Not just for the birds
The landscapes where the birds live dictate where you'll hunt chukar in the West. Terrain covered in sagebrush, bunch grass, scree veins, and rocky talus outcroppings high up in the clouds is typical in this part of Idaho. You'll encounter steep traverses and sidehilling that make you wish you had tightened your boot laces tighter. …
Well, depending on your perspective... Breaking before the climb The Kid and I set out to bag his first chukar. This is the fourth season he's come along. He has never complained. He's always been right there. If I ask his opinion on route options, he's always up for even the hardest one. And when …
Parched, I'm sure. It's so dry in chukarland that finding birds, easy on opening weekend, has become tougher than gristle on roadkill. In three days of hard hiking up, across, and down some very good looking habitat, we witnessed a total of five or six coveys, most of which busted wild. With temperatures in the …
After the last couple hikes with Angus, I'm feeling pretty lucky. With Leslie away, it was just my best friend and me. We went to a new spot, the opposite direction from our normal compass bearing. Filtering through private land, endless rolling hills, creeks, basalt scatter, barbed wire in various states of repair, muddy tracks …
As we turn off of the highway and onto the dusty dirt road heading towards the chukar hills, our bird dog stands up in the back seat of the pickup and sticks his nose out of the crack in the window, snorts, and wags his stubby tail in excitement. The last time we turned up …
Thanksgiving is coming, and since I've been complaining about the scarcity of birds I thought I might refocus a little here. I think one of the reasons I love chukar hunting so much is that the landscapes I get to inhabit are particularly compelling to me. I remember driving through dense alpine forests on some …
It's six weeks into the season now and the sinking feeling is growing. Each time I've gone out I've thought, "Next week I'll find them." Then I wouldn't. This weekend I made it out twice and both times were dismal in terms of birds. We busted one covey of Huns yesterday, and today I saw …
Well, after my recent post, "Getting High on Chukar," in which I revealed that up north I have seen more birds lower on the slopes than I do down south, I went low over the Thanksgiving break in my spot down south. In other words, I decided to try the northern tactic in the south. …