The First Chukar

This past Wednesday, we went down to Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge in Utah, check them out here. We were keeping an eye on the bird sightings at the refuge waiting for several new species the be seen for us to take another trip down there. That last time we went was the day after Christmas. While down there, we also stopped at Antelope Island State Park, which we didn't have time for on our previous adventure.

 

It is a beautiful island, check out their website here. We are definitely planning a longer camping trip to the island because there were several hikes we wanted to do and did not have time for. Anyway, our trip to Antelope Island led us to one of the most exciting bird sightings we've had this year.

 

The Chukar!

Yep, this game bird introduced from Pakistan was the one we've been waiting for ever since we realized they were here. And our reaction pretty much fit the amount of anticipation we had. The picture above was one of the first Chukar pairs we saw. We were driving up to the visitors center and two weird birds went running across the road in front of us. We were instantly shouting in the car, CHUKAR! CHUKAR!!. We stopped in the middle of the road (no one was around) as I scrambled for my camera and Andrew took some pictures. After they ran off we kept laughing and high-fiving our excellent bird sighting.

 

I am so sure we are not the only people that react like this to birds...right?

Andrew said there had been two reported Chukar sightings on Ebird, and we figured we just saw them. But nope, we saw no less than 10 Chukars!

 



They are a funny bird. We saw one everywhere one can be seen, on the ground, in a tree, on a rock and running, neck outstretched wings close to their bodies. I'm not sure if this sighting, or our reaction will be beat this year.