Just as greens, in all tones, shades, hues and tints spelled spring and then summer, yellows, purples, oranges and reds begin to signal autumn.
Many of the aster plant family members bloom yellow. Cup-plant, compass-plant, prairie dock, numerous goldenrods, and sunflowers show their heads as Labor Day, hunting regulations and forecasts approach.
Even though many of these plants can be dubbed 55-mph bloomers (identified at high speeds), they are most noted for their composite heads composed of hundreds, if not thousands, of tiny blooms, sometimes called florets.
It’s this assemblage of florets that catches the eyes of hunters, birders, naturalists, and pre-autumn travelers noticing a field of goldenrod or clump of eight-foot tall compass-plants.
Taking an individual sunflower head apart often reveals the “eye” or center disc of the head, which contains disc florets. Projecting out are one or more rows or series of ray florets that each sport a large, yellow petal along with the other smaller flower parts.
It’s foolery in numbers that makes a sunflower head appear as one huge bloom, with the individual parts appearing collectively as a single bloom.
The goldenrods, also members of the sunflower family, are usually clearly disenable as being tiny flowers held close.
As autumn comes creeping closer, purple Joe-pye weed and asters bloom purple. Bottle gentian and great blue lobelia turn sky-blue. A few oranges and fewer still reds show, too.
Fleshy fruit ripen yellow (golden delicious apples), orange (bittersweet), red (rose hips) and purple (elderberry).
Fungi add all paints, too, including yellow amanitas; and splashing of orange sulphur fungi. This one is a fleshy, edible, polypore emerging from wood standing as an oak or cherry trunk, and old stumps. Secretly stemming from a fallen or underground log makes them seem soil fungi.
This tasty mushroom-like chicken-of-the-woods has a loose season from late summer through the deer rut. The “fruiting body” is not long lasting, so many are past prime when discovered. But fresh ones show well, even in dim light and pretending hunter orange cloth. The site, hue, rare finds, and morel-like taste are all qualities.
The 2021 Fall Hunting and Trapping Season Forecasts pamphlet will be available this week, online, from the WDNR Web site. This all-in-one forecast is similar to last year listing seasons, forecasts and other basic information for Wisconsin game species. It’s devoted to hunters and trappers, but naturalists, photographers, wildlife watchers, suburban residents and farmers will find some of the information useful, too.
The hunting regulations pamphlet is posted, too, and can be picked up soon at stores later.
Antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19 in humans) were detected in 40 percent of deer samples (152). These data suggest white-tailed deer in the sampling areas have been exposed to this virus. Sampling was conducted in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and New York, pre- and early pandemic.
Researchers pointed out that the results emphasize the need for wildlife surveillance to determine the significance of SARS-CoV-2 in free-ranging deer, as well as susceptible predators and scavengers having a high interaction with deer. And that future surveillance should incorporate methods to detect potential variants and other coronaviruses.
Excitement is mounting for early September, (ginseng, early goose, sturgeon fishing, dove and early teal) season openers and the September 18 (grouse, crow, deer archery, and squirrel) openers.
“Archers are excited about deer now that they are seeing them out in the alfalfa and soybean fields, “said John Borzick, at Tall Tails in Boscobel. “They’re bringing in photos, but not seeing a lot of turkeys. I’ve yet to see a poult.”
Fox and raccoons are numerous as are Canada geese, he said.
Doug Williams, at DW Sports Center in Portage, continued that hunters are bringing their deer images in and asking what can be done to keep the deer here, other than staying out of the woods.
“They are concerned, as always, about changes in regulations,” he said. “Fish are biting again, so if you have a hot spot and know where to go, get back out there. When fishers don’t say much that’s a sign action is getting better because they aren’t complaining.”
Mike Burns, WDMR field warden in Lafayette and Iowa counties, said hunters are concerned about whether or not there will be a holiday hunt (check the regs pamphlet on line). The weight limit on UTVs has been raised to allow 3,000-pound units, so some are pleased with that; some of those are big machines; some $40,000.”
The Poynette Game Farm is still on schedule to release 75,000 pheasants on public land beginning with the pre-season release just prior to Oct. 16 opener. “We are fielding requests for youth hunts and learn to hunt sessions,” Kelly Maguire, Poynette Farm manager.
The gathering season is now opening, at many levels.
— Jerry Davis is an Argyle native and a freelance writer who lives in Barneveld. He can be reached at sivadjam@mhtc.net or at 608-924-1112.
