nests. Once in a while we may bump a mature bird but we seldom find a nest. Mother Nature has provided wildlife the ability to hide their nest and leave as little scent as possible at the nest site.

Take a killdeer. We’ve all seen them in a parking lot at the kids baseball games. The only reason you know they have a nest is because of the fake injury the birds show to keep you away from the nest. Even though the nest is in the wide open, the eggs blend in with the rocks so well they are hard to find. You can walk a dog by the nest and they don’t get scent. Maybe it’s because they are so into the bird faking weakness that they aren’t using their nose as well as they should, but after 25 days or so there are four babies sprinting around the parking lot. And that’s with at least one baseball game per day while she is incubating the eggs.

Now let’s go up on the chukar mountain. Let’s just guess we’ll only cover 2 square miles. It’s almost Spring time. The carry over from the hunting season is quite well. February finds me getting into at least a half dozen covey’s of twenty or so chukars. Plenty of scent and some great points. The birds flush around the mountain just like they did during the hunting season. A few atta boys and off to find the next covey.

March comes along and suddenly the covey’s are hard to find. I get plenty of points on chukar pairs. Maybe 10 or so points but that’s far from the hundred or so birds that were in the area in February. No, the trip on the mountain a month ago didn’t stress 80% of the birds to death. I believe they have just paired up and spread out to claim their turf. Of course with there only being two birds, the scent is less so most of the time we pass by birds without cutting any scent.

April on that same mountain again. Sure, it’s warmer, but now we’re only finding two or three pair of birds. Not much fun for three hours of beating the hill. Where did the birds go? Why is Grady starting to look for Rock chucks instead of chukars?

May finds no points. We still love being on the chukar mountain and although we have an occasional bump of a chukar there is not enough scent for a solid point. We try to avoid snakey areas but can’t help being on the mountain because we love it.

June brings more heat to the mountain but the birds don’t mind it even though the dogs and I do. The first part of the month, if we’re lucky, we find a nest or two but the dogs show no interest and they don’t seem to even pick up any scent.

When the hen leaves the nest she moves far away to eat or relieve herself so to leave her scent away from the nest. I’m sure we pass over many nests but never know it. The boys are more interested in things they can smell or hear. Like the Rock chucks. My only fear is that where the Rock chuck lives the snakes also like to be. Hopefully snake avoidance is working.

Towards the latter part of June we might bump a chukar that seems injured and flops and makes distress noise down the hill. Of course the dogs are off chasing what they think is a crippled bird. I recall the dogs and make them wait while I dig through the grass looking for the motionless chicks the bird was leading us away from. We then leave the area and continue our hike. On two different occasions I have been lucky enough to see the hen come back and gather her young. They don’t go far.

July and August are tough months to be on the hill with the dogs because of the heat, but we usually pick a better day to get on them anyhow. By now the chicks are flying and the larger chicks go 100 yards or more. They still don’t have a lot of scent.

Then comes mid September. The dogs and I will be back on that mountain we were on in February. Remember there were 6 covey’s numbering about 100 to 120 birds. Then the numbers dwindled as Summer came. Although scenting conditions are tough because of the dryness and the points are not so great, we push over 300 birds that day. It seems to me, like the killdeer, chukars will find the way. Our presence did’nt seem to harm their production pf a brood.