A lot of weather and a lot of chukars

Days like yesterday usually keep me bayed up at home but with a 15 year old grand son that loves to hunt and still has school and other commitments I figured I'd better chuk up and head for chukar country. Unlike me, he gets only so many opportunities and we'd better take advantage of every one.

The drive in was cloudy and showed promise to a better day than the forecast showed and even though the wind was a little stiff we started finding birds soon after we began our ascent.

We had both bagged a bird before the clouds started rolling over the hill and the rain started. It wasn't long before the rain turned to snow and the hillsides changed in color.

It was coming down hard enough that I put my camera back in a baggie to keep from ruining it but had to take at least one picture of Conner approaching Jake on point before doing so.

There were a couple of wild times when Jake chased the birds up for whatever reasons but he had a lot more great points than he did mishaps so all in all I was pretty pleased with his day. I don't know where all the birds came from but we were in birds most of the time for the five hours we were on the hill. At first the comfort wasn't that bad but as the snow got wetter so did Conner, Jake and I. Not wearing the proper garb our gloves and pants were now soaked and our hands were not feeling as well as usual, except for the feeling of cold. With Conner along, that didn't seem to matter.

Also the number of chukars we encountered help to keep things a little warmer. I'm not exaggerating to say we saw over two hundred birds in the seven miles we covered. We saw several of the covey's more than once but all in all we saw at least 200 different chukars. we never saw one covey of huns and it is an area where we have seen huns on past years. I finally convinced Conner we should count our birds and head back for the truck. We had five birds each and a lot of new country to hunt on our way back down to the truck.

The new country on the way back to the truck found chukars as plentiful as the ridge we went up and with some good dog work we both shot our remaining 3 birds before heading more in a straight line for the truck. We kept the guns loaded in case we found some huns but it never happened. Jake must know how to count also because he started hanging close and stopping when we would to sit and shiver. He was a wet and cold dog.

We stopped for a success shot before getting to the road and by then Conner was shivering also and talking about the warmth of the truck and hurrying down to it.

It ended up a truly great hunt with Conner. Putting things in better perspective we counted empties when we got home and we only fired 26 times to get our 16 birds. Not bad for an old man and a 15 year old kid.

A side note on the chukars we got. Most birds were first year birds. Although some of them were mature many of them were from late hatches and barely the size of a large hun. The sad thing about those birds is that they had little or no fat reserves yet. The larger birds were fattening up great but these young guys haven't had enough time to build fat reserves and if we have any kind of a rough winter will probably not make it through the year. It's just the way mother nature works. Somehow she will take care of us and keep chukars flourishing for years to come.

I believe it was the age of most of the birds that has been keeping some from finding many birds and now with scenting conditions at an optimum people should be finding more birds on their hunts. Good luck.

Bird dog wars

As usual, after a day's hunt and birds cleaned as well as the shotgun, Jake and I relax on the recliner and enjoy whatever might be on the boob tube. The hunting channel just happened to have a show called "Bird dog wars" and I tuned decided to see how Jake and I would compare to these other dogs.

Jake sat on my lap and moaned and groaned. I have to say he sounded a lot like me and I gave him the same sympathy that Barb gives me after a hunt. None. The show was fun and I did see some good points and shooting. The only thing I found disrupting was all the yelling for their dogs to stay, whoa, hurry with the retrieve, and so on. It's a timed event so the yelling does have a purpose. By the end of the show they had the winner. Before you trialers hang me out to dry, I understand the purpose of this trial and the many other trials and competitions beside the just having fun. That's how you get good lines from dogs to sell. I hope I said that right. 

Anyhow, by the end of the show, Jake and I decided we wouldn't compete very well with these dogs. First off, if I yelled at Jake, he'd just ignore me and do what he wanted anyhow. Next, this thing about being in a hurry to retrieve the bird to me, well speed doesn't count with Jake. How many times he puts the bird down and readjusts his grip depends on how steep the country is and how many birds he has already retrieved, not to mention that he'll find a trail to side hill back up to me rather than the straight up approach. After I take the bird, he requires help in removing feathers from his mouth before resuming the hunt, The hell with this speed stuff.

