Headed out yesterday in search of chukars. A big storm had come in and layed a good amount of snow down over the last day and a half. It was still snowing pretty hard when I left my house at 5:00 am. Half of the city of Bountiful was without power. I must admit I had my doubts. The forecast that I watched the night before said that it should be clearing up in the early morning in my intended destination. I might have backed out on going, but I had made plans with someone I had never hunted with before and I didn't want to put out a bad first impression. Historically, I have not had tremendous sucess for chukars in heavy snows, or immediatly following heavy snows. Usually a day or two after has produced better results for me. Luckily by time we got there the storm was just starting to break up.
After the first hour of hiking, it was turning out to be a nice day!
It was cold and there was a good breeze. The dog's couldn't have been happier. They ran hard and could catch scent with ease. We had seen some tracks in the snow from a single bird. With the snow being that fresh we knew it had to be from this morning, and the sun had only been up for 1 1\2 hours so we followed it for about 30 yards before the dog locked up solid. She held the point with full intensity until we could catch up. When I stepped in front of her nothing flew and she broke point! This caught me off gaurd and I was thoroughly perplexed. I started scanning the adjacent hillside for sign, the wind was coming from that direction and maybe she picked up a scent from acrossed the way. This led us on a thirty minute detour searching all over, hitting the hill side at different elevations and making a huge loop, eventually ending up right where we started from. We didn't see a single track and the dog's never got birdy. All of the evidence leads to a false point. Even as I type it in, I have feelings of denial. We gathered ourselves and headed off to a thicket of tree's and sage I know of that was just over a couple of ridges. This spot would provide shelter from the wind and snow and I thought it was worth a look. As we got to the top of the second ridge Videl started getting birdy. I quickly caught up and when I stepped up to the top where I could see, the birds flushed. They came up off of the adjacent hillside about 90 yards out. It was a good sized covey so we decided to pursue. Well guys and gals........... This was the chukars day! My hat is off to this covey, they beat us fair and square!
We were unsucessful in re-locating this group. With the wind and snow, we had good visibility, the dogs could smell good, I thought the odds were in our favor, but the birds came out on top. We did catch up with another covey, in a steep little gully. Videl pointed them from the other side of the gully, about 60 yards away! I went around to the other side and left my partner on the opposite side. This worked out good and we both ended up with good close shots over an awesome point. After we picked up the dead, we re-located a few singles, got some more good points, and retrieves. The singles were holding as tight as I have ever seen a wild chukar hold. We actually had to kick a bush several times to get one out. I have seen that with quail before but not chukars. I guess that's one of those things that keeps us going out. Every outing can bring such unique experiences for those who take the time to recognize them!
