A CHUKAR TALE

I recently read that Idaho Fish and Game will close the partridge season, including chukars, as of Saturday, January 10, because of low populations and stress conditions for the birds. Normally the season would have extended to the end of the month, I believe. This reminded me of an experience our friend Cris, my supervisor at the Industrial Commission, shared with us last summer. At that time she had just moved to a Clarkston Heights neighborhood on the other side of the golf course from our house. We have game birds in this area, including chukars.

One day Cris' dogs (Bubbies and Muffy) walked through some thick pampas grass disturbing two chukars that ran out squawking. Cris said this experience made her aware of the chukars in our area and she then began to enjoy watching them with their "chicken-like sounds and behaviors. Some days later, she cut back the pampas grass and discovered a chukar nest containing 16 eggs in the center of the plant. She stopped cutting immediately, hoping the mama chukar was still taking active care of the nest. She could see into the nest from her kitchen window, so she watched it for about two weeks but saw no activity. Her friend who works at Juvenile Corrections told the science teacher there about the nest, and he suggested she bring it to his classroom. After some additional lapse of time, the friend delivered the nest to the science teacher. Because it was a Friday, the teacher put the eggs into the refrigerator to hold them over the weekend. Unfortunately someone "adjusted" the refrigerator temperature that day so that on Monday it was noted that the food had frozen a bit – a little cold for the eggs as well. At that time the teacher cracked open an egg and determined it was fertilized, so he put the remaining eggs in an incubator and also involved the students in this experiment.

Cris put the whole thing out of her mind, thinking these eggs would not develop further. She has a soft heart toward all animals; I'm sure she was disappointed. But -- A few weeks later another egg was cracked open to reveal a moving chick. Though it was too early for the chick to survive, at least they knew the incubation would not be fruitless. Within a couple of weeks, the 14 remaining eggs all hatched – after all the adversity they had endured. Cris called them "cute little tiger-striped chicks" and compared them to chicken chicks except for the color. One chick died but the rest were all close to developing regular feathers at the time she wrote. I'm sharing here a few of the pictures she provided.

Cris recently updated her story for me: "We got to release four at the house here and the rest were released around juvenile corrections. I released them under the pampas grass and left chick feed and water. I think a cat got one, another was a bit skittish, but the other two would often be up by the front door and around the house. It wasn't long before they were wandering farther away and I lost track of them. I did see younger birds later and now adult birds and I wonder if any are the ones we released. When there was snow on the ground, I counted 14 chukar that would be under the camper pecking at the gravel. The dogs could see them from the back door. They would run out inside the gated area and cause quite a commotion with all the birds flying away clucking. I really enjoy watching them."

Mike said he has heard that the chukar population can come back quickly from low numbers because of their huge hatches. KW