Still looking good

Although we didn't get much rain in May, I think we're still in pretty good shape for a strong upland hatch. The rains in March and April really turned the upland hills into a bird paradise. It's the first week in June and most of the hills are still green. The southern slopes are starting to get that purplish color that cheat get before they dry up. Last year at this time the mountains were already dry and although we had a decent hatch the chicks seemed to disappear by hunting season. Fish and game biologist believe the loss of the chicks was due to the lack of insects which was due to the lack of green plants for insects to survive on. Here is what Jake and I found the southern slopes looking like today.

And the northern slopes are still going strong.

As far as the bird numbers go, we heard a few chukars talking off in the distance, but only saw one bird. She tried to get Jake to break point and chase her by using the old broken wing trick. I quickly healed Jake away, knowing she either had some chicks close by or a nest. That's always good news. I'm sure we were close to other birds in the two hours on the hill but mother nature takes care of it's creatures by either taking away their scent this time of the year or creating so much fresh scent (flowers, green grass, bitter brush bloom, etc.) that predators have a hard time detecting them. 

The second plus of the early summer are the insects. On most of the semi arid slopes , like the one in the first picture, there seemed to be plenty of flying insects, crawling insects and grasshoppers to feed hundreds of baby chukars with the protein they need to mature into devil birds.

As long as we have some good green plants for these insects they will thrive and so will the upland birds.

With a little help from mother nature (a few rains this summer) these conditions will persist and help the chick survival. The better the conditions the higher  the survival rate. Although I believe the numbers are going to double or better this year from last, don't get your hopes up because of me. How much can a guy know that likes to hike up a chukar hill? For that matter, how smart can a chukar hunter be?