He does have a quick speed. after the bird has been delivered and his mouth cleared, he goes mach ten to get three hundred yards away to find the next covey. I'd be timed out before I could even get to his point. Yes, the judge would be impressed with his solid point but if his lungs were burning as bad as mine are by the time I reach Jake's straight up hill point, he wouldn't be capable of writing down a score.

Those blind retrieves a good trainer can make his dog perform are very impractical to Jake and I. It's truly the blind leading the blind. Today I shot a double and crippled both birds. The show Jake put on would amuse any dog trainer. He would catch one cripple and the second bird would start flopping down the hill so he'd drop the bird he had and chase down the second. Then the first bird would start flopping and so he dropped number two and chased back after number one. This went on for two or three minutes and all I could do was sit on the hill and enjoy the show. He finally got the birds to me but wasted a lot of energy getting it done. There were definitely no style points in that retrieve.

Jake also broke a couple of times on running birds. He'd make the point (has to be three seconds on bird dog wars) but would chase the bird as soon as it started running. One of the times I would have gotten the ignorant trainer award for shooting the bird he chased up. Nobody said the hunter had to be smarter than the dog and I definitely am not. I'm just smart enough to wait for Jake to point

and then I'll move in for a shot.  Sometimes I get lucky and Jake rewards me with a retrieve and I'm top human on the hill for a short time. Then there is the next point and shot which moves me down the ladder a few notches. We'll just keep enjoying these bird dog shows and wish we could do some of the things they do, but consider our score as the number of points and retrieves Jake has in a day and how well I perform behind him. Sometimes, like today, we'll get a high score

and many times not score so high. Usually that's because of the human equation.

For those interested, we are finding more and more birds each time we go some place. Conditions are perfect right now so get out there with your dog and enjoy.

The learning curve.

When I speak of the learning curve, I'm not talking about dogs but the human curve. When it comes to me, it's a long curve.

This blog has always been a place for me to brag about my companions and express the excitements and downfalls of my hunts. I don't claim to be an expert on chukar hunting or any kind of hunting as far as that goes and Jake and my outing today is proof of how stupid (politically incorrect word, but true)I can be.

Remember a couple of weeks ago a couple of guys from Bakersfield showed me how to be properly prepared with my side by side, well today I got another lesson in preparedness. On a normal day my pack weighs in at about 20 lbs. with water and all accessories and I've felt I've always been prepared for almost any situation when it comes to chukar hunting. I have a list and I pack all that gear into my pack at the beginning of the season and restock anything that I have used when I return home. Some things never get replaced and just become a fixture in my pack.

Today I finally got to use one of those fixtures not often used. My multi tool kit and the needle nose pliers. Yep, Jake finally did it.

Jake wasn't too pleased when I got my kit out to find that it had been in my pack so long that I had to cut the sheath off. It was almost glued to the metal. Then, when I finally got the sheath off the pliers were rusted shut. It sure makes a lot of sense to pack something like that around. Jake had as many quills in his mouth as outside and I got as many out as my arthritic hands could before we headed for the truck and the vet. How much time does it take to go through your equipment before you venture to the hills? Maybe all of five minutes. Learn from my laziness and be more prepared even if only for your dogs sake.

Secondly, Jake has shown some signs of chasing beginning this summer. We have a couple of wild cats in the fields around our property and they quite often hang around our pond. Jake has pointed them quite often and resumed a chase when they would take off. I'd yell at him and he would finally give up the chase but one time caught one for a brief moment. He's been fine around cats before but these two introduced him to the fun of chasing cats. I told Barbara that this would be a good training opportunity and should put the shock collar on Jake for the next time the cats came along and put a stop to the chasing. Learning to chase cats my translate into chasing skunks or porcupines and this was the perfect opportunity to put a stop to that. But I second guessed myself with the reasoning that he didn't chase rabbits when we're hunting so he won't chase skunks or porcupines either. My laziness of not doing the right thing and taking care of problem cost me and Jake a day of hunting not to mention a vet bill and much discomfort for Jake. 

