The forest could be an autumn orchestra if squirrels, deer, turkeys and ruffed grouse were to vocalize excitedly due to a great mast crop of oaks, walnuts, hickory nuts, a few butternuts, and some fleshly fruits, too.

Foresters, in particular, use the term mast for nuts of forest trees that have accumulated on the ground and were used historically for fattening pigs and as food for wildlife, too. Soft mast is just that, not hard like nuts but squishy as grapes and many types of berries are.

With butternuts there aren’t bumper crops and it’s a tree shortage caused by a fungal disease. The same is true of American chestnuts that have all but died out due to fungal blight. Those who have planted chestnuts have learned that the trees are likely doomed to fail as wind and other vectors carry the spores to new locations where plantings have been set.

Area foresters, who are in the woods off and on all summer and fall, are ecstatic, generally attributing a grand crop of soft and hard fruits to a good start, little late frost, and then favorable growing conditions. Many tree species cycle from poor to grand on their own, too.

For the trees, this abundance means greater changes of seed germination and recruitment, in spite of hungry and hoarding animals.

Seed banks for nurseries will be replenished.

Even freezers of shelled and picked walnuts and hickory nuts should be bulging.

Hunters and wildlife watchers will stand by and wait for animals to visit a favorite tree, shrub or vine species where mast has accumulated.

Even spotty production in places has archers, turkey hunters, squirrel hunters and others watching for the nuts and other fruits to drop. Of course many hungry animals are impatient. Some climb the trees, cuts the nuts and twigs and scurry down to pick up a white oak acorn, shagbark hickory seed free of its hull or an oversized walnut.

The few American chestnuts planted as a Wisconsin experiment, if given enough sun, will flower and form burs after 5-6 years. These nuts are well-protected by an extremely spiny bur that splits four ways and drops 2-3 nuts. Animals wait for natural dehiscence (opening) and don’t chance getting stuck by spines.

One might imagine this bur evolved as a means of keeping more nuts on the tree until fully mature before cutting them loose, thereby increasing the chance a few more will be hidden by squirrels and become seedlings.

Plentiful fruits have caught the attention of wildlife fanatics who have already cut grape clumps, extracted the juice and canned pint jars of jelly for next spring’s oriole rush. Rather than purchasing grape jelly or citrus fruits, feeders can simply open a jar, homemade, and feed local jelly.

Squirrels are some bird feeders’ worst enemies, but rather than fight them, now might be the year to have several bushels of whole walnuts or hickory nuts stashed and grab a handful, hammer-crack them in halves or better, and toss them in a different location to draw the squirrels away from feeders.

Some birds will also go for the nut meats without us digging them out of the cracked shells. If hungry, they’ll do a bit of gnawing to get the last bit from the shell.

Walnuts, hickory nuts and butternuts work best here, and some dried fruits are appealing winter treats, too.

Picking hickory nuts for any reason, can be exciting. Sometimes easy picking is along a gravel driveway or parking lot until one realizes that the whitish hickory nuts are the same shade as ¾-inch crushed limestone gravel.

One spring I bent down to pick a morel mushroom only to find it had grown through several holes a small mammal had cut into the hickory nut, probably the previous fall.

One nut had a small grub squeezing out a tiny hole it somehow cut through the shell. Fresh fishing bait?

Wally Bamfi, at Wilderness Fish and Game in Sauk City was not as busy registering sturgeon this September as last; only eight he said so far. He’s had his attention on smaller fish, guiding walleye and muskie anglers and saying now is the time, up north and here on the Madison chain of lakes, to go for the state’s game fish. Walleyes, too, he added.

Archers appear to be waiting for this cooler weather to continue, according to Don Martin, of Martin’s in Monroe. Finally, Don says, we have the hunting regulation pamphlets.

White oak acorns seem to be deer’s autumn candy, according to Brent Drake, at Tall Tails in Boscobel. “Set up a ways away from the nut tree on a path the deer are likely to take,” he says.

Doug Williams, in D W Sports Center in Portage points to white oaks, too, but archers are still waiting on the weather. “In the meantime they can enjoy the changing colors that are beginning to appear roadside and elsewhere. Don’t forget the crops, corn and soybeans, they’re turning, too.”

Wayne Smith spent a few days in northern Wisconsin, where bear hunters are having some success. 

“There appears to be enough ruffed grouse to hunt, fewer than last year, but we have seen a few on trails,” he said. “The elk are about to begin bugling now that the weather is changing, and there are some colors, too. That first week of October might be peak time for leaf peeping,” he said.

This might be the last week for a bee alert. The ground bees and paper wasps are about to call it a season, depending on the weather.

Here in southern Wisconsin, leaf fall begins along with color changes so the peak times always lack somewhat compared to areas with less tree diversity. Look small and you won’t be disappointed.

— Jerry Davis is a freelance writer who lives in Barneveld. He can be reached at sivadjam@mhtc.net or at 608-924-1112.