Thank you Mark for the notification of the Mineral fire. For all of us chukar hunters. it’s burning a lot of great chukar ground on the Idaho side of Brownlee reservoir. It started yesterday and had covered a couple of thousand acres in just a few short hours. As of today it has bloomed to 15,000 acres and with the limited resources available has the ability to wipe out a lot of great country for big game and birds.
If they don’t get a good handle on it soon, it’s got the potential to congregate hunters in the hills left untouched. Keep your fingers crossed and I’ll let you know what I hear.
The Reigning Chukar Champions 
Cliff Rexrode
Saw that this morning- Mountain Man Lodge, Rock Creek area. I’ve hunted chukars there several times. Radar showed some rain possibly there this morning. Also another fire east of Crane Creek reservoir started yesterday.
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Thanks Cliff. The Mineral creek fire (rock creek area) burned another 5,000 acres so far today. It would be nice if they could pinch it off towards the reservoir but resources are pretty limited due to all of the fires going. The Crane creek fire you mentioned is a little more accessable than the Mineral but once again, not enough man power left. The winds that came with yesterdays thunder storms were very strong and we have some strong breezes right now that aren’t helping. Keep me posted if you hear mor and I’ll do the same.
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A lot of great habitat burned in Oregon too. Hunter density is bound to be a factor in the area not burned.
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Yes I think hunter densities will definitely be more of a problem this year. Especially with the good bird numbers and less places for chasing.
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Dave here.
Howdy there. So it seems one of my favorite chukar hills has gone up in flames! Unlike most others though, this hill is isolated–a long ridge surrounded by desert on all sides. So the only adjacent territory to which the birds easily could migrate is either flat or a little bit rolling. No steep slopes, no rocky outcrops that would cause you to say, “That’s chukar country.” So, assuming the birds escaped the fire, should I expect them to take up residence in non-typical, less than ideal habitat? Or would they likely have kept traveling until they found more typical chukar territory? (Which in this case would be about six miles away.) Any ideas about that? Thanks!
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they aren’t going to take up residence in flat country unless it’s a flat rim with an escape hill . Rolling hills possibly,
6 mile migration is a stretch
plenty birds can get through a fire and die later
starvation is playing a big factor in the Paddock area fire, they survived the fire only to have zero cover and nothing to eat.
great hatch turning into a bad year in too many places
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it’s closer to 20,000 now , this is bad news along with everything else.
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Dave, I think the next guy answered your question pretty well. The good news is that, like he said, 6 miles is a stretch. If they have no place else to go they have to survive and they probably will do the best they can in that flatter area. One positive note. There was a fire several years back where the mineral fire is now. I was amazed at how quickly the grass came back after a rain and how the chukars were there chomping on all the fresh green sprouts. You couldn’t get close to them because of the lack of cover and I’m sure the avian predators were having plenty to eat but the next year was a great wet Spring and the birds were back. Hope you are doing well.
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Cliff Rexrode
Perspective from 33 years of chasing chukars in Idaho and fire. If there is plenty of rimrock and rocky areas the birds will recover fairly quickly with new plant growth. In areas where there is not a lot of rock, sage and brushy areas are critical habitat. Loss of those important components can take many years to regenerate and can greatly influence the chukar populations.
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cliff, yessir and there’s a lot of places that never get back to where they were with the sage
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