It don't matter how many years you spend on the mountain, some of us have to go back to the basics at times to become better. Don't put off those little things because sooner or later they may become a big thing.

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.

The Good Ol Days

I spent the last five days camping and hunting in chukar country and it was the best trip I've had for years. It wasn't as much the birds or even Jake that made the trip so special but people. I remember 40 years ago when everyone you saw on the road or trail always had a friendly smile and wave. Everyone would stop and chat a while and exchange information. For the most part those days have changed. We have turned into a "it's all about me" society.

But last week was the way it used to be. Shortly after I got camp set up I took a scouting run to decide where I would hunt the following morning and ran into a gentleman coming off the hill. We visited for a while and admired each others dogs. When he saw Jake's name on his collar he exclaimed "hey, you're the guy with the blog". He had already been hunting for several days and readily passed along information of what he was finding. Jeff was from Hawaii and was going to be traveling through several states upland hunting until sometime in February. Although my life ain't too bad I still envy him. He'd been coming over to these parts for many years and was a book of information of the area.

The next morning I unloaded my side by side to take up the road and the left front tire was going flat. I loaded it back up and started the long walk I was hoping to avoid. After about a half hour or so, two guys were headed up the road and saw me hunting. They stopped when they saw me hunting the ridge and asked if I was having problems. They were wondering why the side by side was in the truck and I explained about the tire. Mike pulled out a can of fix a flat and said "try this". We introduced ourselves and as soon as they saw the name on Jake's collar Troy said "hey, you're the guy with the blog". Seems like everyone knows Jake and finally puts me together with him as a side kick. Mike and Troy had traveled over from Bakersfield, California and have been making the trip for something like 15 or 20 years. They, too, were a wealth of information. I even got to watch their dog's work a little from a distance. Troy had a wirehair and Mike had a pair of pointing labs and they were great to watch work.

They went on their way and I continued my hunt. When I got back to my camp I filled the tire with the fix a flat and noticed it still leaked a little air. It wasn't long before Troy and Mike pulled up to my camp on their way back to town. When Mike saw my tire was still leaking some he pulled out a tire patch kit and suggested we try it. Before I could even think about doing the work Mike had it done for me. We swapped some more tales and Mike said he'd bring me back a can of fix a flat and a repair kit the following morning if I wanted. I gave him some money to replace what I had used of his and some for what he was going to buy me. The following morning I found this on my sxs.

He had also left half of the money I gave him. I guess he felt like the material I used of his wasn't worth anything. Not often do you find that. On their way out that evening they stopped to  say good bye as they would be returning to California the next day. What a couple of great guys.

Shortly after they left, three guys stopped by my camp and reflected upon me giving them a ride last year in the same area. Their names slip past me but I remember they had some fine brittanies last year and added a poodle pointer to their team this year. We swapped information about our hunts and bid farewell.

They had no more left when another truck pulled up to visit. Another guy with a wealth of information. I had heard of Jeff Funke before but never met him. He is a local Wirehair breeder and as fate would have it, Troy from California had one of his dog's and Jeff from Hawaii also had one. What are the odds.

I've camped in that location at least a half dozen times and until this year the only person that ever stopped and visited was the rancher that runs his cattle there. Yes, it was like the good ol days.

As for the hunting, it was pretty good also. I saw more huns than I have ever seen there but maybe a few less chukars than usual.

The wind was a little stiff at times but it produced several of these over the ridge points which made for some good shooting opportunities.

This was our best day in Idaho.

Jake and I also had this visitor on one of the hunts. He seemed to feel that we weren't much of a threat and stayed within 100 yards for close to five minutes before ambling off.

Not all was good though. Our trip to Oregon was a little discouraging. One of the spots I scouted this spring and saw plenty of birds produced a big goose egg for finds. It's one of my favorite hunts and I hope it isn't indicative of the rest of the area's.

