 |
| My First Chukar! |
 |
| Brittany on the Rocks Pointed |
 |
| Chukar Retrieve! |
 |
Cap on Chukar #2
|
 |
| Break Time among the Rocks |
After flailing around for two days on our own, even with good advice from friends, I decided I wasn't going to chase Chukar without someone along that knows what they are doing. A game biologist from the area took pity on us and said, "Come on. I'll show you Chukar." What he kindly neglected to say was we would climb mountains, wade streams, walk snow and rocks and cold and hot and freezing and sweaty- all within 1 hour- just to get to Chukar Country. Then the fun part started! My pup, Cap, and his dog, Remy, were the two on the ground and they both did very well. Once we got in the area, Cap headed up the mountain and made a 350 yard cast and pointed! I figured he was relieving himself and didn't mention it. After several minutes of this, I mentioned that he was on point (about 200 yards away, now) and we started moving there in earnest. Finally, we saw him moving again high on the rocks and I called him down. I no sooner got the whistle out of my mouth, when a flash of feathers and noise came from my left off the face off a small rock face. Never having seen a Chukar flush, I hesitated for a nanosecond running through the cataloge of species, etc., and came to the conclusion this was the bird. Gun up- bird down! My first Chukar. I soon learned that Aaron shot, too..so I shared that one with him. Later on, Cap found a covey of 15 in the rocks and held them tight. I knocked one down over the edge on to a shelf above the creek (the same one waded through earlier). Aaron was up much higher overlooking the shelf. He called out that Cap descended the rocks, was on the shelf and now was on point (pic above) on my wounded bird. I eased down there, took some pictures, then kicked the bird up and watched the show. He came out of the bush trying to fly and took off running! Cap broke and I yelled, "Fetch 'em up, Cap! Go get 'em!" Those little suckers can run, too. Cap was on his tail as he zig-zagged down the shelf! Once, Cap almost caught him, and with a burst of speed, the bird went over a drop off. Cap never hesitated and went right after him! Silence followed as we both waited. About 30 seconds later, out from the creek bottom, my little pup came trotting up with a bird in his mouth. (pic) He put it in my hand and looked at me as if to say, "What are we waiting for? There's birds up there, Boss!" Oh my aching legs.....
Aaron's dog, Remy, a Vizla, did really well. A young dog, she will be a star for him next year. Thanks, Aaron, for taking us up in the mountains...
