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.

Quail

After yesterday's post I decided to take a better look at some of the places I usually see only pairs this time of the year. Yes, the little ones were there and a lot bigger than I figured they'd be. I guess I've been figuring that since I only a saw pairs off the road in the past that there were no little ones. I now believe those little ones were just ducking in the higher brush as I drove or walked by.

There were at least a dozen small birds with this hen and I encountered another covey with an equal amount of young ones.

I'm sure I'll find the chukar numbers are good also as soon as this heat wave passes.

Bad news good news

About 3 this afternoon, Barb pointed out a smoke cloud coming from the highway side of the mountain behind our house. I grabbed my shovel and headed that way. Not only is there some good game habitat, a friend of mine lives there.

There were a couple of guys fighting the fire along the road but no one was on the driveway leading to Steve's ranch and there was plenty of heavy brush to burn there. Steve, the rancher, was ten miles away with his cat putting a line around an eleven thousand acre fire that had burned a couple of days ago. His house was never in danger but a lot of sage and bitter brush went up in flame. I just mopped up along the quarter mile drive way making sure the fire didn't jump across until the first fire truck showed up.

While all this was going on, Barb was home taking pictures of the fire as it came over the hill.

Luckily, there is lot's of green between our place and the dry hills, so we didn't worry about the fire getting close to our place.

Almost as bad news as the fire is how bad of shape I realized I was in. Throwing dirt on the fire as I stood on the drive way wasn't too bad but once the first fire truck showed up I thought I could go back to my BLM days and hustle up the hill pulling a fire hose and was soon sucking for oxygen. I tried to impress those young punks but readily gave up the nozzle when help arrived. All those yellow shirts were a welcomed sight.

And when the air troops showed up I ducked into my truck and weaseled towards home like a whipped kid.

They put on quite a show on both sides of the mountain and Barb and Jake took plenty of pictures.

They even used the pond to fill up the buckets.

I wonder if any of the fire fighters will find some cooked fish as they mop up.

As I said, there is bad and good news. The bad news is the country that burnt and me realizing how big of a puss I'm becoming. The good news is I saw some quail crossing the dirt drive way for the green fields. There were two different groups of 15 or so little ones with mom and dad. They were very little but I saw one of the groups take to the air as a smoke jumper landed in the field near to them. I have never seen baby quail around here until mid July in the past but am becoming aware that maybe I haven't looked hard enough. I also watched 6 or so young huns or chukars fly through the smoke as I was putting out flames. They were very young and I didn't see any adults. The heavy brush they flew into was engulfed with flames only seconds behind them. One of the fire fighters said he saw a decent size group of chukars fly out in front of the fire also.

Today the temperatures reached 110 degrees in the valley. The highest ever in June and the second highest temperature ever. So we're in for a long hot summer. The next ten days are supposed to be above 100. It is 11:30 right now and the temperature is still 92 degrees. My brief time fighting fires today showed me more young birds than I have been able to find while scouting. I came home with confidence that it looks like we have had a decent hatch. Now, if we can only keep the land from burning up.

 

Hot and Dry

With the Idaho chukar opener 90 days away I've been searching for good news. I've already seen a picture of some young chukars in Nevada that were big enough to have hatched in May, but not seeing or hearing anything exciting in Oregon or Idaho. Jake and I continue to search for good news but so far have come up empty handed. We've seen about the same thing every trip. We bump three or four singles that usually fly pretty far. I'm theorizing that the single is flying away from it's partner sitting on the nest. I've only seen one pair in the last ten days. We've also seen at least one blue grouse on each trip.

We try to get up on the mountain early to beat the heat but it's getting tougher each week.

About two hours of hiking and we're out of water so we keep our trips shorter. As dry as it is, there are plenty of seeps and hidden springs for the birds and other wildlife. The birds aren't in danger of lack of water and if grass hoppers are any sign of how the other insects are doing they won't starve to death either. Still, I'm excited to see some young ones. 

Jake gives me a point every now and than, but most of the time it's a false point.

Sometimes it leads me to some promising sign.

These small chukar tracks will just have to keep me positive for a while. 90 days is a lot of time.

