Oh! Happy Days

I believe this is that season us chukar hunters have been dreaming about. This last week I spent more time scouting than the rest of the summer and can’t believe the number of all upland birds I found. Here is pretty much what I found.

First off are the quail. Suddenly they have shown up everywhere and the covey’s are huge. The first hatch was a great success and most birds will be mature by the opener. I’m not exagerating when I say there were many covey’s over fifty birds. On a typical trip to the mountains for fire wood or to scout for birds it’s nothing to see at least 10 to 15 different covey’s from the road. Here’s a video of one of the smaller covey’s I saw yesterday. Most of the birds were this size although I did see a few younger ones. This video shows only half of the birds in the covey. There’s at least that many on the back side of the brush.

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

I’ve even seen several pheasants in places I haven’t seen them in years and their chicks also were from the first hatch.

On a recent wood cutting trip, The dogs, Barb and I saw several ruff grouse on the road as well as where we were cutting wood. Grady was having a good time treeing them and than barking for us as we cut wood. Once again, the chicks looked to be from the first hatch and plenty big to shoot if a person chose to come about 9 days from now. Seemed like there were only four or five chicks to the covey’s but that might be normal.

One trip to high chukar country had the dogs and I walking the timber line about 5000 feet to keep out of the heat. Seemed like the blues were everywhere and the chicks were at least three quarters grown and either flying up into the pine trees or sailing off down the hill. I’ve shot several blues in this area while chukar hunting and I’m sure there will be several of them in my vest this year if my back lets me get on that steep hill.

I’ve already mentioned how well the huns are doing but I had more proof of that this week. Barb and I took the boys on a scouting trip in yet another hun area and weren’t disappointed except for the camera action. We found several covey’s in our hour hike and like everything else, the chicks were from the early hatch. Just like in early hunting the birds are pretty dumb and although they would flush before Grady caught scent they just scattered after flying only twenty or thirty yards. Grady doesn’t understand how to handle birds like these because we don’t see it very often. I got this one poor video of how it happened three different times on different covey’s. Grady just stands there watching the birds run in the grass. They were jumping up all around him but he never gave chase.

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

Now for the main event, the chukars. I have not been able to hit the chukar hills with the dogs like I like to but I’ve been on two different road trips just looking at chukar country and I saw more chukars from the road than I have ever seen. The covey’s all seem large with first hatch birds that fly well. I’m sure that if I had taken a short hike in those areas I would have felt like I was in the chukar mother lode.

In my opinion, upland bird hunting would be a five on a scale of 1 to 5. If the fires don’t come back and hit us any worse in the next month I believe we’re going to have one of those banner years. Of course with great bird numbers there will be more bird hunters. That’s kind of the nature of chukar hunting. Most hunters won’t hunt chukars unless they are easy to find. But with the millions of acres of chukar habitat it won’t be hard to find your own honey hole.

Keep your fingers crossed on the fires and I’m hoping to hear some great stories of good dog work on the finest pointig dog bird there is. The chukar.