Not just for the birds

Tag: chukar idaho

  • January

    January

    I ran into a friend the other day who gave me crap for not posting anything for a while. I appreciated it.

    This used to be my favorite time of the bird season. Not as many people to contend with. Peace and beauty of a remarkably different quality. The “certain slant of light.” Snow concentrated the birds into predictable places, and they seemed to hold better.

    Now I just feel sorry for the birds and don’t have the heart to bother them. Big snow Januarys, along with very cold air and lots of wind make it hard to find bare ground and food. Their will to live far eclipses mine. I’m not sure if chukar do this, but I know ruffed grouse spend a lot of the winter in snow caves they make, which shield them from wind and much colder temps than if they were out walking around or roosting somewhere. My dogs smell them through the snow, and they’d point them and bust them, giving me another chance to miss (if it was before the end of the year; they still point and bother grouse in January). To me, that’s not fair chase.

    Being back in galliforme country this year has been wonderful. Our two-year remote yearn, idiotic as it was, helped me appreciate the good days we can get in the field here. And we got plenty — not as many as we’d hoped, but they were almost all good days. And we’re older, which should equate to more patience somehow, although — for me — it’s debatable (especially if you ask Leslie; some things do never change). The worst thing about feeling our season is done is seeing how pent-up the dogs are. But they’ll get over it. I have more things to do than they, so it’s not as hard for me.

    We aim to enter next season in better shape than we did this year. For some reason, we failed to get chukar fit by mid-September. Too much golf? Just lazy? Still, we hunted into chukar shape and were able to do some tough hikes. We haven’t practiced getting old, so feeling we are old is odd. Something else to figure out. Or just accept. I’ve been keeping busy trying to get my first real estate client (hasn’t happened yet), writing a bunch of stuff, including a short novel set in chukar country which I haven’t been able to get anyone interested in yet (not surprising, but I like it and think it’s good).

    I’ll end with this because it’s been on my mind all season: I’ve noticed more boot-prints in places I never used to see them, on ridges far from anywhere a UTV can go, which means people are spreading over more chukar terrain. I think that’s great. Get out there.

  • Good old days

    P1100100
    Angus ponders the chukar habitat

    It seems my complaints did the trick. We found chukar everywhere and anywhere last weekend. I have never seen so much chukar poo, and rarely if ever have I encountered so many chukar in two straight days. We worked for them, sure (about 5,000 vertical feet in two days), but they were high, low, and middle. Angus even pointed two in a tree near the water. I’ve never seen chukar in a tree. I shot like poo, but ended up with a good amount of birds. The best thing, though, was seeing so many birds; after hearing them all spring and summer and having a tough time finding them this fall, it’s nice to know they’re out there in big numbers. One covey consisted of at least 75 birds.

    Enjoy the video.

  • Hun Ting

    A Hun in the hand, finally!
    A Hun in the hand, finally!

    Amazing weather for late October, and we’re back on the hills with our new hunting buddy, searching for the elusive birds. After a short but extremely steep and rocky hike, Angus found us one small covey of Hungarian partridge. I managed a couple shots, but that was it.

    One bird winged, Angus ran it down, brought it back, released it too soon and it flew, he chased it down again, brought it back again and released it too soon. Angus chased it down once more, and – apparently thinking if he let it go farther from me it would stay put – he dropped it closer to Leslie this third time. The poor bird, still alive, probably realized by now his efforts were more or less pointless.

    So, we had a chance to teach J how to most humanely dispatch a game bird. His small hands weren’t quite large enough to do the job, but he got the idea after watching me. (This is my least favorite part of bird hunting, but a necessary evil for the activity.)

    So, still no shooting from the kid, but he’s got impressive strength, endurance, and character, not to mention good company. We’ll get ’em soon. The weather turned today.

  • Friends in the field

    Hunting upland birds with friends
    The Intersection

    I usually hunt alone or with my wife (and of course Angus). It’s rare to be able to coordinate schedules with friends and deal with the travel time involved. Last weekend was a rare pleasure for me because I had a couple of friends, another great dog, and my usual companions to hunt with for two days. Most of the birds we saw both days were Hungarian partridges, but we also saw a few chukar.

    The first was a bust (bad weather, few birds located), but that’s how hunting goes sometimes. The second was much better: better weather, more birds, and some new (for me) scenery. Enjoy those days in the field with your friends. More to come on these days…

    Hungarian partridges Idaho
    The fruits, with a nice composition framed by a friend