Bummer 2

Just yesterday I posted about eliminating some of the predators to chukars. Today, on our hike, Jake and I spotted these two fox pups by a dirt hill. They obliged me for a few pictures before retreating into their hole.

Even knowing how many upland eggs they can eat there is no way I could ever hurt one of those faces.

But it wasn't difficult at all to eliminate this big guy from the mountain.

I kept a trophy.

For those interested, there is a snake avoidance class this Saturday the 6th and Sunday the 14th in Boise. I highly recommend taking your dog to one of them if you haven't before.

Bummer

Until today, I thought I knew a lot about chukar. I always thought that the spring weather conditions were the major factor for having good or bad chukar season's.

I've been watching the turkey nest that I found earlier in order to document the hatch date of the eggs. I was disappointed to find the the eggs gone today. Not only were the eggs gone, there was a trail of feathers leaving the nest site telling me there was probably some type of encounter between the hen and something else.

With my discovery I decided to do more research into mortality rates of chukar and turkey. I kept coming up with studies done in Utah and some other foreign country that pretty much mirrored each other.

Harsh winters are the most devastating factor on chukar survival and have been known to knock out 90% or more of the chukar population. Predation is number two, taking 35% of the year's birds. Ground mammals do the most damage during the nesting season and the air predators take over once the eggs are hatched. The human predation (hunting) takes 8%.

The good news with chukar numbers is that when weather conditions are favorable in the spring, chukars lay large numbers of eggs. I've seen as many as 18, but have heard of even higher numbers. Even with  a 35% predation factor, those large number of eggs in most nests can produce a good year. If we could eliminate 1/2 half of the predators preying on the eggs, our year suddenly becomes great. If we could eliminate some of the predators from the air the upland numbers would jump to record numbers. Eliminating predators from the air is not possible but controlling some of the ground predators can be done.

Late spring jaunt

Jake and I took a spring jaunt through some of the country I chase chukars from time to time. Although we saw only one game bird we saw evidence that they were around. Droppings and tracks. Mother nature somehow masks the scent of wildlife this time of the year to help in survival of nests and babies. But when you find a dozen or so quail hiding in the brush, it still provides some fun for Jake with his hind leg point.

He had another good point later on but I had to pull him off this point before I snapped a photo because I was sure he was right on top of the bird. Sure enough, as I reached to grab Jake's collar a hen turkey flushed at about five feet. Now that will get the heart pumping. Here's the spot he was pointing.

A closer look revealed the nest location.

I pulled the grass back and counted 11 eggs hopefully to be hatched.

As we continued our hike I was pleasingly surprised at the number of small grass hoppers. They were everywhere.

Where the cheat had already dried up, the hoppers were brown color and when you got to the green up side of the hill there were thousands of green protein bugs for the baby birds soon to hatch.

Even though the temperature was only between 60 and 65 degrees, with the sun beating down on us, Jake was often looking for some shade to take a break in.

In fact at times he decided a longer break was warranted.

We saw several lone deer along the way and didn't see any little ones in tow, but since they were all alone I assume they either had a fawn laying low or were about to have a little one or two. This doe looked very fat and I'm sure she is close to giving birth.

Hopefully this coyote is far away when she gives birth. Jake and I jumped him not more than 200 yards away from where the doe was.

Anyhow, to make it short, the spring is progressing like a normal spring. Everything is looking good for a good year so far and hopefully we will be seeing a good hatch in the next 40 days or so. Enjoy the outdoors.

A short P.S.  After our walk and typing of this post I found three ticks on me and several on Jake. It was almost the perfect jaunt.

What's the 2015 upland season going to look like?

I knew the title would grab some interest. The hatching season is getting closer and in some instances has already happened. With the recent down pours those chicks might have a hard time staying dry and surviving. Most hatches aren't until early June or later so this weather is a great help in producing green up which makes for more insects to produce the needed protein for chick survival. So, all is still looking good.

I know the affects of these spring rains are nothing new to most of us, but yesterday Barb and I got to watch mother nature in action, showing us one of the many things that can affect chick survival. Our show was put on by a baby duck that I named Murphy. I didn't have a camera, but the fifteen minutes we watched Murphy would have been a great nature film.