My dog's better than your dog.

Remember that add on T.V. many years back. "My dog's better than your dog." That's how upland bird hunters feel about their dog or dogs. I had an opportunity to hunt with a friends dog last week and a few things happened that made me think about that jingle.

All of my dogs have always hunted together, in fact I've always used the older dogs to help train their future hunting partners. It has worked well for me and they have always learned to honor and share retrieves from each other. But with Riley's short life, Jake has never hunted with another dog. He's shared the back seat with other dogs on the way to hunts but we always head out in different directions.

A hunting partner of mine had to go on a business trip and asked if I would watch Fergus for a few days until he returned. He said he thought he'd hunt for me and gave me permission to take him on the hill with Jake and I. We had location collars so the fear of losing his dog was lessened some but I had no idea of how the two dogs would hunt together on the hill. I was about to be entertained with the thrill of hunting with two dogs once again.

From the moment we started I was in dog heaven. That's a perfect pun. Both boys headed off with noses high in search of upland birds. The first thing I noticed was the difference in range. Fergus, a Munsterlunder (hopefully spelled right), ranged a little closer than Jake and was usually in sight while Jake disappeared over the ridges. I have to admit that my aching body kind of liked the closer range but by the end of the day Jake had two more finds than Fergus. The first point was with both dogs at the same point and I had no idea who made first contact but they held in the rocks until I flushed the chukars and dropped one.

At the shot both the boys were in hot pursuit of the downed bird. Once again I was filled with anticipation of what was about to happen when the dogs got to the bird. I was pleasingly surprised as Fergus showed up with the bird in his mouth and Jake was headed for another find.

Once again the strange dog gave me a surprise. He held the bird until I took it from his mouth and praised him. I don't know what Jeff's command to drop is but that is all I could come up with. There was no chance of a cripple hitting the ground and a new chase starting. Way back when, I use to make my brittanies deliver to hand but somehow over the years I decided that wasn't quite so important and now if Jake gets the bird within a step I'm happy. I have to admit that it was especially nice since Fergus is tall and I didn't even have to bend over.

Fergus had several points, as did Jake, and a few times we couldn't come up with birds but both dogs held well until I moved to the front.

The other great compliment to Fergus was his honor. I don't know if Jake ever had a chance to honor but I never saw him honor and I also never saw him bust one of Furgus's points. Fergus had several honors and one from about 75 yards.

The hunt was a real pleasure and it brought back some fond memories of hunting with two and some times three dogs. There is nothing like walking out in front of the boys and shooting a couple of chukars and than having two dogs bringing two separate birds back to you.

By the end of the hunt I was tickled with both dogs and the way they hunted together. They both have great qualities and I hope to hunt them together again some day. I'm still interested if Jake will honor. It's usually a natural habit they have but you never know for sure until you see it. As pleasurable as it was to hunt with Fergus, my dog is still better. Why? Because he's mine.

A few side notes. Conner had his first chukar hunt with Jake and me last week and his shotgun skills or as good as ever. We found plenty of birds and it was a pleasure to have him take on some of those uphill points while I stayed back.

I am still seeing lot's of chukars but finally saw my first huns of the season. The covey had only eight birds and the one I shot seemed like it was probably a June bird. 

Look at the green up on this last picture. Very good green up for this time of the year. The birds are already scattered making it even that much funner. Good luck.

All might not be lost in those down areas.

Wow, it's been an exciting opening week to the chukar season. Day one; birds galore, Day two; rain all day and saw only five chukars, today; perfect weather and saw lot's of birds again but they were very young.

Although each hunting place was different, Jake and I spent about 4 to 5 hours on each hunt, I went about 6 miles each day and Jake averaged 19. Today was an elevation gain of 1400 ft. and opening day was almost 2000. That's a pretty good day for me.

I got a new camera after my first hunt and had great plans of taking some good action shots. Didn't happen. I did get some pictures of Jake pointing some of the young birds

and retrieving when I shot well, which hasn't happened too much this year.

