Me and the boys were going to take advantage of a little cooler weather this morning by taking a short hike on the chukar mountain. But I had a brain fart and forgot to pack the water bottles and where we were heading was too dry to let the dogs go far. So instead, we detoured to a grouse spot we hunt sometimes. It was 60 degrees at 6 a.m. and with the timber cover and a creek I wasn’t worried about burning a dog up. We did find some grouse, even though I didn’t get to see them. One covey of at least four were blues and I believe the other two I heard fly were ruffs. No matter what it was good to know there are some grouse out there.
We did get to see some other wildlife that cooperated with the camera.
With a little more than a month of growth to go, these bucks will be fun for someone to chase.
Looks like the same buck, but it is two different young bucks. We also saw some smaller guys with their moms.
And this guy almost ran me over.
Back to the birds. On our way home we saw several covey’s of quail. They were all on private property, but it was good to see the numbers I saw. At first, I was disappointed to see mostly adult birds,
but as we traveled we saw a lot more young birds. Most weren’t willing to be filmed.
I got a feeling that those high desert birds, the chukars, are doing as well. I just need to have a cooler morning with some cloud cover to get into their back yard and film them. Hopefully soon.
The Reigning Chukar Champions 
My name is Chad Smith. I value your reports and appreciate you taking the time to send what you actually see from a hunter’s viewpoint.
I have been climbing Chukar mountains since the late 90’s with my bdogs and it is such a passion in my life.
Thank You
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Thanks Chad. It’s a passion that can’t be described, just enjoyed.
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Larry,
Thank you for all the updates and sharing your experiences and photos. I look forward to your posts and appreciate your optimistic nature. I’ve been seeing a good number of quail with a healthy number of chicks this summer. My dog is pretty heat intolerant, so I haven’t spent any time in the chukar hills recently, but I’m hoping that they are doing well too. This has been a good time of year for me to work on some off season training and let the dog have fun and play in the water. Looking forward to our upcoming season.
Thanks,
Tim
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Tim, thanks for the report. Like your dogs, mine don’t do well in the heat either. Trying to tackle a chukar hill in this kind of heat is a good way to ruin a dog. There’s plenty of time to find out what’s out there. Let me know what you find when the weather cools down some.
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I made a 4 mile loop in the hills above Lucky Peak early yesterday morning and was encourage with what I saw. I found a large group of quail with at least 8 young and 4 chukar (this years birds) way up on top at least a mile and a half away from any source of water. The available cover was thin and dry but there appeared to be good numbers of grasshoppers and some locations the morman crickets were thick. It goes to show that somehow these birds are able to survive in the high desert away from lakes and creeks.
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Thanks Eric for the report. I left to get a tire fixed this morning and there was a hen turkey with 8 chicks about 3 weeks old in the field below my house and when i returned there was a pair of quail with about 10 chicks probably 3 weeks old also. I haven’t seen either species around the house this year until today. I hope they keep materializing the rest of the summer.
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