Quail, chukar seasons on deck

You have to love the weather this week. Downright chilly in the early morning and not too hot in the afternoon. That can mean only one thing, folks: It's time to break out the shotgun and do some bird hunting. Quail and chukar seasons open Saturday, waterfowl on Oct. 17.

Hunters looking to bag a few quail and chukar should see a few more birds than last year. But conditions remain dry across much of Southern Nevada, meaning the overall bird population still will be low when compared to the banner years we had three and four seasons ago.

That doesn't mean you can't have success. What it does mean is hunters will have to do what that title implies -- hunt.

There was a time when the hills southwest of Searchlight had quite a few chukar, but I haven't seen any in that area for the past few years. That doesn't mean there no longer are any chukar in the area, but it does mean there aren't as many.

Locally, the extreme southern and northern ends of the Spring Mountains hold chukar and might provide decent hunting opportunities. You also can find chukar in the Bare Mountains southeast of Beatty, but be sure to take your good hiking boots. That's rough country.

Hunters willing to drive a bit farther will find more birds in the central and northern counties. Look for them in open, rocky country with brush and grassy areas on steep slopes.

For quail, you can just about pick a point of the compass, head that direction and find birds if the habitat is right. Look for areas of brushy and thorny vegetation with a nearby water source. You also will find them near native mesquite trees.

Some popular hunting areas within a couple of hours of Las Vegas include the foothills of the Spring Mountain Range, the Delamar, Meadow Valley and Mormon mountain ranges, Gold Butte south of Mesquite, the Nelson Hills south of Boulder City, all of the mountain ranges around Searchlight and the Newberry Mountains east of Cal-Nev-Ari.

It might be wise to swing by the Bureau of Land Management office and ask for a map of the agency's off-highway travel closure on the outskirts of Las Vegas. It's not great as maps go, but it could save you one expensive trip to court.

While upland bird hunters probably will face tough hunting, duck and goose hunters very well might experience one the best season openers Nevada has seen in perhaps 10 or 15 years. That's the word from local waterfowl guru Brock Perry, who grew up hunting ducks and geese across the Silver State.

Perry recently returned from a scouting trip to the north and was pleased with the number of ducks he saw at the Key Pittman Wildlife Management Area. He estimates that as many as 3,500 birds already were on the area and perhaps twice that at Sunnyside. The drawdown of Upper Lake on the Pahranagat National Wildlife Refuge should result in good hunting for those at Key Pittman.

Perry recommends starting the season with small decoy spreads because "early-season birds will decoy well anyway. And that way a hunter won't have to pack in a large decoy spread and will be able to pick up and redeploy his spread faster. Decoy spreads also should consist mostly of mallards and teal. A few goose floaters should be enough to pull in a few geese."

He also recommends using a light calling technique and a mallard call because those birds comprise a significant portion of the birds using the management areas.

"The real short quacks are what's going to get them. It's not going to be the long, hard, blaring calls," Perry said. "Really soft calls are going to be the key to killing birds on opening day."

Movement is a critical part of an early-season decoy spread, Perry explained, so you might want to include a jerk string or a Mojo. ''Nonwary birds will suck right into your decoys,'' he said.

Hunters planning to hunt at the Overton and Key Pittman wildlife management areas on the opener will need to make reservations. The Nevada Department of Wildlife will have a drawing for reservations Monday at its Las Vegas and Henderson offices as well as the appropriate management area.

Freelance writer Doug Nielsen is a conservation educator for the Nevada Department of Wildlife. His "In the Outdoors" column, published Thursday in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, is not affiliated with or endorsed by the NDOW. Any opinions he states in his column are his own. He can be reached at dougnielsen@att.net.