So much for showing off Jake. What have I learned this week. I think there are going to be more birds out than the predictions from Oregon and Idaho game departments. Some of the birds I found today were so young that they wouldn't have been able to fly 4 weeks ago thus being pretty hard to count. I raised chukars a few years and am pretty good at telling about how old they are when they're not flying. So I decided to shoot one of the young birds from a covey Jake pointed. I was shocked to see that this bird was 6 weeks old at the most and probably closer to 5.

The good news is that I saw four different covey's of chukars about this age. They were all fairly large covey's, around 20 birds, and only flew about 100 yards before setting down. I did see some larger birds but those covey's had less than ten birds in them. Seems in this area the early hatch might have suffered some loss and the second hatch was pretty good.

In the area I hunted on the opener all of the birds I shot were this years but fully colored. I shot a few of those birds today but the number of fully colored birds compared to the little one I shot was maybe 25%.

So don't let those reports get you down yet and don't let my optimism get you too excited, just get your partner out there and find out for yourself.

How did your opener go?

I don't get out on opening day very often, but with the cooler temperatures I decided to give it a try. For some silly reason I decided to go to a place I haven't hunted or scouted for three or four years because it's a little closer to home. Just a short hour drive and I'm on the hill.

To start off with, this area must have had a real harsh winter. An ice berg must have slid down the canyon carving the walls and making them a lot steeper than I remember. Boy did they seem steep. Also, there were a lot more loose rocks than I remember. About 1 1/2 hour into the hunt I rolled one under my foot and did something to my hip as I hit the ground. My hip showed no visual damage but the new gouge in my Citori really bruised my ego.

My memory of birds being there didn't let me down though. There were plenty of chukars on the hill and they kept us going a little longer than I had planned. Jake didn't let me down either. His close ranging while grouse hunting didn't change his attitude on the chukar mountain and he covered the ground the same as years past. The only problem we encountered was even though it was cooler, it was still dry and Jake usually didn't hit scent until it was too late and we moved a lot of birds without points.

My past canine partners were a little disappointed with me. My first shot at chukars every year has been with a shell loaded with their ashes and, until this year I have never missed on that first shot. I think I might have got that bird a little later because Jake and I came back through the area the birds flew to and he jumped a chukar with a leg hanging and I dropped it. My boys in heaven know for sure. They keep a close eye on Jake and me.

I would guess that we saw somewhere around 150 to 200 chukars and no huns. There was plenty of shooting in the area that tells me others were having the same luck. I never saw another dog or hunter but the echoes of their shots let me know I wasn't the only upland hunter on the hill.

My shooting wasn't so great. It serves me right. For the first time for as long as I can remember I didn't shoot my shotguns since the last shot of the 2016 season. I did get some birds and Jake got some good points along with his retrieves. For some reason, Jake will hold a chukar in his mouth longer than any other bird. He was always in a hurry to get the grouse out of his mouth this year and has also been that way with huns in the past. Go figure.

Outside of having to crawl out of my truck on our return to home, I'm super optimistic about what this season has to offer and what Jake is capable of doing in his fifth hunting season. It looks like the birds are there and he definitely has the tools to get me plenty of opportunities on the mountain.

Picture taking was minimal because my camera quit on me again. I got a picture of Jake's first point and then the camera quit and won't let me retrieve pictures either. I'll slam it around a little and try the charger again and maybe I can get it to work again. I like this camera because it fits in my shirt pocket and is easy to get to. Barb helped me see through the view finder on the back of the camera better. She wiped the dust off. Amazing how easy things can be. She also commented on how the knobs shouldn't crunch when you turn them. I always thought a little sweat and dust was a good thing.

Chime in. Are you finding birds out there?

Heat, Pollen and dust, OH MY.

The upland season did arrive. There wasn't much hoopla about it, but some of us were eager enough to give it a try. I think everyone survived, but a post I received as well as my opening day outing suggest that I might remind upland hunters of some of the potential threats to us and our hunting canines on these very warm days.

