You gotta believe.

Tom Thorpe, a good friend of mine who passed away from cancer 18 years ago, used to tell me "you gotta believe" whenever we would go hunting and things were a little slow. Things haven't changed since then. This is one of those years when you have to trust in that belief on every chukar hunt you adventure on. The birds aren't as numerous as I thought they would be and there isn't a covey on every ridge, but there are more birds out there than a lot of the hunters are reporting. Maybe it's because they are giving up too soon or maybe they just don't want any competition from other bird hunters.

Last week I hunted the Oregon opener and was very disappointed in my first two hunts. I saw fewer birds than I'd ever seen.  In fact, the second day Conner and I never saw a bird. I had seen fair to good number of birds in Idaho so I was beginning to believe the reports I had heard about the Oregon numbers. Then there was yesterday.

Greg Allen and I decided to try another spot in Oregon. It was cold start when Greg dropped me off and I was bundled up as Jake and I hunted towards where Greg was eventually going to park.

The breeze even made it feel a little cooler, but it was a perfect wind for hunting. Jake and I began traversing the hillsides and I was once again impressed by his ability to cover so much ground using the wind to his advantage. Not often do I get to watch him work because of the terrain, but the area we were hunting had long sweeping bowls so with Jake's range he was in sight most of the time. His range is usually about 300 yards and he was using every bit of it. Watching a dog cover the hill with a high nose to pick up the slightest scent is  truly an amazing sight and I wish I would have filmed Jake doing what he loves to do best. A couple of times he would slow down and start following the scent straight up the draw. I would start heading in that direction knowing he was probably on the scent of some running birds and at any moment might lock up and hold the birds until I got there and he would suddenly resume his hunt in another direction. I could only hope that at one time, not too long ago there was a covey of birds there and now we had to just search and find where they had gone to. I had to believe. This went on for over two hours. Although it was wonderful to watch Jake work, I was starting to doubt the amount of birds in this area. I hadn't seen many droppings and the only proof of birds in the area was some tracks on a dusty trail. We had traveled over three miles and not seen an animal.

I finally heard what I thought was chukar off in a distance and decided to swing that way and see if my ears were playing tricks on me. I was amazed at how there was no green up, even though the rocks had pools of water covered with ice in the low spots proving there had been rain or snow to help germinate the cheat seedlings. There was plenty of tall cheat and bunch grass for cover but no green up. So far this year most of the birds I have found were in areas that the green up had already come. I was getting skeptical of what my ears had told me when Jake suddenly locked up 170 yards away. I could tell by his point that he was right on top of the birds. At my flush I was disappointed to only see five birds rise and dropped one. As Jake retrieved the bird I was doubting the amount of birds in this area because of this small group.

I had no choice but to keep going because I had to meet Greg at our rendezvous sight. About 15 minutes later Jake was on his next point and then another and shortly after another. By the time we traveled the next mile or so we had so many encounters with chukars I lost count of points. I'm not talking about 5 bird flushes anymore, now we're seeing 20 to 30 birds in every covey. The country was not a bit different nor did I see any more sign of birds, they were just there. I know by the way I saw Jake working the country earlier that the birds weren't there and I saw no reason for the birds to be in one area over the next. They were just there. I saw well over a hundred birds before I had to head for Greg's side by side. I saw several more covey's after that and realized I probably would have turned earlier in the hunt and wouldn't have hunted this way if I wasn't forced to because of our rendezvous plans. You just gotta believe. Greg didn't fair too bad either. This was his, Katy and Trudy's take for the day.

The birds are out there you just gotta believe.

A side note. Winter conditions aren't too far off. Barb dropped Jake and I off on top of a mountain the day before our Oregon hunt and this is what we found at 5500 feet.

Although my dress wasn't appropriate, it was worth being soaked to pick up a couple of ruff grouse to go along with the chukars. The hills were bare where Barb picked us up five hours later but it was great hunting the hillside after a morning rain. Jake's nose doesn't lie on a morning like this.

Believe.