My recent scout trip to the Gerlach, Nevada area (units 014, 015)-
The purpose of the trip was to see the condition of the birds in the area and also habitat conditions. After visiting numerous water holes and springs, it’s obvious that we’re in a drought. Ten out of the twelve springs are on the verge of drying up. The run off ponds are basically mud holes right now-if we don’t get more precipitation, chances are they will be completely dry in a few weeks.
After two days on the trip, I finally ran into a few small coveys of chukar, with the good news being that about 3/4 of the birds appeared to be young. Maybe at least one hatch survived the spring.
For another update-the antelope population looks good-we saw groups of 50, with about half the group being bucks (nice bucks!) Plenty of feed currently, but of course this on the water situation also.