Chukar/hun report

I finally found some cool mornings to get out looking for chukars. Although the mornings were a lot cooler than it has been lately, there was still no dew or moisture for good scenting conditions. In fact, it's almost like there is a layer of dust on everything. After hiking each day I felt like I had a dry crust in my nasal cavity so you can imagine what Jake was feeling.

That was the bad. Now for the good. Day 1 had Jake and I at a favorite chukar spot. We didn't see the number of birds we hoped for but I feel we saw only a small part of what was probably out there. Several times Jake got real birdie but came up blank and several times he didn't even smell the birds until he was right on top of them. I flushed as many birds as Jake which shows how poor the conditions were for finding birds. Our finds were Covey #1-One mature chukar and 7 chicks about 3 to 4 weeks old, #2-14 fully grown huns, #3 & 4-about 15 chukars in each group and all birds were almost fully matured, #5-2 adult birds with about 8 six week old birds, #6-7 fully grown huns, #7-2 adult chukars with about 10 six week old chicks. To top it off, we found 3 mature blues up high in the buck brush. We were on the hill for 3 hours and I covered 4 1/2 miles while Jake covered 12 1/2 miles.

Day 2 was also a favorite location. Conditions were similar to the day before. We had 6 covey finds. One covey was a large group of huns. I guess about 25 birds. The other covey's were chukars and ranged from 4 birds to about 20 in one group. Our elevation was a little lower than day 1.

Day 3 found me checking out an old hun spot. It's a spot that a gentleman from Tennessee has asked me about and I figured Jake and I would take a jaunt out there. I'm sure he'll be tickled to know the birds seem to have done well there this year. Although Jake and I jumped only two covey's in our short walk, we saw 4 more covey while driving into and out of the area. I would guess there was an average of about 15 birds per covey and all seemed to be approaching adult size.

Although I believe the rating might be a little higher, I give both chukar and huns a 4 star rating. When the weather cools and moisture comes there are going to be plenty of birds out there to keep us entertained through the end of the season but I still don't think there are the birds yet to relate to the 2010 season.