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Member Joined: 24 Dec 2005 Posts: 134 Location: Idaho

To the group,
Has anyone been chukar hunting in the west this year? I hunt almost entirely in Hells canyon. I am finding fewer birds than last year but the walk and the dog work make it all worthwhile. It is beautiful this time of year and that is another reason to be there. What have you been finding this year. Fewer birds, more birds? What are the numbers in other Western states. Regards and thanks, Larry

Member Joined: 15 Jul 2007 Posts: 230 Location: SW Idaho

Larry,

Jon Rachel (F&W wildlife manager SW Idaho) told me that this year's count was on par with 1991, the worst on record. Zero recruitment after the winter kill this year.

There are pockets of birds south of the river in Owyhee County, but for the most part, a very bad year indeed.

This has been my experience also. Very disheartening, especially after the banner year I had last year in Oregon.

Member Joined: 08 Nov 2005 Posts: 3438 Location: Illinois

What is the reason? I have seen the decline of pheasants here in Iliinois because of intensive farming---lack of cover--increased coyote population--no food sources lead to a serious decline----I now see one or two a year Evil or Very Mad

Guest

Low rain, no/minimal hatch, lower/scattered populations. California was dismal.

Member Joined: 15 Jul 2007 Posts: 230 Location: SW Idaho

Our quail populations did ok and our pheasant population did outstanding this year. Sage Grouse did average......we are still trying to sort out the damage from West Nile virus from last year.

A very mixed year. Like I said, south of Bruneau in Owyhee County, you will be able to find birds. Just be aware that much of the canyon/rim country is in Wilderness Study Areas (WSA) and you can only drive on a very limitted number of established roads with any type of vehicle. Lots of walking.

Check out just west of Grasmere.....China Creek area. If you need maps with public lands marked, go to the Boise District BLM office near the airport in Boise, tele # 384-3300 ,and you can get maps for $5 that show roads, topo and land status.

Good luck

Member Joined: 06 Sep 2005 Posts: 26 Location: Out West

We are seeing very few chukars this year, down 90% at least. In the Owyhee country where we saw lots of coveys at the end of the season we now see just a few birds, very discouraging. One guy at the game dept said 2 years ago was great hatch, last year not a good hatch but lots of carry over, this year next to no recruitment and birds just getting old and dying off. What ever the reason, damn few birds around. What birds we have shot have all been large, adult, carryover birds.
Chris

If the hatch truly is that dismal, and it appears to be for whatever reason, I think the game dept. should do an emergency closure. If what few birds are left don't make it through the winter, it could theoretically be years before they recover, couldn't it?

Member Joined: 15 Jul 2007 Posts: 230 Location: SW Idaho

Not really. Only a very small core of birds are required to recover.

Aldo Leopold found that the smaller the numbers, the smaller hunter impact and predation played in reducing numbers and affecting recovery.

This is not to say you can't wipe out a covey from an area, but it isn't likely.

Go to the link and go down to page 15. This is an excellent treatise on chukar and will help you understand some of the biology of the birds.

http://www.utahchukars.org/mgmtplan.asp

Uncle Dan: this is from your State's F&G site:
http://wdfw.wa.gov/hab/phs/vol4/chukar.htm

Joined: 01 Jun 2006 Posts: 268 Location: Meridian, ID

Went out today for chukars. My dog pointed two coveys of four and eight or more. Took one bird out of the first and pretty sure I hit one in the second but it made it up over the ridge into the next draw. Went through the next draw but the dog didn't find anything. My hunting partner's dog found one covey and he saw another covey flush wild near my dog.

I don't know how this compares to normal because neither of us has hunted that specific area before.

Joined: 02 Jul 2006 Posts: 55 Location: Northern Nevada

The chukar hunting in Northern Nevada is nothing like it has been the last few. A warden with the Nevada Department of Wildlife said the lack of rain this past Spring and Summer left the birds with only enough forage to survive, and not to reproduce. My experience this season has seen a fair number of numbers of birds, but they are all holdover adults from the last season or two, so they are very skittish and flush way out there. This, combined with essentially no young birds, has made hunting this season tough. I've been able to shoot a few birds each time out, but the hunting is very tough.

Joined: 19 Jan 2006 Posts: 91

Our group has hunted SE Oregon and the Snake river sections for years. Last year, in the SE, out of the birds we killed in three days, only a few were young birds. We were told by an older fellow that the area got hit by freezing rain in may after the chicks hatched. Killed the most of them. Then when they reset, the hatch was into late June and July, it was so dry that there were no bugs for the chicks. In the area we hunt in SE, I don't believe there were 5% of the birds that we saw last year.

On the Snake, we found huntable numbers of birds, but it was so dry, that the dogs could not scent them except for early morning. Luckily, they had some thunderstorms in late august and early september, and the cheat grass did sprout. That is the main food source right now. The snake river was where we hunted last weekend.

Hopefully, we will have better years to come.

lots of chukar on the middle fork of the salmon. and other hunters will validate that. although the huns were not present this year. obviously population numbers can vary within the region, but at least along the middle fork, numbers are good. hunted two weeks ago for 4 days. each day saw at least 100-125 different birds. saw a lot more intotal due to pushing the same birds around from hill to hill. let's just say they laughed a lot at us but we did pick some up every day for dinner and enough to feed the ladies at home. a lot of blues in the conifers too. singles, pairs, smaller coveys, and one large covey of chukar that reminded me of an alfred hitchcock movie...

good to know some populations are doing well at least...

Member Joined: 01 Dec 2006 Posts: 524

North central And SE WA is also very down this year. Witnessed exactly what everyone else says here. Low recruitment, bad hatch. Its borderline whether there are even huntable numbers this year. I kind of wish they would order an emergency closure on the Colockom area. There are really just enough birs to pull off a hatch for next spring. With a background in wildlife biology, my jusgement would be for the closure of at least specific areas. I have seen areas shot out over the years. And while maybe in some large areas, that would be an anomaly, there are areas that it could easily occurr. Two of my favorite Chukar areas growing up in NC WA were shot out. Once it happens its a real bad thing in WA. They don't re-plant or anything, birds are just flat out gone. We have had emergency winter closures before due to extreme cold and snowfall. I watched 2 hunters over the weekend work 2 medium sized coveys to death. They were parked on top of a two forked canyon chasing the same two coveys with their pointer from canyon to canyon, back and foth all day long. Never seen such tenacity. Those poor birds are at the very least psychologically damaged for life if there are any left. Seriously though, it was kind of sad to see. Because there were roads in this particular area that lent good access these two round bellies had an unusual advantage on these birds. Chukar are my favorite gamebird in many ways including on the table, but this bothered me. I kind of feel a little ownership toward certain coveys and these birds need protecting for a while. Chukar can however rebound as stated above from low numbers, but still it can be pushed to the limit of no return as I have seen it happen.

Jig, I think what those guys were doing is unforgivable. People need to have more respect for the resource than that. I hunted a medium sized covey of quail yesterday, and after my friend and I each shot a few, we called it quits, and I passed on some easy shots. It's not like there's a giant pez dispenser in the woods with an unlimited supply of birds. I don't see how those guys could not recognize that.

I concur about the Colockum also. Hunted Quilomene a few weeks ago without seeing any, although I did hear a few up high. The game dept. seems slow to react some times.