(wind whooshing) - [Eric] I got into hunting because I was born into one of those families that it was a long and steep tradition.

It's about being with family.

It's about being with friends.

It's about being with my dog.

- Hi, Sky Pie.

- It's about being in the outdoors and seeing things that normal people don't get to see because they're not where I'm at.

- [Narrator] Eric Thompson's traveled to the desert grasslands of Northern Oregon with his nephew Kyle and Kyle's girlfriend, Lindsey.

- Got it?

- Yep.

- [Narrator] The crew is in search of chukar, a partridge found in the Northwest Desert Plateau.

A beautiful bird if you can actually spot one.

- Come here, Sky Pie.

Come here.

How you doing, baby?

- [Narrator] Assisting the hunters is a German Wirehaired Pointer named Sky.

- She's just excited - As a puppy, Sky's still learning the ins and outs of the sport.

- It's important to travel with a hunting dog because that dog's nose is thousands of times more sensitive than yours and they will find that bird where you might walk around for an hour and not find it.

You can see how the terrain just slopes off hard.

It looks nice and gentle but we'll realize that this is some pretty tough walking.

So, chukar country, it's a fun place to be.

I like to say that I've walked most of Oregon.

I've fished, I've hunted, I've picked up rocks, I've looked at mushrooms, I've seen the animals, I've observed my natural world in a minute detail.

I'm seeing tracks.

I'd say these are at least a day old 'cause they're iced in.

That's the joy of hunting chukars in the snow.

You get to see all the tracks.

I enjoy chukar hunting because of the challenge.

It is not an easy thing to do.

They will run on you.

- Woo.

- They will tire out your dogs, they will tire you out.

- Whoa.

- They will break you on the hills trying to catch up with them.

- [Narrator] Chukars are native to Eurasia.

They were introduced as a game bird to the United States in the early 1900s and they're notoriously difficult to hunt.

Spend a few hours walking on steep, rocky terrain and you'll see what I mean.

Perfect for chukars, not so great for humans.

- [Eric] There was a real push to put them in as game birds in the late '60s, early '70s, so hundreds of thousands of them were transplanted throughout the Western United States.

- Seeing a few bird tracks.

The birds normally will get on the flip where it's harder to get.

So I'm the guy that always goes in the worst spots.

- What's up, girly?

She's working the scent.

She's found something interesting and that's what's keeping her doing her job.

It's important to me to form a relationship with my dog without being yelly and screamy, without being overbearing.

I'm setting the foundations for how I want to interact with my hunting partner, 'cause that's what, ultimately, she is.

Somebody hunting the other side of that plateau.

They're chukar hunting.

It's the joys of living in public land country and I don't know where I would be if I didn't live somewhere where I could just walk out and hunt.

There you go.

She's full of energy and we had to fall back on her because my steady dog is out of commission for another week.

- [Narrator] Eric's steady dog is a Wirehaired Pointing Griffon named Hex.

For these dogs, nothing compares to the excitement of hunting.

But during the off season, Eric likes to conduct training sessions with Hex to keep her skills sharp.

- You want to keep the conditioning, you want to keep the sharpness of the dog.

Keep 'em happy, and that's what makes 'em happy.

(tires crunching) She's my main dog right now.

She's got five seasons under her belt.

She is a diehard chukar dog.

It's kind of wet, so we're gonna change up our procedure.

There won't be any shots or anything but we will let her go out, point the bird.

I'll leash her up, take her off, and just give her some good praise and let her know she's doing a good job.

- [Narrator] Eric's released a training bird somewhere in the field.

They're domesticated chukars that are used for exercises like this one.

- All right, you ready?

Bird's in the field, hunt 'em up.

- [Narrator] Once Hex finds the bird, her job is to freeze like a statue with her nose pointed directly towards it.

- And you see her tail's all wiggly like that.

That indicates to me that she knows there's one in the area and she's got the scent, so she's working it.

So she's got her nose to the ground and she's following where that bird walked.

When she starts ranging, she's just checking the entire area.

(birds tweeting) And that's her on point.

Ah, whoa!

Whoa!

And that is not what we want.

(laughs) She went on point and before I could get to her and pull her off that point, that bird moved, she broke point, which is not desired.

Everybody always shows all the successes but sometimes we have failures and that's okay.

We just reset and go again.

You ready?

Bird's in the field, hunt 'em up.

- [Narrator] Even though Hex can range several hundred yards ahead of Eric, pointers will typically remain frozen, on point, until their hunter catches up to them.

- Normally, this is where I would go in and flush the bird while making sure that she stays steady and go ahead and shoot the bird and she retrieves the bird.

And that's her reward for all her hard work.

(Kyle whistles) - [Narrator] After nearly three hours of walking, the hunters know the chukars are close.

They've left a very distinct clue.

- If you look down, you'll see something that looks like a green and white ice cream cone, and that'll be chukar poop.

We're on the birds.

They're somewhere in here.

We just gotta find where they're roosting 'cause that one is another fresh one, right there.

Now you need to find those birds.

Where'd they go?

I know they're around here.

- I can hear 'em.

Like they're saying, "Chuka-chuka-chuka."

That sounded like 20 or 30 of them.

(wind whooshing) - Sky is on point right now.

(laughs) There they go.

The birds were way out of range, so we wait for good shots.

Just like with big game.

She's creeping.

She could just be smelling the old birds that were there.

Oh, there it goes.

- [Lindsey] Oh, oh, oh, oh!

(guns blast) - [Eric] Dead bird!

Good girl.

- We had already kicked a few out.

The dog was telling us there was a few still there, so I just got up and I was able to get a beat on it and got lucky.

Chukar hunting's a lot of walking.

You cover a lot of miles.

- Ooh.

- [Kyle] It's something that's a challenge.

- [Eric] Oregon is just so steeped in my blood.

I've experienced so much joy and happiness in the outdoors here with my family, with my friends.

Everybody has played a part in what has developed Oregon into a place that I will always hold dear in my heart.

(Sky whines) Come on, girl.

Let's keep moving.

(no audio) - Great people, just doing their thing in their own northwesty way.

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