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Main Boards => PowWow => Topic started by: BowHunterGA on November 24, 2012, 07:39:00 PM
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Looking for ideas for late season food sources on public land. (No food plots, no real agriculture nearby) With only a few weeks scattered here and there on local WMAs I am trying to key in on food sources and just wanted to see what your thoughts are. I have been doing some mid day low impact scouting and here is what I have found.
White Oak and Red Oak acorns are either gone or starting to rot. Pretty much it for Oaks where I am hunting.
Japanese honeysuckle in stands of pines seem to be getting some action but these areas are really hard to hunt. I have a few natural blinds I can hunt these areas in but it is really hard and the wind has to be the right direction and steady. Something I am often not afforded is a steady wind.
Where not killed by frost there is also some briars and other plant life that I have seen deer eat at times but never consistently enough to target as a food source.
There are some hunting clubs that border the WMA and I am sure they have food plots but I have no intention of trespassing to try and locate them so what am I missing? What have you found to key in on in the late season as a food source?
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If you have them up that far, water oaks can be hot right on through the season. If you can find a late dropping tree that they're keying on, it could be deadly.
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I have noticed the deer tearing up the honey locust pods. First I've ever saw of it. That's here in So. Il tho
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Forest foods that deer eat in Michigan are as follows: Preferred Deer foods; White Cedar, White Pine, Maples, Yellow Birch, Dogwoods, Viburnums and Sumac. Medium quality Deer foods; Aspen, Jack Pine, Oaks, Ash, White Birch and Witch-Hazel. Starvation Deer Foods;Spruce, Beech, Red Pine Balsam Fir, Alder and Leather Leaf. Food sources available in Fall, Winter and early Spring are most critical to Deer to effect body condition, Winter survival and reproduction. Deer browse on the leaves, needles, buds twig ends of trees and shrubs browsing is done on the order of preferred to starvation based on the availability. Yarding areas where the snows are least and food sources most. Remember mature forests provide far less of the browse foods than of the brushy early phases. Here is a good start for you, I do not know all the types of forest and shrubs in your area (GA) but most of these species are present and buds keep growing.
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Steve, I was just down your way, do deer eat that Kudzu stuff that grows all over?
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If you have wild grapes??
They can be very productive but any south east facing ridge should provide some type of browse or forage deer perfer thru the winter months.
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I believe if the acorns are still there in spots, they will eat them. Walking the hardwoods here in VA, I've seen certain trees where they've pawed the leaves back to find the acorns. Usually, it's a whiteoak, but I've also seen where they've fed on the red oak too. Maybe they know the trees which lost their acorns last. They didnt' seem rotted to me, at least not here.