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Brewster11
PostPosted: Wed Sep 01, 2021 12:00 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 08 Feb 2009
Posts: 1301
Location: Western WA

Had an interesting conversation last week with an acquaintance who is an avid hunter and fisherman up here in Washington. Most of his bird hunting has been in Eastern Washington, which contrary to all the beckoning postcards and travel posters, is mostly a vast arid scrubland.

When I inquired about his bird hunting, he observed that chukar populations have diminished greatly, which he attributed to predators since trapping was banned a couple decades ago. He thought the same was true for the pheasant population as well.

Then he mentioned that quail seem to have largely supplanted the chukars. He expressed little interest in hunting them, but it caught my attention as I have no objection to filling my game bag with the tasty little birds. And on further reflection I recalled that all our recent family outings in that region had one thing in common: The busy little fowl seem to be scampering about everywhere in burgeoning numbers, from campgrounds and sagebrush flats to parking lots.

So I must inquire whether any of you denizens up here have noticed the same, and if this trend merits a concerted foray in pursuit of them.

V/R
B.
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BWW
PostPosted: Wed Sep 01, 2021 3:07 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 14 Apr 2020
Posts: 144
Location: Boise,Idaho

Early season here in Idaho, our quail numbers look great!
I don't go to chukar areas unless I feel like I am up for a revenge hunt!
Bob
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Researcher
PostPosted: Wed Sep 01, 2021 3:14 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 13 Jun 2009
Posts: 695
Location: WA/AK

I had a great fall of 1968 hunting quail and other birds in Eastern Washington. The hard winter 1968-9 just after I went in the Navy December 12, 1968, knocked the hell out of the quail populations. The Game Department planted Pheasants all over my old Quail haunts and that is what we got when I came home on leave to hunt with my Father. I retired in the fall of 2002 and moved back to Washington and Quail numbers were great. Then those really hard winters in 2007-8 and 2008-9 knocked the hell out of Quail numbers again. The clean farming and pesticides/herbicides have reduced the Pheasant hunting in the Columbia Basin to barely a shadow of what it was in my college days in the 1960s. Several of my favorite Quail hunting spots down in Columbia County are in private club/leases now, but if one jumps through the hoops and gets access permits to the wind facility lands -- Hopkins Ridge, Lower Snake River, Tucannon River and Marengo -- one can get some pretty good hunting.

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UncleDanFan
PostPosted: Sat Sep 11, 2021 1:35 pm  Reply with quote
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Heck yeah. Quail are a blast. I just think of them as mini chukars, since they taste the same. I moved to Oregon a couple years ago after living in Tacoma for 11 yrs, and I did a lot of quail and chukar hunting in eastern WA during that time. Hated having to go over the Snoqualmie pass every time, but it is what it is. Chukar hunting was very iffy compared to Oregon, but quail hunting was great. My favorite area succumbed to fire a couple years ago however, but there are lots of good areas in the Palouse and elsewhere.

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BWW
PostPosted: Sat Sep 11, 2021 1:52 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 14 Apr 2020
Posts: 144
Location: Boise,Idaho

Our quail season opens on Sept.18. I will be out there with bells on!
Good rain here yesterday and last night so it settled the dust and smoke from the Ore. and Calif fires. Felt good!
Chukar and Huns open same day. Grouse has been open for a couple weeks now.

Bob
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df
PostPosted: Sat Sep 11, 2021 3:34 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 01 Oct 2007
Posts: 962
Location: Minnesota

Well, I’m far from the northwest, but I hunt our family farm in Ks frequently. The pheasant population has crashed and bobwhites are more common than in the past. Not sure why.
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IDcut
PostPosted: Sat Sep 11, 2021 6:01 pm  Reply with quote
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Joined: 26 Jun 2005
Posts: 376
Location: North ID.

Back when S ID was a pheasant hunting destination, there were the irrigation canals and much more cover. When farming went to the pivot wheel irrigation and clean farming practice, the pheasant numbers took a nose dive.

I would guess that to some degree, that is the case in E WA as well, with pheasants. With chukar, my guess would be weather and predators and perhaps to a smaller degree, invasive species of plants and wildfires, which are common where the chukars habitat. Not sure on the quail, but when I was a kid, there were no quail in the area I grew up, there are now quail, unless the feral cats get them.
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BWW
PostPosted: Sat Sep 11, 2021 6:17 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 14 Apr 2020
Posts: 144
Location: Boise,Idaho

ID cut
Yes. 40 years ago I used to have local farmers come into the shop I worked at and beg us to come hunt the pheasants off their land.
Wish that were true today!
Bob
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IDcut
PostPosted: Sun Sep 12, 2021 5:28 am  Reply with quote
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Location: North ID.

I only hunted S ID once, in 1973, for pheasants. It was amazing to me to see so many birds. A good friend of mine grew up in the Heyburn/Burley area and he laments the fact of habitat loss and lack of pheasant population about every time we go out hunting.

When I was in High School, the Superintendent of the district moved up to N ID from, I believe Twin Falls. He'd talk often about the pheasant numbers and told a story about how his dog being so good, he'd chase the roosters down a badger hole, put it's paw over the hole and release one bird at a time for him to shoot. Being somewhat naïve, I wasn't sure he was telling the truth or not!
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UncleDanFan
PostPosted: Sun Sep 12, 2021 3:15 pm  Reply with quote
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Eastern WA used to have excellent pheasant hunting. In the 80's, when I was a kid, I remember one late October long weekend on a private farm my dad got access to. He, his friend and I brought home 21 roosters over the three days. The limit was three back then. There had been a big windstorm the week before, and one field had corn still standing, that got all blown down and was a pheasant magnet. One frosty morning about a hundred pheasants got up by the time I worked my springer to the opposite corner. He was going crazy, bouncing up and down, through all the corn, with pheasants and scent everywhere. I was shooting a full choked BPS pump back then, so I either mangled them or missed entirely. What a great memory.

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BWW
PostPosted: Sun Sep 12, 2021 6:24 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 14 Apr 2020
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Location: Boise,Idaho

Regarding my earlier post , the limit on pheasants back then was 5 and you could have 1 hen.

Bob
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Brewster11
PostPosted: Mon Sep 13, 2021 10:13 am  Reply with quote



Joined: 08 Feb 2009
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Location: Western WA

Quote:
his dog being so good, he'd chase the roosters down a badger hole, put it's paw over the hole and release one bird at a time for him to shoot.


Reminds me of the guy who trained his dog to find quail while he waited in the comfort of his vehicle. When the dog located a covey, it would return to the auto, sit and bark three times. Then it would lead the hunter to the birds.

That tale sounds outlandish, but there were times when Chester would come and fetch me after he tracked down a pheasant.

B.
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IDcut
PostPosted: Mon Sep 13, 2021 1:21 pm  Reply with quote
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Location: North ID.

Another fun story about dogs is, during my younger years, myself and some friends would do some serious scouting for waterfowl and particularly geese over Christmas break. One break we were driving around some fields locally and found some geese going into a stubble field. We drove down a gravel road to ask the farmer if we could hunt the field the next day. Go ahead was his response but look out for an older fellow who sets up for coyotes on the east end of the couple acre brush patch, over thie hill. The farmer then went on to explain the old guy would place his dog on the west side of the patch, where the dog would sit and wait for the old guys signal, which was a whistle. At the signal, the dog would start working through the patch to the east end, hopefully, to chase a coyote out of the brush for the old guy to swat!
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