That golden time of year in Idaho with the opening of the upland bird seasons. Blue grouse (now referred to as dusky grouse) has been open for a couple weeks. In my local area, numbers seems to be pretty good this year.



And in another week or so, the chukar season will open. In my opinion, one of the finest upland birds to hunt, and to eat.

Looks like a good day. Brittany's rock!! Raised, trained, and trialed them for years.

Nice Gulo.
I’m seeing fair bird numbers as well this season. On the other end of the eating spectrum from the chukar is this bird.

With lots of blues around I chase these with the camera. This one was a little full of himself.
White bark pine nuts are in season and I usually find a blue or two around them. Monday I found this girl and her 3 cubs poking around for seeds. She had 2 black Cubs and 1 chocolate one.

I watched for quite a while but started talking to her when I took this picture. I didn’t want to startle her.
On another subject we were very dry this summer until we got a big shot of rain in late August. It caused quite the fungus bloom around here. Some huge ones pushed up quite a bit of duff getting out of the ground. Here’s a couple of the more photogenic ones.



I’m no mycologist so I have no idea what they are but they look cool.

Nice mushroom pictures.

The Dusty dog.

Love to hunt Chuckers someday, great pictures.

Upland bird season starts in about a month here.

Tray - Simply "wow!"

X2 amazing photo, thanks for all us who used to have real pheasant hunting......jk

Great pictures. Those birds are beautiful.



Here's a picture taken in the chugach range of a ptarmigan that displays natural camo pretty well.

Good shots , all ...Tray, those are perfect .

Had five ruffies in my yard the past two days, cashing in on the berry trees and shrubs I've planted all over the place. Love seeing them.

September is the start of fall, the cool temps and first changing leaves welcomed. So glad summer is finally done.

The only thing I have to contribute to the upland game birdie theme is a fast sketch ruffie I did years ago.

Had a very small young bobcat walk right to the cabin yesterday. Went right in front of the porch stairs , stopped a second, then trotted on out to the Natl. Forest land beyond. No siblings with it, or female. Something must have happened to separate this one from the rest. I thought of running to get my camera but knew it would be gone by the time I got back.

If my grouse clan gets close enough I'll get some pics of them too.

Very impressive Sharon.

I can hear Sharon’s ruffie.

Nice pics, here's a real pretty chocolate I harvested this week

Last Saturday was our dove opener.
Mid 80’s and low humidity. It was a most enjoyable afternoon. Had I known I was going to post with these professional pictures I would have put a little effort in to my presentation.

I truly enjoyed this week's contributions (each and every one of 'em). Thanks to all who added really great photos to this thread.

Jack

A sun rise in the piney woods of La.

I envy you western guys who have upland birds to hunt. Teal season started here today, here are a few from a couple years ago.