First of all, the post I received from Steve told me how he was sidelined after his first hunt by an asthma attack and was hospitalized and put in a medically induced coma. I'm not sure whether he already had asthma conditions that might have led up to his hospitalization or whether it just came on but I know this heat, dust, smoke and pollen can knock a guy down real quick. I'm hoping that's why I was so punky on opening morning. I just couldn't get going. You'd think with finding grouse five minutes from my truck the enthusiasm would have had me pumped up but, within a half hour I felt like my pack weighed 100 pounds. Even when Jake busted or pointed another bird I felt drained and it was now only 8 A.M. I refuse to think I'm getting to old so I'm going to blame it on the weather and air conditions.

If you're like me, you'll go out there anyway. Just be prepared and pack lots of water and snacks to help you make it through the hunt. Slow yourself down along with your hunting companion and make it a short trip.

Speaking of hunting companions, keep a close eye on your pup. I remember something about a hot pheasant opener in the Dakota's and stories of many dogs dying of heat exhaustion. Watching Jake last Thursday, I could see how that could happen very easily. He drank a gallon of water in an hour. That's a lot of water, but he kept coming back to me and staring at my water bottle and I'd squirt more into his mouth. All of my dogs in the past would lay in a bog or puddle of water and cool down but Jake hasn't figured this out so he doesn't cool himself down. We were at about 5500 feet in elevation and in an area where a creek would perk out of the ground for 50 yards or so once in a while. Jake wouldn't use the creek but I'd refill his bottles when I could. His nose was so dry he didn't get that cake of dust and pollen over it like on normal early hunts. The worst part, (if you can call this bad) was there were enough birds around to keep his enthusiasm up and he refused to slow down. I finally had to convince him to cut our hunt short when I saw him stumbling a little.

I know it's hard not to get out there and chase birds, since you've been waiting since January 31st or before. Just beware of the heat, dust and pollen. First, it may affect you more than you realize and second, it will defiantly affect your dog. A heat stroke and do permanent damage to a dog. I don't know a lot about systems of dogs overheating but I do know to check there tongues. The darker they get, the closer to heat stroke they are getting. I hunted with a friend one time that when I caught up to him he was telling me his dog was very disoriented. Her tongue was almost purple. I poured what water I had left on her stomach and we then carried her to a creek and place her belly down in it. We didn't lose her but she was never the same hunting dog again.

Enough on the negatives. Just be careful and smart out there. There are defiinately birds out there to be had. They are tough to find because of the poor scenting conditions but if you can find birds on these hot and dry days it's only going to get better from here.

It's official

This heat has finally done me in. There's no more hiking the chukar country until we get some moisture and the temperatures drop. After only 2 1/2 miles for me and probably 2 to 3 times more for Jake I was ready to throw in the towel. Jake had downed over five quarts of water and I had sweat half of that. It showed by the towel I'm ready to throw away. On the way back up the road to the truck I was at a crawl pace and I thought Jake was going to make me carry him. My mind was thinking of my genius neighbor and wondering if he could make a remote control for my truck.

With only 8 to 9 hundred feet of elevation gained, I wanted no more of the chukar hills and for the first time Jake looked like he felt the same. It was only our findings that kept us on the positive side for later on in the year. Doggone it we didn't find some birds. Last week we found great numbers in Oregon and today found the same.

There's one thing I overlooked last week on my trip and figure other hunter's will run into same trouble this season. With the rough winter a lot of those back roads had some good run off and are impassable. I don't think the county and state departments would be willing to spend those thousands of dollars to repair roads for us upland hunters so be prepared to put on some extra foot miles to get to those special places. The spot in Oregon left me about 5 miles from where I wanted to be but as luck would have it Jake and I found a place we had been driving by and found a plethora of birds. (Plethora; pretty big word for an uneducated chukar hunter. but sometimes I even surprise myself.) I can only imagine how many birds I would have found further up the road.

