Bold prediction and rebuttal

Before getting into my early chukar prediction I'd like to address an issue that I'm hearing more about every day. That's the issue on the land transfer. If there is anything we can really do to keep our chukar hunting good it is to make sure we have public land to hunt. We lose that and we won't have to worry about the chukar counts anymore. I'm not real savvy on that type stuff but I'm sure most of you are aware of what you need to do to keep our hunting grounds public.

Next, although it was a tough winter, it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Every once in a while Ma Nature decides to do some culling and I believe this was one of those once in a while's. A great example happened at my front door this year. For the past ten years the white tail have chased the mulies from there wintering grounds around here and we have about thirty white tail and forty elk that feed on our place. Two of these white tail were runts. Although Barb and I tried and get them food the other deer always chased them off. The other deer would go out of their way to chase them away even when they weren't eating in proximity to them. Well as you might guess, the two runts died. That was even before the big snow came. After January, the animals all left because the snow was too deep here. This was the first January in 21 years we haven't had deer and elk feeding in our front yard. Now that the snow is receding they are gradually coming back.

So what's that mean to the chukar population? Not a darn thing, but I felt compelled to tell this story since I had so much junk shoved in my face about harassing big game animals while chukar hunting. If we use are heads things usually turn out the way they are supposed to. I don't know one chukar hunter that hasn't the brains to avoid wintering game animals when hunting and if there are some I don't care to know them. In fact I trust that almost all outdoor enthusiasts (horn hunters, snow mobilers, hikers, etc.) are aware of their responsibility when it comes to avoiding game animals.
Closing the chukar season or any other activity would have not have had any affect on winter wildlife survival except in those area's that the Fish and Game are already aware of and they do put closures on them. If someone wants to help save a deer, go patrol the road between Horseshoe Bend and Emmett. I've seen more dead deer and deer standing on that road than ever before.

Be careful before you trust my opinion of it being okay for you to go up on the mountain because you might end up being classified as a unethical hunter. I only bring this up because my post back on Jan. 1 was the most read, the most commented on, and the most phone calls of any post I ever made. I don't want to go that route to hear from other chukar hunters but it was great hearing all the different opinions.

Now to my very early chukar predictions for 2017. I've never made a prediction this early in the year but I've never seen as many birds this time of the year. Remember, I don't know any more than any of you, so it's still finger crossing time. Some will say it's because there was very little hunting in January but I think it was the lack of predation. The avian predators were taking many chukar/hun early in January but later in the month I was seeing very few predators chasing birds but filling up on the dead carcasses of big game animals on the frozen ice or side of the roads. I even saw two golden eagles, one red tail hawk, and a three other type of hawks hit on the road next to carcasses.

Although I did see some chukar in January that looked pretty weak and didn't want to get off the road, they were few in number compared to the healthy birds I saw.

Jake and I have been in the hills 8 times this month and we're finding birds that fly and run as good as birds we were hunting in November. Surprisingly we are already seeing lot's of pairs. We are seeing very few huns but that is normal for the spots we go. We are able to cover a lot of ground now and the training opportunities are endless.

We even get some practice shooting with the camera.

So the winter wasn't as bad on the birds as many thought it might be. I'm looking at it as an optimist for now and am hoping for an "I told you so" come September. A normal spring should give us the best year this century. You can either believe that or believe those that think this winter set us back five years. Either way there's nothing we can do about it. When it comes to chukar, Ma Nature controls the variables. About 212 more days and counting.