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Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2013
The Journal
OUTDOORS
The impact of the poor acorn crop Mark Fike I read with interest a press release by the Virginia Department of Forestry (VDOF) recently. It detailed the poor mast crop this year, and possible reasons why we are experiencing the near failure of trees to produce nuts. I will attempt to summarize it here with added insights from others, as well as myself. As most hunters know, nuts are key food sources for most game animals. Bears love to eat nuts. Squirrels, turkey and certainly, deer, will consume acorns and other hard mast, as well. Oaks, particularly white oak trees, are not only very common in Virginia and in our area, but they are probably the favorite mast tree of the animals mentioned above. In fact, according to VDOF and the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (VDGIF) officials, “Acorns are rich in fat, soluble carbohydrates and energy, which are important nutritional needs that contribute to the animal’s body condition, survival, harvest rates, reproduction and, eventually, population status. The roaming range of black bear and wild turkey can increase two- to four-fold in years with mast failures, and longrange gray squirrel movement can be significant as they search for acorns.” Their press release goes on to say that when acorns are not available, deer and other animals turn to alternative food sources, which often puts them in conflict with us. Flowers,
Overview Fishing is rapidly dwindling. We anticipate stopping the report in December until March when fishing picks back up. However, please do send photos of fish or game to outdoors@journalpress.com. Wipe the blood off!
acorns, then we also see sharply lower production. Veteran hunters and biologists alike have noted what appears to be a cycle of trees producing lots of mast, and then seemingly saving resources to build up for another good crop several years later. We had really good numbers of acorns and other nuts last year, so perhaps this warrants some consideration. I asked our local forester, Karen Snape, if the onslaught of cankerworms might have impacted the mast crop. She checked with VDOF Forest Health Program Manager Dr. Chris Asaro. He feels that because not all areas of the state had a horrible outbreak of cankerworms, and yet their mast crop also was poor, that the cankerworms were not the culprit. Last year, we had lots of cankerworms, too, he pointed out, and yet the crop was abundant. This would also defer the theory
for holly trees. They are eating lots of holly berries now.
Seasons Duck seasons — Feb. 1 (Youth Day), Nov. 16 - Nov. 30, Dec. 7 - Jan. 25. Daily Bag Limit: 6 ducks, any species except for the following
Saltwater Captain Ryan Rogers (804-5800245) reports very good rockfishing, with the sizes and girth of the fish picking up. Hunting Pern’s Supermarket on Rt. 3 reported some decent deer checked in including an 8 point buck. One hunter swapped quarry and took out two coyotes instead of deer. Deer season is going strong. The rut has peaked but a few bucks are still chasing does. Duck and goose season has been fair to good. The key is always having access to a good spot. Squirrels are hard to find in most areas due to the lack of acorns. Look
The weather was changing, it was getting colder and the rut was in full swing on Nov. 8. I got off the bus and my dad got off work early. So I rushed into my hunting clothes. My dad, my little brother, Elijah, and I headed out to go hunting. We have a north/south running ridge behind our cow pasture. The bottom has a creek and is a good bedding area. The wind was coming from the north, so my dad and little brother went 300 yards upwind on the same trail I was on. Dad said he was going to teach my little brother how to use a grunt call and I was to watch for a buck trying to sneak in to figure out where the grunting was coming from. So I went out into my homemade tree stand which is about 25 feet in the air and sat there. All I saw were squirrels; they were standing up with their bellies hanging out crunching away on whatever they could find and they were right in front of me. It was getting colder as the wind hit my face when out of the blue the squirrels took off running like something was in the woods other than me and squirrels. DEER! I started to hear things like something was coming toward me. I got into position and I started to see deer feet. Then I saw a rack so I knew that it was a buck. Then I saw him, but a tree was in the way so I waited a little bit. A little doe started to make her way up to the buck and I was sitting still
that perhaps the cicadas impacted the acorn crop. King George did not have the numbers of cicadas that some areas to our west did, and yet our mast crop seems to be nearly nonexistent. Gary Norman, who works for VDGIF, noted that we saw similar mast conditions in 2008. So, this is not unheard of. Some areas of our state apparently do have some red oak acorn production. I have not seen any around here. What I have noticed is fewer squirrels in the woods compared to last year. Also, deer are obviously not in the hardwood lots. They are frequenting areas where there is greenery on which to browse. Hopefully, we won’t have a hard winter. With lower food sources, the deer won’t have as much winter fat packed on, and other animals will also be operating on a leaner supply of food.
because that buck kept looking up at me and he would go back to eating. It did this over and over again until the little doe got spooked by a squirrel. This made the buck run right in front of me. I aimed at the front shoulder and I shot it and it dropped right in front of me. I thanked God that I shot the deer. What shocked me was when I pulled the trigger it hit the front shoulder and bounced off the rib cage and hit the spine and shot out and then it dropped dead. I am very happy that I got to have this experience and hope to kill even more deer in my life and keep the tradition going.
restrictions: can include no more than 4 mallards (only 2 can be hen mallards), 4 scoters, 3 wood ducks, 2 redheads, 2 scaup, 2 pintails, 1 black duck, 2 canvasback, 1 mottled duck, and 1 fulvous whistling duck. Firearms bear season locally (see regs) –Dec. 2-7 Fall Firearms turkey season(locally see regs — Nov. 28, Dec. 2-14.
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Local farmer, Larry Carr, took a very nice 8-point buck with a nice spread. Other hunters in the same area also took two coyotes.
Rappahannock River No report Potomac River Winter Harbor reported that most anglers are seeing lots of smaller rockfish, but a few were keeper size. Small bucktails are taking fish when anglers can get out. The wind has been terrible this week, making boating unsafe. Ken’s reported that small bucktails are catching keeper stripers, but few fish are being caught on larger lures. Aqua Land reported squid was the bait of choice for rockfish, but fish are small.
The Redemption Buck Rex Roeske
shrubs, bulbs for flowers, other vegetation and birdfeeders become the next targets. These animals may lose some of their fear as they move into subdivisions to find food. Deer may overbrowse some parts of their habitat so badly that the carrying capacity can be reduced, meaning that near future populations of deer may also find fewer food resources. VDGIF officials also note that black bears will den earlier when there are fewer acorns, and their fat reserves are noticeably less. Studies have shown lower cub survival, as well. When animals have to travel farther to find food, they are more likely to cross the paths of predators, to include humans. Turkey harvests and deer harvests are often higher in lower mast crop seasons. So why was our mast crop a near failure? The VDOF release stated that acorn production varies incredibly from year to year. Usually, we see bumper crops of acorns in cycles. Sometimes it is every other year, and other times it is up to seven years before we see a bumper crop of acorns. Each tree can produce completely different numbers of acorns, depending on many variables. Weather is a big factor. Flowers that create fruit or nuts can abort due to late spring freezes (we had this) and high humidity. We also had the humidity factor before flowers were pollinated. If summer conditions show to be a drought with high temperatures, or insects prey on
Outdoor Report Mark and Missy Fike
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