Over the same way but on the Idaho side of the pond I had even better luck today. It was too hard to count the number of covey's because we were seeing so many birds and once we got the first group up they were consistently running into each other and were soon on a hillside with well over a hundred chukars all split up. They were calling and flushing everywhere and it was more than Jake could handle. He was constantly running between birds and either pointing or chasing the highly visible birds. When he'd come back to me for refreshment I'd try to slow him down but there was way too much excitement to go slow.

As we headed up the hill I took a snap shot of the hill we were going up hoping that maybe some of the flying birds would show up but they didn't.

There had to be some water somewhere but we never did locate any.

When Jake would point it was usually a low head point that told me the birds were really close and he was probably making eye contact.

The birds wouldn't let me go to the front before they would flush.

It didn't matter to either of us though, because we knew there would be more birds to have fun with shortly. Jake gave me several opportunities to take pictures as he ran past birds to locate others and the chukars would jump up on rocks to watch him.

Several of the young birds seemed to be trying to warn their buddies of what was coming up the hill.

The plus side was that almost all of the birds were this year's, making it fun to look forwards too. The big boys never stood around long enough for me to snap a shot at.

I didn't see any real young birds but you can see by the pictures of these birds about what there age is.

Jake and I drove into this spot in the dark so we were pleased to see these guys as we drove out.

Shortly after that we had to let another group run off the road.

To add to the craziness of it all, this was one of the places I had been into that had several pairs of birds in  March but very few birds in July. Maybe I can carry this lesson into my future years in scouting and save some heart ache.

I also got two phone calls that reported good finds. Both in chukars and huns. Both calls were reports on different areas than I scouted and from each other, promising even wider spread of good upland hunting. Thanks Steve and Greg, mums the word for their locations. Oh, that's right, you didn't tell me where. (What's with that?)

With this, the calls, and the other positive posts, I'm calling it an end to the scouting for the year. I think it is going to be a real fun year with lot's of action and hopefully a lot of good dog work with better than average shooting from the handler. To the gentleman in Tennessee, things have turned quite a bit since I spoke with you on the phone and I believe Jake and I were just missing the birds. If you do make it to Idaho, give me a call and I'll try to make it up to you.

Now let's hope for cooler weather, some moisture, and lack of fires. We've been real fortunate with the amount of tall grass out there this year that we have avoided a rough fire season. 

Keep posting your finds. I love hearing from you.                                 

Baffled

After my scouting outing on Aug. 1st, I was excited about the upcoming season but my last three trips lowered my expectations once again. Although I'm finding birds once again, they are not in the numbers I hoped to find. I've found covey's of both chukars and huns but the chick count has been lower than my expectations. Almost every covey has been from the early hatch with almost grown chicks. The largest covey had seven young birds while a couple of groups only had two or three chicks.

I have to use the excuse of tough scouting conditions much like early hunting season. Jake very seldom finds the birds this time of the year with a high heads up point but rather hits the scent and than tracks them as he would a wounded bird. When he gets his nose close to the ground I wait and either he bumps a covey or gives me a point. Usually he just bumps them making it hard to get a picture.

What's baffling me is first of all, the number of paired birds I found this March. I was sure there would be covey's of birds everywhere this time of the year. Secondly, the great spring we had. Not too cold and enough moisture to keep the insects coming. I can't count the number of grasshoppers that have hit me in the face while scouting this year. Thirdly, the number of chicks the turkey's produced this year. There were successful hatches everywhere and most of the groups averaged more than 12 chicks per group. Although they hatch earlier than the chukars the conditions were pretty much the same.

I visited with a rancher last week and he pretty much echoed what I just said. Although he was seeing birds while riding he hasn't had any of those large covey's that take off with so much noise it spooks both him and the horse.

The grouse I am encountering also have small chick ratio's. The most chick's I've seen on Blue grouse is five and 3 on Rough grouse. The Rough grouse are hard to count because of where they usually are and there is usually more noise than what three chicks and an adult can make but I only count what I see. Quail still aren't showing up like I expect but I have neighbors that say they are seeing bumble bee sized quail now.

