Jake and I took the long ride over to I forgot drainage for some early morning chukar scouting. It was good we got off early because it warmed up a lot faster today than yesterday.
Be careful out there with your canine partner on these hot days. You can do irreparable damage to a dog by overheating them. Watch them carefully and pack plenty of water.
We hiked for two hours and covered about three miles with disappointing chukar finds. I'm not going negative on you but just pointing out our findings. Jake never got over 100 yards from me and was usually within 50 yards which could be part of our problem. The heat was a big problem.
The day started out like yesterday. Five minutes from the truck and we flushed a covey of huns. There were about twenty birds and all seemed fully grown. That was a good sign because last year we didn't see a hun in this area. Further along I could see what I thought was a chukar standing on the rock's above me. My bino's revealed it to be a bull quail with about 15 little ones huddled together watching Jake and I hiking the hill. I'd never seen a quail up in this area before. Shortly after that I saw a chukar round the trail in front of us. Jake never caught scent but when I caught up to the bird he flushed with his mate and five half grown chukars. A little later, Jake put his nose close to the ground and made some quick five second points before relocating. I was sure he was on the scent of chukars when a quail flushed out in front of him and then about forty more flushed above us. They were different sizes so probably several covey's combined. Once again, a place I've never seen quail before. Finally, we found covey number 2 of chukar. Jake walked right into 7 more chukar's with only two full size birds.
It wasn't the hike I had hoped for, but I'm optimistic about the probabilities that we were just missing them today. Everywhere you step are grasshopper's by the dozen's so there is no need to congregate for food. The only thing I found disheartening was only 5 chicks in both covey's of chukar was fewer than I had expected.
As we started driving the mountain road back towards the pavement I saw two larger covey's of either huns or chukars diving off the hill far in front of us. That lifted my spirits some. Jake couldn't care less. He was just happy to be in the shade of the truck.
Chukar and Hun rating's are still? but Quail moved to five star's plus.
1 comment:
Glad to hear you are getting out. I think I would be pretty excited about seeing the number of birds you did. Early in the season it seems you can go without seeing a bird only to find plenty a month or two later. I hope you, Jake, and family are having a great summer.
-Matt
Post a Comment