I just got back from 8 days in the Stanley Basin area. We camped with Conner’s girlfriend, Amaia, and her family. Relived some of our archery elk hunts, fished, hiked, and just had a great time. No chukars in that area, but there were some franklin grouse, I believe, and Layne learned how to point birds in the trees.
The best part of the trip was recovering one of Conner’s game cameras. We placed it two years ago for an archery elk hunt that Conner was planning. Two weeks later, the area burned. The camera didn’t burn, and it had some fantastic photos and videos. Two different wolves, a bull moose, a brown phase color black bear, a bull elk, loads of cow elk, a cross fox, a mountain lion, and several deer. Plus a great video of the fire. What was really neat was the meadow where he placed the camera had about four feet of snow that turned into a lake for a short period.
When I got home, my email had several great reports of chukar chicks. Ages from just hatched to five or so weeks old. Thank you all for keeping me updated. I still haven’t seen my first baby chukar, but I will be out there looking on the next cooler morning and will hopefully show some pictures of our favorite bird. From what I’m hearing, I’m feeling pretty optimistic about the upcoming season. Keep your fingers crossed, and I hope to give an update soon.