There are some great reports out there. Chukarhunter50 is finding some great numbers and Calton in Utah put up some great numbers for the grouse. Look back at my last couple of posts to see what they have seen.

 I'm still confident that we are going to have a good year but maybe not the stellar year I predicted clear back in March. It's very possible that Jake and I are just not covering the hills right and if we would have zigged instead of zagged we would have found more birds. Cooler, wet weather and the season after Sept. 16 will provide the answer for the huns and chukars while cooler conditions and some rains will be a good excuse to chase some grouse after the 30th of this month.

Jake and I will still be getting out because that's what we love to do. We will try and keep you informed of any progress and excited for the upcoming season and I hope that the rest of you will keep reporting what you are finding out there.

On the lighter side, if I ever get tired of hunting chukars, Conner will teach me how to fish work out style.
The hook up,

Dragging around the pond

                                                                                  Hands on the fish finally

                                                                                  Feet on solid ground

                                                                                       21 inch bass

chukars

Jake and I had a pretty good outing today and although it wasn't quite as good as chukarhunter50 had a few days ago, it made me pretty excited. If you really want to get jacked up about this years upcoming chukar season, look at chukarhunter50's last comment on my "ouch" post. If that doesn't get a person fired up what I found today will put you to sleep.

To start out, the area I scouted was inaccessible once the winter storms hit last year. Maybe a snow mobile could have gotten there but the grade a person had to go over was too covered with snow to get any kind of a wheeled vehicle in. I questioned that many birds would survive up there because of the deep snow last year but was pleasingly surprised shortly after I started up the grade and saw 53 chukars running up the road ahead of me. I know there was 53 because I got a great picture of them and have counted them several times. I'd show this picture except for a prominent feature in the background that would give this location away. I'll give you a hint on the location. It was in Idaho.

The covey had at least two different size chicks. Some were around three weeks old and most of them were closer to eight weeks old. I was surprised how many of the big chicks I saw. There goes my theory of most chukars are hatched later in the summer. I got plenty of pictures of those birds and several other birds further into the trip but bare with the quality because I was using a little camera with no view finder and my eyes aren't good enough to see the screen on the back of it. So the pictures are a true point and shoot situation and hope that the image is even in the screen. Kind of like my shotgun shooting.

I did see one more small covey from the road and snapped this picture as I passed.

Jake and I took two hikes but didn't get that far out because of the dry conditions. He was constantly sneezing and shaking his head but he was finding so many birds I think he would have kept going until he dropped dead. So against his wishes I would turn him and head back to the truck. This was a large covey of about 40 birds but somehow I managed to only capture three in the photo.

Being young, a lot of the chukars ran ahead and would pause for a shot but most of the time my camera only got pictures of brush.

I had a little better luck getting a focused shot against the sky.

Jake had some great wildlife viewing on many of the running birds and would stop and stare so that I could tell he saw birds. The conditions are so dry and the scent is minimal enough that Jake often times found the birds quite close.

Summing the day up, I'd have to use the word fantastic. After my last few outings, I have been getting a little worried. Today brought me back to reality and how tough these chukars are. They survived this hard winter and now it looks like they are flourishing again due to a wet spring. Outside of the large covey and the small covey on the road I know we saw at least 6 other covey's. We saw between 150 and 200 chukars and I'd guess around 90% of them were juveniles.

To top it off, we saw two covey of quail on our drive out. One covey, the chicks were about 2/3 the size of the adults and the second, the chicks were a week old at the oldest. No pictures because they totally disappear in the cheat.

I am back to being very optimistic about the season. I am looking forward to a good rain storm without the lightning soon. The cheat is terrible and tall.  I pulled several seeds from Jake's ears and luckily he doesn't seem to have any up his nose. The birds have plenty of cover to elude us next fall.

Grouse season is 29 days away and if the heat ever leaves it will be great practice for chukar season.