We met Murphy down by our pond. We were cleaning up around the pond after a recent rain storm, when out from under the dock comes a lone baby duck. He was peeping and swimming around as fast as he could. I suppose  he was looking for his family, but there were no other ducks around. He kept his distance from us and anything else that looked dangerous from the shore and covered the pond faster than I could imagine a baby of that size could. Eventually he found a family of geese to follow around.

Murphy, not being too brave, kept his distance but followed the flock around the pond. He finally saw his chance to join the family when the gosslings all sprinted towards the center of the pond in fear of Jake salivating on the shore. During the confusion, Murphy got right in the center of the group. Things went fine for a while and when it calmed down, ma and pa goose took the young ones to shore. With ease the gosslings followed mom up the enbankment but Murphy fell back into the pond several times before his successful leap onto the shore. Barb was excited to see that Murphy was going to be taken care of when suddenly momma goose realized the intruder. She chased Murphy away and back into the pond. 

Barb was feeling bad for Murphy and was hoping we could catch him and relocate him with some other ducks as I continued cleaning the pond. Suddenly, a gasp came from Barb followed with a "Larry, did you see that"? She was about to cry as she told me a fish just ate Murphy. We have some fairly large bass in the pond and Murphy had just become dinner to one of them.

Waterfowl don't have to worry about the weather conditions like upland birds, but the fate of Murphy is an example of just one of the many obstacles our young birds might have to face before they become big enough to fly and dodge our shotgun pellets. It isn't as simple as hoping the big stud get's the job done with his women and mom finds a good nesting spot.

Now that the eggs are laid and the hen is sitting on the nest there becomes a series of new problems for upland birds. Protecting the nest. Almost every thing likes eggs. Skunks, foxes, coyotes, even snakes love eggs and once they find a nest it will surely be wiped out. I don't know how many eggs a snake will eat at one sitting but I'll never forget my first encounter with a bull snake with an egg about one third of the way down it's body still whole. You could see the perfect form of the pheasant egg. Magpies and crows will completely decimate a nest if found.

Although they say birds loose their scent during nesting season, believe me that is not totally true. I have seen my dogs point a nest from at least ten feet before and know a wandering coyote would be able to scent the nest just as well.

Once the birds have hatched they have another batch of problems to encounter. Like Murphy, they never know where the next danger is coming from. The coyotes and foxes are still a problem and now they have been joined by the predators from the sky. Hawks are now circling the skies looking for the scurrying covey's of birds as they chase bugs through the openings. Magpies and Crows are also notorious for pecking out the little ones until they die and than scavenge on the body. One year, I even saw a bear chasing chukars up. I don't believe he was successful but I watched him chase the momma, doing her wounded act for 100 yards or so.

So, if the birds can get past these obstacles and many more, maybe we'll be seeing those numbers like 100 birds per square mile or more in 2015. Once hunting season begins, it becomes a lot less difficult for the birds. They just have to avoid the business end of our shotgun blasts, which in my case isn't to tough to do.

Hopefully, in a couple of months or so, there will be plenty of great reports of young upland birds running everywhere. Let's hope Murphy's law doesn't prevail.

Two days ago I wrote this post and today. one of the storms that would be a chick killer, came through our area.

Two to four weeks from now, this storm would be pretty devastating to the upland population around here. Luckily, storms like this only hit small areas where the thunder head moves through. The weather radar only show it a mile or so wide.

It put down about an inch and  a half in 15 minutes or less.

Staying in chukar hunting shape

"How do you find the energy to hike those hills three times a week?" one of neighbors asked not too long ago. My answer was that I enjoy it so much it takes the work out of it. I've always felt I was in fairly decent shape until my hike with Barb and Jake today. I had Barb snap a picture of Jake pointing a ruff grouse with me behind him and when I got home and saw the picture I was wondering who the old fat man was that was with my dog. Barb informed me that the guy with the arthritic hands and belly to support the binos was indeed me. I thought about erasing the picture and then thought about how much fun I had today and decided to keep the picture and brag about Jake who was holding so well on the ruff.

I could take those opportunities when Barb is around to take my shirt off, suck in my gut and point at Jake with what little pecks and biceps I have left to impress the viewers but I think I'd get more laughs than anything else. I just figure that this picture shows the way it really is. I'm in as good of shape as most mid 60 males and I can get where I want to be on the mountain when I need to get there. It may not be the statue of atlas when I get to the top but I'll be there just the same.

