Chukar numbers

B

bakerboy

Guest
anyone been out in eastern oregon or idaho and noticed if there were many new birds. did they survive the amount of rain we got earlier this month? I will be down on the snake river this weekend and plan on looking around. I hope the numbers start increasing. There are plenty of bugs out this year for the young ones. I just hope the rain didnt kill a bunch of them.

Any info would be helpful, good or bad.
 
Where I'm at the quail haven't hatched yet, July 4th usually.

Chukar seem to be the same. As green as our desert is, it will be above average.
 
I think that's right, I haven't seen any young quail or pheasant yet so I am guessing the chuckar missed most of the rain earlier.

ODFW does their brood counts on the Snake in late July, so far I've found their assessment of the hatch to be pretty much what I find in the field. I hope we have a good hatch, we need to bring the bird numbers back up.

I hope the winter wasn't as hard on them as it seemed when I was there in mid January, I found some fat birds but I felt sorry for them and only hunted a half day and went home. the guides were pounding them in the few areas without much snow, they should have closed the season the first of the year like they used to.
 
We are just now seeing quail chicks on our place on the Powder. I'm on Brownlee everyday and have only seen 1 bunch of chicks and they were pretty good size. Seeing some adults with no chicks.One of the cowboys riding the Snake upriver from the Powder Arm said it looked pretty good, several bunches of chicks. That was over 3 weeks ago. It looks to me that even if the 1st hatch wasn't so good conditions are great for a 2nd try.
Luckily,they came thru the winter ok. After those heavy snows in December we had no more but the snow from those storms lasted longer than usual. Another big snow would have been devastating. Most of the local guys backed way off looking forward to having more birds to nest this spring but they were still hit hard.
 
I'm surprised they hatched that early, but like you say they should have a great hatch for any that re nest.

You think enough birds made it through the winter to have a decent year? I was upset and the pressure the birds were getting south of the Powder the last time I was there, and I heard north of there dead birds were being found. but I don't know if that's true.
 
With all of the hard rain this spring I suspect that it will be another down year.
 
>I'm surprised they hatched that early,
>but like you say they
>should have a great hatch
>for any that re nest.
>
>
> You think enough birds made
>it through the winter to
>have a decent year? I
>was upset and the pressure
>the birds were getting south
>of the Powder the last
>time I was there, and
>I heard north of there
>dead birds were being found.
>but I don't know if
>that's true.

Enough birds made it thru but this season all depends on this years hatch. It's true there was some winter kill in spots but not widespread.
Now for some good news,today we saw a brood of 15-20 chukar chicks out on the Snake. Every spot we fished we heard chukar talk,mostly on the Oregon side but some in Idaho. I would still like to see more chicks but it's looking better. Then coming down the road to home this evening I saw 2 separate quail broods of 10-12 chicks. I'm always amazed to see them no bigger than mice and already flying. It's looking better!
 
I was down on the Brownlee and I heard and saw a lot of chukar. I didnt visually see any chicks, but the conditions are really good right now. I went down to the mountain man lodge and I have never seen so many Mormon Crickets. If the chukar are eating those they should do really well this summer. The entire ground was moving, I had never seen anything like it. I was pleased with the amount of chukar I did see and hear from the boat on both the idaho and oregon side.
 
I believe that I am the exception to the rule, but in one area I hunt the numbers are looking stellar, as they were last year. I'm pretty sure that there was even a small second hatch!!
 
Around here I think a second/third hatch is possible up til mid August

Bout 4-5 years ago I had something going on the opener so Sun afternoon (3rd week of Oct) I quail hunted a couple miles from my house. First two birds I shot were only half grown. Had to find a new covey.Few days later I experenced very young chukar.

I've raised both pheasants and chukar and those birds were only 6-7 weeks old. Minus a 21 day incubation period, the mommy sat those eggs mid-August.

BTW, it was my best year with 212 chukar so I'm hopin for a late 2nd/3rd hatch this year.
 

Click-a-Pic ... Details & Bigger Photos
Back
Top Bottom