Dry

I’ve been trying hard to both find good numbers of birds and training Layne. I have to admit that it’s been hard on both acounts. Maybe I don’t remember to good any more but I can’t remember the high desert mountains looking this brown. The cheat, weeds and other grasses are tall but brown from the heat. There’s plenty of cover for the birds to hide in but I’m thinking I have to step on them to find them right now.

I went into a new place early this morning in hopes of getting a few cool hours for the dogs to run. It wasn’t good. 65 degrees at 7 and 85 one and a half hours later. Dogs drank all the water and were sneezing like crazy by the time we got back to the truck. It’s definitely not fun out there. I found two different water sources by walking the game trails. It was jsut enough water to fill the hoof prints in the mud. Plenty enough for the birds but the dogs wanted nothing to do with the muddy water. And there was some chukar turds on the dusty trails but not enough to get me excited. On the drive out, we saw three different coveys of chukar flying from some seeps next to the road. Around a dozen birds in each covey.

In short, it wasn’t an optimistic day for seeing chukars. I’m still getting good reports from fishermen and some guys driving the roads but for the most part I’m not to excited about the numbers I’m finding yet. A good rain for scenting conditions could change my thoughts but I’m reluctant to give a forecast.

As far as Layne. It’s tough to make a bird dog without birds. She is one week past 6 months old and still hasn’t pointed a chukar by scent. She has pointed several birds by sight and holds point well but not by scent. She has honored Grady’s point several times and got to see chukars fly from his point as I flush them. Today she honored twice and got to hear the sounds and did a short chase. I watched where one covey went and headed that direction. Layne got to a sage where Grady had a short point and acted like maybe it was going to happen but broke away from it. Evidently, a chukar had landed there and ran off a ways. Grady had pointed the brush for a few seconds and than followed the scent and held the bird thirty yards away. When I got to Grady the chukar flushed without Layne being there. So, at least I know she knows what she is searching for. It just needs to happen and I walk out in front for the flush. That will get her brain to clicking and it will take repetition after that.

Hopefully we will get some cooler and wetter weather to help us find some birds and give a more optimistic report. Just a month to go for the chukars and fifteen days for the grouse. I’ll let you know what to expect.

Get in shape. You’re going to need it. The tall grasses make for hard walking. They hide a lot of those objects that like to trip us. I know because they got me twice today.