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Bagging a rare bird

Bend hunters return with 'super chukar'

By Mark Morical / The Bulletin

Published: September 21. 2006 4:00AM PST

Chuck Rieb and Mike Ramsey had hiked across rugged granite slopes for five hours, and they were ready to return to the truck.

On their way back, the hunters came across a feather and some droppings. And shortly thereafter, Rieb saw something move under a brush.

When the bird took flight, Rieb took his shot.

The two bird hunters from Bend were mostly just hoping to see the elusive imported Himalayan snowcock last week in the Ruby Mountains of northeastern Nevada. But now Rieb had just bagged one.

"I was really elated," Rieb, 66, said this week. "Not only had we met our goal - we actually got one. It was a hard climb and beautiful country. It was great to experience the uniqueness of getting a bird that hardly anybody knows about."

The Himalayan snowcock is one of five species of snow partridges or snow pheasants native to the great mountain range of south-central Asia, according to the Pointing Dog Journal. The snowcock is among the largest of all the partridges, called a "super chukar." While a robust chukar might weigh 1> pounds, adult male snowcocks weigh up to 6> pounds.

Snowcocks were brought to the United States by the Nevada Division of Wildlife back in the early 1960s. A viable population of wild snowcocks was established in the Ruby Mountains, about 30 miles southeast of Elko, Nev., where the elevation ranges from about 8,0000 to 11,000 feet.

The first hunting season for the snowcocks was in 1980, when it was estimated that the population of the birds ranged from 250 to 500. By 2002, only 169 of the birds had been harvested, according to the Pointing Dog Journal.

"It's the altitude," Ramsey explained. "People don't find any reason to go up there."

Rieb and Ramsey were hunting in the Lamoille Canyon area of the Ruby Mountains, near 11,316-foot Mount Thomas. The area is about 500 driving miles southeast of Bend.

Both hunters said they had driven through that part of Nevada before and knew about the birds, but this was their first hunting trip there.

Last week, they stepped out of the pickup at 8,200 feet and hiked up to 10,400 feet through ragged slabs of granite.

"It's a very remote area, and you start feeling the lack of oxygen," said Ramsey, 67.

The hunters had Ramsey's two Llewellin setters (a type of English setter) to point and retrieve the birds.

Rieb and Ramsey actually saw two snowcocks. Ramsey took a fleeting shot at one of them, but he had to shoot without his glasses after taking them off to look through his binoculars.

Ramsey missed, but Rieb ended up with a snowcock that weighed about 3> pounds.

"It was a pretty young bird," Ramsey said. "That's probably why we were able to get so close to them. They're very wary birds."

The hunting season for the snowcocks began Sept. 2 and runs through Nov. 30. Hunters need only a Nevada hunting license, and the Nevada Division of Wildlife will supply hunters with maps and the locations of the most recent sightings of the birds.

"I talked to a biologist, and they encourage people to (hunt snowcocks)," Ramsey explained, "so they (the wildlife department) can learn how the numbers are."

"But," added Rieb, "you've got to be in the right place at the right time."

Luckily for Rieb, he was.

Rieb says he plans to have the bird stuffed and mounted.

Ramsey and Rieb, both retired bankers, have plenty of experience hunting pheasant, chukar and quail in southeast Oregon and several other locations. But they said the terrain of the Ruby Mountains is unlike any they've ever seen.

"It's probably sort of like the Himalayas," Rieb said. "It's very isolated, and totally different country.

"When we go bird hunting, we always expect to get something. But we were elated just to find feathers and poop, and be out there amongst it. Getting a bird was icing on the cake."

For more information on Nevada's "super chukar," visit the Nevada Department of Wildlife Web site at www.ndow.org or call the Elko office at 775-777-2300.

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