# Chukar Outlook?



## Comrade Duck (Oct 24, 2007)

Throughout this last season and on into the off season there was a lot of talk about the ideal conditions that would be needed this spring for a good hatch as well as good chick survival.

So, my question for you guys that know what's up (I don't) is how do you think the spring has gone so far? Seems like there was plenty of moisture to provide good growth for ground cover, and I don't know for sure but I think it should be a good year for bugs. So how did this spring rate? Good? Average? Bad?

It might be to early to tell, and if so, at least give us your best guess. I would like to know what you all think. 

Thanks.

Shane


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## Trooper (Oct 18, 2007)

As a compulsive worrier about how many chukar chicks are surviving I've pretty much made it a habit to check this website every morning, with my first cup of coffee http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/slc/current/meso.gb.php. Pick the site that's closest to your hotspot and check out the precipitation and temperature. Today things are looking up, we really needed the mositure- I hope a good number of chicks will be hatching into a little bit of an insect boom. Check out a few different stations, there are two types- one uses an easy to read graph to display how much precipitation has been received in the last 48 hours and the other uses a chart that is much more difficult.


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## campfire (Sep 9, 2007)

Trooper,
The moisture is good but I am concerned about the temps. How hardy are chuckar chicks?


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## Trooper (Oct 18, 2007)

My understanding is that they are vulnerable to cold only when wet. Though without moisture they are vulnerable to starving. I've been more concerned about moisture than cold (well until today) because it has actually been very dry in the desert- there's not much run-off there and we really needed the rain. Looks like we got it though. Anybody else have any guess on the effect of the cold spring?


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## Comrade Duck (Oct 24, 2007)

Trooper,

Thanks for the reply. This thing had sat idle for so long that I had figured nobody would bite and had stopped looking at it. I will keep an eye on the website that you linked. 

Shane


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## campfire (Sep 9, 2007)

The recent weather we have had has promted me to think of something else. We had a very wet spring, the kind of spring that encourages a lot of seasonal vegitation. This is great for the chuckars but if we now have a long hot dry spell all of that vegitation, particularly cheat grass, will ripen very quickly and the fire danger will go through the roof, particularly in the lower elavations where the snow has been gone for a while (typical chuckar habitat) and a lot of prime habitat could go up in smoke yet again. Be carefull out there.


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