I’ve been getting out as much as possible in different chukar spots. Most of the time it’s been the same thing. Getting up early, driving, and picking a spot I’ve hunted before. The dogs and I hike for about 1 1/2 hour before the water is gone and it is hot. This mornings hike was considerably cooler. 42 degrees when we got to our destination and only 60 degrees when we returned to the rig.
The dogs energy lasted much longer as did the water. We stayed on the shaded side of the mountain and was never in the direct sunlight. The cover was as heavy as usual and the scenting conditions were still very poor. Lots of dust and pollen on the dogs nose when we got back to the truck, and after two hours they were ready for the back seat of the truck.
As I thought, there were a good number of birds on the mountain with us. Not as many as I hoped, but I believe there were a lot more then we found. I say that because twice I kicked up chukars in a place the dogs had just gone through. Once a single adult that almost let me step on, and the other was a covey of about ten birds with two of them being adults. The other four coveys we saw had aprox. a dozen birds in each covey. All of the young birds looked to be about five to six weeks old and the first late birds I’ve seen this year. I’m guessing this area might have been hit hard by rain at the wrong time, thus a second hatch.
The good thing about these young birds was they didn’t fly too far, giving me a chance to walk Layne into the breeze towards where they landed. It worked great. I finally got Layne on her first scent point of a chukar.
I was damn excited when she let me walk to her and flush the bird. The young chukar was only about five feet away and presented a perfect training scenario. We’ve been working up to this moment on the many sighted birds she has pointed and let me walk out in front. She has learned to take a short chase and than resume looking for the next bird to point. She acted no different on this chukar. She also honored Grady’s point twice and was honored by Grady once. It happened to be a meadow lark, but I was still happy to see Grady respecting her.
Today was the opener for grouse in Idaho. I decided not to go after grouse and let Grady teach Layne how to bark at treed Ruff grouse. She’ll learn that habit soon enough. Layne is going in to get fixed on the third. That will give Grady and I some alone time to hunt some grouse, weather permitting. Layne should be healed up soon after the Idaho opener for chukar, huns and quail. The opener is the 15th of September and it looks like it will be on that day for the next few years.
We’ll only be able to make it out for a couple of hours for a while, unless there is a big change in the weather. But I think the three of us are going to make a pretty good team. I’ll let you know what we’re finding. If you’re out and about and see a pickup with TUCKOTA license plates, stop by and say hi.
Good luck in 26.
The Reigning Chukar Champions 