Most of the good news is for me. I got my truck back last night and the only damage was a turbo hose. Whatever that means. Not that expensive but a fairly common problem and easy to fix. The real damage was to my ego. Having to sit on the hill with the bill of my hat covering my eyes and waiting to get towed hurt bad. I’m the guy that always drives by people like that with the smart attitude saying “he should have taken better care of his truck”. Luckily, the trailer hid my license plates and back window on the truck, so maybe I snuck by.
The rest of the good news for me is that it could have all happened in another two months and ruined a great hunting trip. Or not. The dogs and I probably would have limped off the road and found a place to hunt. I have seen chukars in the middle of Meridian, Idaho once.
Jake, Grady and I didn’t waste any time getting back on the road. We had another thunderstorm with a little rain roll through our area yesterday. We got up early this morning and headed west. It was obvious the storm was pretty local and when we got to our scouting spot it was dry but only about 68 degrees. Once again, I could have filmed several covey of quail but I think the news is out on the quail. We drove to the top of this range and started our walk.
It wasn’t long and the boys were on point. As I approached, Grady decided to bust the birds himself. Actually seeing it happened made me realize it was time for some refresher training.
It looked like 8 or 10 birds in the 6 week old range. They scattered and we headed down the hill. The bird finding was decent but Grady’s bird work was not so good. I couldn’t get any footage and decided that the camera has got to go for a few trips. We saw two more covey of chukar before we got back to the truck. They were about the same number and size. The last covey flew off the top and onto this side hill.
Grady wanted to go over there bad. I could hear other chukars calling to us also. Maybe on a cool November day but not today.
Those birds are definitely from the high desert. I never saw anyplace that looked like it held water. The hoppers were everywhere.
The way I see it, there looks to be a fair number of birds out there but not enough to push them down to the flat country yet. I think I better get in shape.
The Reigning Chukar Champions 
Glad to here it wasn’t something worse on the truck…to try and buy another rig right now would set a guy back more now than a year ago with a shocking sticker price.
Looks like maybe the enormous hopper population saved us this year with the drought and all. I read a couple of articles that Sage hens and sharptails get there water from grasshoppers especially in lean water years. Probably the same with the Chukars it appears cause this year was especially lean although around hatch time conditions were pretty good and then went to crap a couple of weeks later. Appreciate your scouting attempts.
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Thanks Steve. Heard from another chukar hunter that does some scouting this time of the year and he had some d different findings. Mark spotted 53 broods, which seems great to me, but only averaged 3 chicks per adult. Almost all were first hatch. By his records the bird numbers are down 10% from 2020 and 40% from his boomer year of 2016.
I think you have to be right on about the hoppers saving some of the birds. Going back on the mountain Wednesday for a little fun.
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