The Big Question about the Chukar

How many cars could a chukar chuck if a chukar could chuck cars?

Life Bird 600-something

While helping to lead the field trip to Antelope Island State Park in The Great Salt Lake I got my first life bird in a while for North America. It was a chukar (pronounced chuck-er), a Eurasian species (and a member of the partridge family, but not The Partridge Family) introduced to North America by hunters. It's now established and breeding in many parts of the West, and thus is "countable" by those who keep track of such things. As I understand it, Danny Bonaduce is also established and breeding in certain parts of the West.

If I did a better job of keeping track, I'd actually know what number the chukar is on my life list. It's somewhere in the mid-600s I think...

Anyway it was cool to see a bird I'd never seen before. The chukar was a lifer for most of the 26 birders on our bus. No I did not force everyone to do the Life Bird Wiggle. It was too hot in the desert.