There is not much that is more exciting than approaching your bird dog on point waiting for the eruption of sound and feathers. What is even more exciting is not knowing what type of bird is going to rise in front of your dog. One of the great things about living in Idaho as a bird hunter and bird dog trainer is the variety of upland game birds. While most upland game birds stick to a preferred habitat, often these habitats overlap. This offers hunters a chance at bagging multiple species on a single hunt.
While some species of birds will hardly ever be found together, quite a few have habitat that overlaps. Blue and Ruffed Grouse are often found in the same hunt because their habitats overlap. While you won’t generally find forest grouse in the rocks and chukars in the forest, many species lend themselves to a multiple species bag hunt.
If you are looking to bag multiple species in a single hunt, hunt the fringes of habitats when possible. Huns and pheasants like being around agriculture fields so hunt those edges. Sharptails and sage grouse like big expanses of sage and grass. It is possible to get into all of those species in certain areas. Chukars and huns can be found together, but usually huns are taken incidentally in chukar country. There are many other species that can be mixed and we’ve found it really fun getting mixed bags. It really adds to the excitement and mystery of what might flush in front of the dog. – Nick Muckerman
