Where are they hiding?

After reading some reviews by the Nevada chukar hunters, I have decided that Jake and I aren't looking hard enough. They are reporting many young bird sightings and by the pictures most birds were hatched pretty early this year. Hopefully that holds true in the Owyhees. I don't get down there for any scouting and wait for reports from Greg Allen on those birds.

Even with the cooler weather, upper 80's, Jake and I have to get out early in the mornings to scout. After only two hours on the hill we are usually out of water and heading towards the cooler in the truck. Outside of a covey of chukar/hun flushing in front of a fire, I haven't seen a baby chukar yet. We are seeing singles and a few doubles but no covey rise of little ones. Maybe that is why the Fish and Game always did their helicopter counts late in August or early September.

Still, even though Jake seems to be getting a little bored, we enjoy getting up early and hitting the hills. We seem to be able to find lot's of other babies

and have a mixed review of how well the early hatch has been. We found these two hens with only eight half grown infants

and a little later found this hen with only two young ones.

In the past, my records show around eight chicks per hen this time of the year. Three birds is not enough to make a good evaluation but it will be interesting to see what a summer like this one does to the bird populations. It was a super warm June with nine continuous days in late June and early July over 100 degrees followed by several days of thunder storms and moderate temperatures.

Walking the hills, it seems to be perfect for the birds, still some green areas and loads of insects, especially grass hoppers. I'm seeing more young quail than I recall seeing this early in the past.

Like the turkey's, the chick numbers don't seem high enough per group. I did see a group of little ones, about the size of my thumb scurrying into the brush with ma and pa that numbered over a dozen. They couldn't have been much older than a day or two. I didn't have time to snap a picture but the next group of babies, quite a bit older, seemed to be challenging me to stay on my side of the fence

while papa stood proudly watching his kids show their stuff.

So, as you can see, there is some positive news out there. If the quail and turkeys have done okay it only makes since that the chukars have had about the same success with more little ones on the way. Jake and I are still feeling positive and know that things are just going to get better. If nothing else, we are getting entertained on our summer outings. As we were heading back to the truck, Jake had one of his deer or cow points. One of those points that isn't staunch enough to be a bird but still let's you know there is something not bird related ahead. Expecting a cow, as I approached Jake, I was pleasingly surprised to see this bear cub thirty yards away eating grass,

and even more tickled when his sibling showed up.

We got a few pictures before we heard this jaw popping noise and mother appeared out of the heavier brush to hustle her cubs away.

I don't know whether she saw us or smelled us, but she made it obvious that she knew we were there with this final look back at us to let us know we were trespassing on her area.

As you can see, there are plenty of little ones out there to photograph, just not the ones I'm searching for.Not YET that is. More to follow in the coming month.