I try and do as much stretching as possible, mainly on my back. My weight lifting program consist of moving hand lines or digging ditches around the property for me or some of my great neighbors. The only upper body strength I hope I ever need again is for packing out a limit of chukars and maybe a deer if I have to. But, I have another plan for my next deer or elk. I have taken several young men out in the last forty years to shoot a deer or elk and am hoping for a return favor for packing their animal out. If not, I'll figure that one out when it happens.

Chukar hunting is not a job for me. It is my entertainment. Therefore I am not a professional chukar hunter and don't have to train in a such a manner that I am guaranteed success. I believe I have been a professional at three things. I was a high school teacher and coach for a few years and an electrician until my retirement. I got paid for those jobs and was expected to perform in a professional manner which made me a professional at those occupations. Preparation was required to be successful.

Chukar hunting is my entertainment, not a job. I love being on the mountain and I love being with my dog or other people that enjoy the mountain as much as I do. I don't enjoy being in the gym anymore. I had enough of that in my younger days. I was an athlete in high school and ran track at Boise State College on a scholarship to pay my way. I spent several years after that buffing up and trying to impress my bride, Barbara but after a while found out she loved me with or without big biceps.

Over the years I had two knees replaced, a shoulder operation, a fall off a cliff that screwed my back up, was burned in a fire and spent a month in the hospital and several other incidents that required rehabilitation. I don't care to ever see a gym again.

What I do try to do to stay in shape is to walk often and stretch. Not walks around the block, but walks in the mountains in terrain like I usually hunt in.  I enjoy it because usually the ones I am walking or hiking with enjoy it even more than me. I enjoy watching their enthusiasm. Jake loves running the mountains and searching for birds but can be just as happy chasing a chipmonk up a pipe and waiting for him to show up on the other side.

Barb is also always there for me. She loves jaunts in the mountains, but doesn't care for the steep stuff so we usually stick to trails or logging roads. It doesn't matter to me because she's always willing to stay on the trail while Jake and I see what's up the ridge and then meet her back on the trail. Her excitement in seeing the animals that Jake and I encounter almost every trip makes my so called exercise walk down right fun.

And of course there is Conner, my grandson. He is the most enthusiastic 12 year old in the outdoors that I know. There is no place that I go that he can't and many places he'll go that I struggle to get to but I'll get there because I want to. Just yesterday, we hiked 3 miles before he shot this nice turkey.

It wasn't overly steep but we still gained about 1200 feet in elevation. As we hiked in the darkness, Conner laughed at me as he saw the drips of sweat dropping through the flash light beam as I was looking at my watch. I was getting a great workout but enjoying every minute of it. How often do you hear a person say he did some quickness work by dodging a skunk who was backing down the trail towards him. It's amazing how your lungs can burn after you've retreated uphill for 20 seconds  holding your breath at the same time.

At 12 years old, Conner decided to be a young man and pack his own trophy back to the truck. Now a twenty pound turkey doesn't sound like much but when you only weigh seventy five pounds and it's 2 and a half miles back to the truck carrying an awkward load that flops around makes it a tough task.

Plus we had to go over the top of this mountain first.

We made several stops along the way but Conner would not let me touch the bird except to hand it to me as we crossed over two fences. You can tell how tired we were after our hard workout by this picture Barb took when we returned home.

The only one dissapointed was Jake. He got left behind on this trip. 

I said when I began this blog that it wouldn't be about me, but somehow it wasn't possible to say what I do for conditioning without including me. So I'll try and leave me out of the picture from now on. Just let me conclude by listing my workouts for this week. Monday, Jake and I will be doing yard work and watching Conner's baseball game in the evening. Tuesday, I'm going to help my son wire his house. Wednesday, is the adult opener for turkey, so I'll be taking a jaunt somewhere looking for a bird without Jake. Thursday, Jake and I will be taking another jaunt in the mountains to see what we can see before heading to another Conner baseball game. Friday, depending on my success on Wednesday may find me on another mountain trying to find a turkey or Jake and I just doing some scouting. By the end of the week, my muscles may not be bulging but I'll be in the kind of condition I need to be in to do what I love.